Johnhav430

This has been discussed long ago, where some cars exhibit a knock/clunk upon braking, but usually not sustained when brakes are kept applied.

Back in 2017, my indie drove with me, heard the sound, then we took two more laps from the shop, so he was serious about it. Now before seeing the car, over the phone, he said sway bar links right off the bat. Once he lifted the vehicle, he said no, those are fine, as were the motor mounts and tranny mount.

After ruling out the backing plates, he removed the front wheels and tapped the tops of my brake pads (where the pins slide through to hold the clip down) with a ball peen hammer, ever so lightly, and the sound was duplicated. He said whomever did your brake job did not put the shims in, so I would try that first.

Flash forward, I bought shims for front/rear, and they are not cheap, over $40 per axle discount. I ended up doing my rear pads/rotors did not use. Impulsively I changed my front pads when putting on the snows, did not use.

Yesterday, it dawned on me, there is no more sound. This jogged my memory and there was a post here, stating, you only use the Toyota shims, when you install factory OE pads. You "do not" use the shims when using aftermarket, such as Akebono, because they already have shims.

I took a picture of the factory OE pads. There is absolutely no shim whatsoever, just two imprints from the pistons, and also two divots built into the backing. So it would stand to reason one must move the shims from old to new, if using factory.

I don't have a set of new Akebono fronts, so I took a pic of the rears. That thin metal shim makes a world of difference. Good to know my indie was correct, he knows his ****!



Factory front LS430 Toyota OE pads / Sumitomo



aftermarket Akebono rears, shims out of the box

caddylover

great post thanks for this knowledge