When changing brake pads, skip . . .

[pbs911]

the anti-squeel gunk on the back of the pads. Although I have gone through 3 sets of pads w/anti squeel gunk on my SC, and countless other cars, my luck had finally run out. Last night I tried to pull the old pads in the front only to find out they had glued themselves to the duct seal. In short the dust seals came off in pieces with the old pads. Now I have caliper rebuild kits on the way from our host and an additional work this weekend.

The pelican parts Tech Article on caliper rebuilds warns of this, but this is the only place I have seen such a warning. Has this happened to anyone else?

[kepperly]

pbs911,
why even worry about the dust seals, when you change your
pads just clean the calipers off with brake cleaner and put new pads in and forget it.
keith

[pbs911]

Well isn't there a danger of the brakes failing at that point?

[makaio]

At least it's not to hard to re-build them Paul.

Personnaly I wouldn't run them without dust seals. I'm sure it could be done, And most people wouldn't have any troubles. But with my luck, it would be that one time that I need to stop, to avoid that school bus load of children & laywers, and I would smash right into it, because I tthought I could run without dust seals.

[kepperly]

WHATS GOING TO FAIL? THE ONLY THING THAT CAUSES THE BRAKES TO OPERATE IN THE FIRST PLACE ARE THE O-RINGS
ON THE CALIPER PUCKS NOT THE DUST SEALS. TAKE A LOOK AT A RACE CARS BRAKES, MOST OF THEM DON'T BOTHER WITH THE DUST CAP OR THE INNER SHEET METAL SPLASH SHEILD. NOW YOU REALLY DON'T GO OUT IN THE RAIN DO YOU.
KEITH

[makaio]

Kieth, I understand race cars don't have dust seals. But I'm sure they tend to their brakes more frequently than a street & sometimes track driven Porsche. If dust seals are so un-important, than why did they put them on there in the first place?

[Planter91C2]

instead of the "gunk" use antiseize like i do.

[Jdub]

Antiseize is a good plan - I use it and it works pretty well.

As to leaving the seals off, I wouldn't want my daily driver to be able to push all that crap to the O ring and start corroding that seal.

Your seal is your first line of defense: you ought to use it!

John

[Wayne 962]

We recommend the anti-squeal pads instead...

-Wayne

[skinnerd]

I agree with Wayne about the anti-squeal pads. I've used them in the past, and they work great.

[jwill911]

What kind of anti-squeal pad do you stock. I used to use a product, the material is made by 3M, a milar like foil, but packaged by (?) can't remember. And I haven't been able to find it in a while. It worked really good with a little anti-seize. I called the distributer and they said all brake pads come with it now do they stopped carrying it. Well Pagid pads don't come with it.

And on the dust seal poll put me down for, "I would go without them". In the harsh enviromment your brakes live in, the caliper pistons need all the protection from the elements they can get.

[Wayne 962]

Frankly, I'm not sure of the brand - I just open them up and use them. They may not be branded at all - I can't remember...

-Wayne

[Wil Ferch]

Hi:
I also recommend the 3M, silver acrylic / aluminum backing pads that stick on...packaged as the "Help" line of products from Comar, PA...as I recall ....

---Wil Ferch