aaron3

I had my pads out last night and one of the little dampers disintegrated. I put the pads back in w/o the dampers. They didn't squel today at all.

1. Are the dampers required and am I doing any damage w/o having them in? The area looks like it will be more clean w/o the dampers.

2. Any recommendations for street use pads that are quiet?

TIA

MikeN

IMO you really should have them. You may not have noisy brakes now.......but most who have done without usually learn a lesson and go back to using them. I presently use Axxis Metal Master pads......great performance, little dust, and don't chew up the rotors like stock Porsche pads do.

Gretch

I have reused old ones and installed new ones. If you use a putty knife and are careful you can reuse the ones installed. If you wrecked one you can get a replacement cheap. Your 90' will need 4 different size dampers, because all four pistons in each front caliper are a unique size.

I used Mintex street pads that DR sold me, I have been very happy with them, and the zimmerman rotors.

heinrich

Dampers help with squeal.

Nicole

I wish I could say that about my rear brakes - tried new pads )Porsche, very dusty), new dampers, new rotors (Zimmerman) - but the squal is the same.

6.0-928S

If you want to get rid of brake squeal permanantly, get some 'stop squeal' from BG Products. It WORKS! They suggest one or two coats but I always put on three or four. The pads soak it up & it'll last the life of the pads. I put on Performance Friction Z pads 5 years ago & they're still stopping me & they NEVER squeal. I went all through the damper thing & everything else you could think of since I bought my 928 (in 1989) & this is the only stuff that worked. I threw out my dampers years ago! I worked in a race shop & we even used it on some of the cup cars that were street driven. They have a website 'www.bgprod.com'. Highly recommended.
Hammer

Garth S

When I replaced the oem Textars on the S4, there were no disc type dampers in any of the pistons.
Rather than source 16 of the critters, I removed the stainless steel sandwich ( 2 or 3 layers) tack welded to the backs of the Textars. Once smeared with some brake lube, these shims dropped in behind the new red box Mintex pads .... and this combo has been silent and dustless ever since ....

Bill Ball

I've never had dampners on my 89's front pads since I've owned the car. They don't squeal with stock pads and rotors.

I just replaced the rear pads for the first time since I bought the car. There were dampners on the old pads. I put the new pads in without the dampners. There is some mildly annoying squealing. I will put the dampners on the rear pads when I get a chance.

BC

Is that your burnout Bill? It was a block long?

AO

Yep, that's his. No wonder his brakes don't squeal... he's never used them!

Bill Ball

Yeah, stock wheels, no LSD and 350 ft-lbs at 2500 RPM - no problem creating a smog alert.

Ron_H

I took those little weenie disks out of my system last change of pads. (actually I broke the retaining clips on most of one side, so I just didn't put them back in). I have no squeal. But I rinse the crud out of the rotors/calipers with water once a week when I wash the car. I think that makes a difference. I do have squeal while driving at highway speeds and applying the brakes gently from time to time, but it is more like a dull grunt that goes away if I apply the brakes sharply once or twice. It does this 'grunt' thing despite the presence of those little disks or not. So I tossed the little buggers. Now I can change pads faster.

m21sniper

AGREED.

atb

I'm running Tektars all the way around (like Garth S. mentioned), and they are dead silent. They don't use the adhesive cup-type dampeners, but have a plate mounted on the back of the pad where the pistons makes contact. I had some killer squeal in the rear initially with another brand of pad, installed the Tektars and still had the same killer squeal. Pretty disappointed, so I took the rear calipers off and recleaned them with brake cleaner and dried them off with a burst of air from the compressor. As I went to set down the compressor hose, I still had the trigger squeezed and blasted the face of my holed rotor. A huge plume of brake dust came out. I went ahead and blasted all of the rest of the dust out of both rear rotors (could not believe how much there was inside) and reassembled. Ahhh, silence. Some of the brake dust trapped in the rotor was evidently coming out of the holes as the rotor passed under the pad making for a good source of vibration/squeal.

Schocki

I use Mintex street pads from 928 Specialists for 5 months now.
I applied only some caliper grease on the back of the pads without ay dampers.

They are nearly dust free and absolutely quiet. Braking action is just as good as OEM.