jimineez

I'm almost finished changing the rear rotors & pads on my car & need help. I'm using mintex pads & they have a squarish cutout on the rear of each pad. The old pads also have this cutout. Now, the outer bearing surface of the caliper (not the piston side) has a small tab that sticks out & pushes against the back of the pad.
Is this tab supposed to fit into the square cutout in the back of the pad?? On the old pads, one side was in & one side was not. On the new pads, it doesn't look like I will be able to make the tab fit in the cutout, but it is very close. I hope that makes sense...I'm worried that my pad alignment will be off if I get it wrong......thanks!

Thom1

Hi Jamie,

I am not sure what you are seeing there. Mine is a US model, and calipers do not have tabs to fit slots on pads. In the center of each rear edge of rear pad is a slot for the pad sensor. Mine use the inner pad slot for the sensor. Perhaps Euro models use the outer pad sensor slot for alignment. I would check with your supplier to assure that pads are for Euro model. Here are links to pictorial procedures:

Pictorial Procedures:
See John Pirtle’s page for pictorial procedures.
<a href="http://members.rennlist.com/pirtle/svc.html" target="_blank">http://members.rennlist.com/pirtle/svc.html</a>
Tony’s Site:
<a href="http://members.rennlist.com/v1uhoh/brakepad.htm" target="_blank">http://members.rennlist.com/v1uhoh/brakepad.htm</a>
Portia’s Site:
<a href="http://www.kondratyev.com/porsche/vacuum_boost.htm" target="_blank">http://www.kondratyev.com/porsche/vacuum_boost.htm</a>

HTH,
<img src="graemlins/burnout.gif" border="0" alt="[burnout]" />

Dozman

The rectangle/square tab is suppose to fit in the recess of the brake pad. If it does not, your asking for major problems. You will need to move one piece of the caliper slightly to arrange the tab fits the recess. Do not use, or press on the piston in any way doing this.

John D
'85 928 Auto, Black

jimineez

Thanks for the quick replies & pics. I think you know what I'm talking about Dozman. This isn't the slot for the pad sensor, but seems more like an alignment slot. I'll go try harder to get the tab into the recess right now..
PS- since one side wasn't in on the old pads, maybe that's why the rotors were warped when I bought it!

jimineez

Good news. It looked like the tabs were almost in place, so I put a little pressure on the pedal & they pressed right in. I guess I would have been fine anyway. I do know that one of the old pads wasn't installed corectly though! I'm glad I replaced it....

Dozman

This is one symptom that will happen, as the caliper is appling force to the rotor, the force is not applied in the coeinsiding (sp?) place on each side of the rotor. Leaving you with improper braking, warped rotors, and a major safety issue.

John D.
'85 928 Auto, Black

Big Dave

Doz:

Isn't eerie how quickly this question popped up after our brake job this past weekend???

Jimineez: No worries for the front pads, they are much easier to install. Doz and I thought we had gotten the wrong pads until we figured out the calipers could be moved around to fit the tabs.

I assume the S4 and later brakes don't have these tabs.