drmarkp

The first Stig was Perry Mcarthy (Audi Le Mans driver, one outing in F1). But he lost the the job when his identity became public knowledge. This Stig has been in place 2 years and his identity remains a secret.

Benjamin Choi

i cringed reading about your experience. but hey i guess this is part of the joy of car ownership?

just curious, how critical is this vibration dampener and why is it not common other cars?

shustermeister

My indy mechanic who helped me get the job done on Friday night told me that he sees these things all the time now. His method: small pry bar and a rag over the caliper so you don't scratch the heck out of the paint on the caliper.... When done right, there is a n audible "POP" of the adhesive snapping. The pads then come right out and the discs with the metal protrusion will then fall out of the caliper.
The front pads were "Jurid" branded, the rears were "Brembo" branded - and I believe that these were probably the original brake pads that came with the car - 2002 C4S, which I bought with 13900 miles.

Thanks to Nick at Euroworks for the assist - my brakes worked flawlessly all weekend at CMP!!!

shustermeister

Every new car has something you've probably never seen before.
I imagine that Porsche put these in to stop the whining about brakes squealing every so often.

shustermeister

It would have been more clear by stating that the vibration dampers (the plates on the back of the pads, from my experience on other cars) have metal protrusions that stick into the pistons (from my experience, not on other cars), which might make them impossible to remove without forcing the pad out or removing the caliper.
I'm not saying that Loren hasn't done a good job with the article, but from the picture I thought the metal pieces were the pistons themselves, not attached to the plate. If nobody else posts pics of the dampers I can do it tommorrow.

I'm glad there are people like Loren who do their best to help DIY'ers like me - thanks Loren and Renntech, and of course to the Rennlist community, which is why I paid for my membership - lots of great info.

shustermeister

Pics of the vibration dampers - Front have solid metal cylinders on a "rubberized" plate that has been popped off the pad. Rear have the basket style protrusions. You can see that one stayed on (after I took the caliper off), one tore off. They are mounted with adhesive on the small round discs to the back of the pad.