Originally Posted By: ChrisW
Originally Posted By: Doog
Originally Posted By: The Critic
Lubing the back of the pads is not necessary per Toyota,
But it is standard on every Doog brake job. Always quiet when you lube the pads, pins and pinch points.
I believe Toyota [as does Honda on their OE pads] instruct to apply grease between the pad's backing plate and the shims for applications that have multi-layer 'clip-on' shims, however, agreeing with Critic, it is not necessary to put grease on the back of the shims in between the shims and any caliper piston/ear contact points. Just thinking about this from a mechanical point of view, if the grease/noise suppressant substance in-between the shim and pad's backing plate isn't reducing the vibration then I wouldn't think additional grease on the back of the shims would help except to necessarily cover up the root cause of failed grease/noise suppressant between the backing plate and shim. Some pads have bonded [nitrile coated] shims, which do not necessarily require grease on the back of the shims. I don't use grease on bonded shims and have had nary a noise except when there is excessive dust buildup or after a car-wash.
To the OP, I'm inclined to think it's worn brake pad hardware otherwise known as abutment clips. I'm not sure if the OE Toyota hardware is nitrile coated, and I don't recall the OE Toyota pads come with new abutment hardware except perhaps shims, however, I know that Carlson and Raybestos [and some 'BrakeBest' O'Reiily's] have hardware kits that are nitrile coated to help suppress noise. I use new hardware [abutment clips, pin boots and pin busshings if any] each time when servicing the brakes, and try to use the nitrile coated if an application is available. I had pad clanking with my Mazda6 [which the dealer called normal] that cleared up when I installed Bendix CT-3 pads which came with new abutment clips, not coated, however I believe that a huge contributor to pad clanking and brake noise in general is due to worn and ill-fitting hardware. Last time I installed OE Toyota pads was on the many-years ago Previa, they were Sumitomo/Advics and the pad backing plate was stamped and painted very well so I don't think it's a poorly stamped backing plate but it can happen.
This is a real nice response but I have had 5 Toyotas and all of them click at about 20k into a set of pads. If you lube the pads = no clicking at 50-60,000 miles into a set of pads. So if Toyota says the Moon is made of cheese...and the world is flat I'll still lube the pads. Because it works.
