Car is a 91 na with 4 piston front brakes:

When I first bought my car over a year ago, my brakes squealed, so naturally I had them replaced (I didn't do this one). I was broke from buying the car, so I had some cheap wearever or some other generic Autozone brand put in there. Again, they squeaked. They worked fine and I got them checked out and the response was "They are crappy wearevers, they are going to squeak." Fair enough.

A year goes by of squeaking and I'm just fed up with it. The brakes are still working fine otherwise, but I replace both the front and back brakes with Hawk HPS pads, since they seem to be the quietest performance street brakes I can find. I put them in myself since at this point I know a hell of a lot more about the car than I did the previous year.

One odd thing I noticed is that on my drivers side front caliper, there are little metal pieces connected to the pads, but on the passengers side it has no metal clip. I am told it's not REALLIY needed so I put it all back together. Works great for over a month, and just recently I've started getting some squeaks from the front brakes again. Not nearly as bad as when I had those crap pads, but noticable. Got some anti-squeak spray from the local parts store and sprayed them on, but they had little effect.

So does anyone have any ideas? Is it the missing clips or something else? I can live with it since the brakes stop REALLY well, but if it's something I can fix I'd like to do it.

*edit* I don't know if it matters, but it squeaks when it's hot. That may be why it only started doing it recently because it's REALLY hot now. With the old pads, they rarely squeaked in the winter, but became annoying in the spring, which is when I decided to give them the boot.

 

i thought the opposite was true about temp, but i dont know where i came up with that.
i think the metal piece you're referring to is the spring. there should be two, one on each side of the top of the pad. these push the pad away from the rotor. makes sense, the piston pushes pads towards rotor, apllying pressure, but they're not magnetic and the pad isn't stuck to the piston, so naturally some assistance is needed; spring-clips (technical name? i forget). i know i am missing one on my car and i never replaced it, but i still consider them necessary. could i be wrong? of course. but i doubt a reputable shop would be like "we dont need these back on there."
as for squealing, pads do that. i remember 3 types of pads: metallic, semi-metallic, and organic. i dont remember which are best for what, quite honestly. i know some squeal more than others, some are better for rotors, some brake less than others, etc.
is the squealing constant when you drive? does it sort of have a "vibrate" effect (on/off real fast)? high pitched loud? somewhat quiet? is it only when you brake? does it go away when you brake?

 

Yes, it's only when I brake. It doesn't do it everytime, usually when it's 90+degrees outside now. It also does it during medium braking, meaning if I just tap the brakes there is no noise, and if I slam on them there is no noise. It really isn't very loud, but I can hear it with the windows up and the radio set to a medium volume level.

 

never use metallic or semi metallic pads on stock rotors that have been machined again and again. trust me from experience i put a set of semi metallic pads and i noticed damaged to the brake rotors within a month. pick up a set of these they work wonders http://www.raceshopper.com/sp_rotors.shtml
the drilled and slotted one

a set of those and a set of semi metallic pads and your good to go. plus some SS brake lines if you want firmer pedal feel.

 

how do you mean "again and again" ? the only measurement to watch is the actual measurement (spec width and runout) of the rotor. there's a certain spec to not exceed. whether you turn it once or 5 times, just be sure not to go thinner than the given measurement.
i dont see how you could cause damage within a month. i wouldn't place any blame on the pad at that point. that sounds like a severe case.

 

i mean again and again its at the limit of machining. mine was a bad case. the previous owner never replaced the rotors just kept machining them.

 

Mine squeal after hard driving/braking. Durring normal driving it hardly squeaks, so I take it, its normal.