I just recently changed my brakes because they had been squealing. When I removed them I saw no shims and replaced my pads with Duralast pads. I did not use shims. They have started to make the same screeching in 2 days after the swap. Do FCs have shims around the pads? I looked in the FSM and I think they do, but can anybody give me a yes or no? Also, is that the reason why it is screeching? Thanks.

 

Yes, Probably. Or you brake a lot and need new pads again.

 

Yes there are two layers of factory shims. They are not that expensive from mazda.

Although even with shims the new ceramic pad compounds are still noisy, and create a **** load of dust, even factory pads on some vehicles like fords and jeep/chrystlers. A guy in my office building has one of those monster SRT jeep grand cherokees and after washing it his front chrome rims are black in less than two days.

Now i can understand this when using track pads, i expect noise and dust. But factory pads on new vehicles there is no excuse for that....my toyotas and hondas do not have dust and noise problems with factory pads....

 

Put the shims on with some brake "anti-squeal" and it'll probably go away.