I got some hawk HPS pads today, and I noticed that they came with shims on the pads. My question is this, should I use the shims that came with the hawk pads, or should I use the OEM mazda shims?

The Mazda shims are a two piece design, whereas the hawk is a one piece design. I already have a new hardware kit anyway as I wasn't expecting the hawk pads to come with shims.

Anybody with experience on this?

 

The OE shims are damn good, but the Hawks seem to do the trick pretty well, too.

I just swapped some HPS into the front for street use and used the Hawk shims. We'll see how quiet they are.

Make sure you use hi-temp brake grease on the mating surfaces and the slider pins and clips.

 

Thanks for the input Jeff. I have a few weeks until I am going to be installing the pads. I would very much like to hear your thoughts after you have some more time with the pads on.

 

Shims are not needed...

 

No, not technically "needed", but for street pads they do help prevent chatter and squealing.

I don't run any shims when I have the HP+ pads on. They squeal like pigs on the street and I like it.

 

Yeah, the pads will be noisy as sh*t without shims.
I hate noise.

 

I've gone through about 4 sets of HPS's for both track and street use. Just used the shims that came with the pads. I actually didn't use any grease and have never noticed any squealing or weird sounds of any sort, but generally using the high-temp grease is a good idea and definitely can't hurt.

 

Well I noticed today that the rear pads wont fit the stock shims anyway, so that's one less thing to worry about. Guess I'll use hawk shims all the way around then.

 

Ha! Been there, done that. They will fit, it just takes a bit more work. Hard to get those bastard rear pistons the last ten-thousands of an inch in and get the slots lined up at the same time so the shims will clear. But I did get HPS on the rear with the shims. I found using almost every cuss word I know helped.