Question on thin outside snap plates on brake pads when replacing front brakes?

sbmrinaldi

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07 CX9 Grand Touring FWD
I changed my wife's front rotors and brakes last night. If I had the right tools the job would have went much faster. Anyway, I saw in someones write up that they left the thin aluminum plates which were on the OEM pads (fit on outside of pads and facing the caliper on both sides) off on the re-install of new pads. Were these meant to be left off? They did not fit as tight as on the original OEM pads but I put them on with my new pads. Does it matter? I test drove the car and she seemed perfect. The caliper was a bit snug going over the plates but it fit.
 
The original oem setup appeared to be the pad with the built-in shim, and then the thin aluminum plate/shim over the top of that. Essentially a double shim. The trouble with that is that when pressing the gas after sitting at a red light, I would hear this annoying "crack" noise, which was the thin shims "adjusting." They call this the brake hardware kit. I see no use for this feature. I threw them away. My aftermarket pads have built-in backing plates/shims which cars have been using for a hundred years just fine. Not saying throw them out, but as for me and my cx-9, we don't need the silly double shims.

What rotors/pads did you end up going with?
 
The pads are Posi Quiet Semi Metallic and the rotors are cross drilled/dimpled and slotted. I bought them through a company in California called Brake Performance. Initial testing seemed fantastic in comparison to my OEM pulsing issues. Surprised to find the right side pads with plenty of meat left on the them, yet the left side was wore much more and uneven wear to boot. I did manage to get the dumb shims on the new set and didn't see a reason for them, but figure I will leave them unless they seem to cause an issue. I would imagine the caliper will force them in place and they hopefully will be seated properly.
 
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