Mk7 - Which Brake Pads?

[buzby]

Hi, I've just joined the forum as I have a question that people here might know the answer to.

I have a Mk7 Titanium 1.6 TDCi that has just had it's first MOT. It passed with no problems, but there were a couple of advisories, one of which was the front pads need replacing soon. I have had Fords (and mostly Fiestas) for over 20 years so changing brake pads isn't a problem (I had one of the very first Pumas in the UK before Ford upgraded the brakes to Granada spec so got used to changing discs and pads every 6 months). I noticed the Mk7 has changed over to using Lucas-TRW calipers instead of the ATE units now, and there are springs and shims in there but I'm sure I can work out how they fit back together.

The thing is, when you look at the Ford parts database for the Mk7, there are 2 different brake pad kits listed. The first kit is finis code 1550219, which contains the 4 pads, shims, spring plates and bolts:

When I look through the wheels this appears to be what is fitted on my car currently (I can see the large black shims between the outer pad and caliper).

The second kit is finis code 1676630:

Notice there are only the spring plates and bolts in this kit, and that the pads are slighly different as they have 2 dowels on the backplate, whereas the other pads have a flat backplate. I presume this means that you don't reuse the shims from the existing pads either, as the dowels will get in the way.

I have asked a couple of dealer parts departments about this and which one I need, and the answer from both is that if the car is still in warranty I need the kit with the shims. If it's out of warranty then I need the kit without the shims. They haven't been able to explain why this the case though - is it related to the brake squeal problems many people have had? If so, will using the 'out of warranty' kit mean the brakes are going to start squealing when it gets cold again? I am the second owner of this car, and the ETIS advisory about the brakes had been done before I bought it - what work was done under that advisory?

Are the any helpful Ford technicians out there who know the answers?

[shabazmo]

Interesting thoughts but I can't see why the shims should be dicarded when out of waranty. The problem I had with brakes was that the pads were seizing because they were too big and I shaved some metal off them. Perhaps the advice is to discard the shims to stop the pads seizing.

Did you find a solution to this problem