Hawk LTS Brake Pads

[CowboyLawyer]

I could hear the chirp tab on my OEM pads so I decided to take my Bronco in and made the swap over to Hawk LTS pads in hopes I could get a little more aggressive grab out of them. After getting the pads swapped out by my local mechanic, I was driving over a speed bump with my windows down and heard a terrible metallic rattling sound when I went over it. I grabbed a buddy and reproduced it over various bumps and narrowed it down to the rear wheel area. I called the mechanic and his guess was that the Hawk pads did not include any clips, just a thin shim, and that the sound we were hearing going over bumps was the new pad bouncing around a bit in the caliper. He said he wasn't able to transfer the OEM clips over but that there should be no performance issues, just the sound.

I did a little online research and found this to be a common issue among numerous platforms. The solutions seems to typically be transferring over the OEM clip or shim. Interested that this issue was widespread, I decided to give Hawk a call. Their response was...interesting. The representative I talked to claims he has rarely ever heard of this issue and that it is likely due to improper installation. I challenged him on the "rare" part and told him I have found dozens and dozens of people talking about this issue on forums related to Toyota, Subaru, BMW, Jeep, and others for quite a few years. He brushed it off and claimed he didn't read the forums so this was news to him. He then claimed that their pads are engineered to not need any clips and doubled down on the mechanic installation issue. I asked him what he suggested may be the installation issue and he clearly didn't have any ideas. Eventually he came around to the possibility that a shim slipped during installation or that I needed to tighten the caliper further (possibly beyond OEM recommendation). He said that there is no recommendation by Hawk to use any retaining clips.

Before I jump the gun on taking it back to the mechanic and making him double check all of his work, I wanted to see if anyone else had the same issues or any suggestions?

BTW, the pads are performing great! It's just the terrible rattle every time I go over a bump.

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[Valhalla]

The clips are absolutely necessary. I did my rears with power stop they came with the new clips. My stock ones actually snapped causing wear.

 

[Valhalla]

Here is where I did mine and a shot of the clips on new pads beside broke ones on old pads.

https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/thre...hanging-rear-brake-pads-at-18-7-miles.118449/

 

[23OBX2.7]

I like Ford OE brakes they last forever and have a nice feel. The Alcon upgrade is nice

 

[Valhalla]

I like Ford OE brakes they last forever and have a nice feel. The Alcon upgrade is nice

I would have agreed with you before my back ones wore out in 19k miles on my 2023 Badlands.

 

[23OBX2.7]

I would have agreed with you before my back ones wore out in 19k miles on my 2023 Badlands.

I've never owned a 5000 lb vehicle I do expect higher brake an tire wear that's always welcome as a great excuse to upgrade.

 

[Valhalla]

Come to think of it the stock pads and calipers suck on my 2005 F350.

 

[23OBX2.7]

My 2020 Mustang HPP driven assertively all he time had 80% life remaining at 50K miles on what are GT basic brakes.

I think the fast wear is because the brakes are tiny for the Bronco weight it's one of the first things I noticed....more cost cutting I guess Should be 30% bigger.

 

[Valhalla]

You don't want to see a GEN5 then...

 

[Jason N]

So dude took the old pads off, that had clips, and put new ones on that had no clips and didn’t notice or say anything?? I’d never deal with that mofo again and post some bad reviews online about his business. That’s an absolute joke. I had these pads on my jeep and did not have a good experience. They did not perform well and got squeaky after a few thousand miles due to them being semi metallic. Was very annoying. And I agree their customer service is lame. They couldn’t really verify the proper pads THAT THEY MAKE for my jeep.

 

[CowboyLawyer]

So dude took the old pads off, that had clips, and put new ones on that had no clips and didn’t notice or say anything?? I’d never deal with that mofo again and post some bad reviews online about his business. That’s an absolute joke. I had these pads on my jeep and did not have a good experience. They did not perform well and got squeaky after a few thousand miles due to them being semi metallic. Was very annoying. And I agree their customer service is lame. They couldn’t really verify the proper pads THAT THEY MAKE for my jeep.

I definitley didn’t love finding out that he thought it was odd and still slapped them on there without saying anything. However, Hawk has maintained for years that their pads are engineered to not need clips. My guess is that they are trying to squeeze as many models under a particular part number as possible while ignoring minor tolerance differences.

 

[Valhalla]

The problem with that is the clips are the springs that move the pad away from the rotor after the brakes are released. Not having them allows brake drag on the rotor.

 

[Jason N]

The ones I installed in my jeep came with the clips/spings.

 

[CowboyLawyer]

The problem with that is the clips are the springs that move the pad away from the rotor after the brakes are released. Not having them allows brake drag on the rotor.

The problem isn’t drag. The problem is that the pads themselves are shifting inside the caliper. It’s a rattle, not a squeal.

 

[Valhalla]

In any case, it's bad.

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