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I've just changed my front disc brake pads and left off the outer pad shims (they looked like poo). Can anything bad come of this?
Investigating them they seem to be coated with a hard plasticky coating, as well as being bonded to the original pads. They seem to be only useful for mimimising noise, but the pads are doing well so far.
if you're talking about the sheet of metal covering then are minimise the noise when the calipers clamp down on the pads.
that sheet of metal is there to evenly disburse the pressure of the piston evenly on the brake pad (i'm assuming just the one piston - stock)
A thin peice of metal that is the shim can't and isn't there to disburse the pressure of the piston... it's there to minimise noise.
Thanks guys, the pads are doing well, with no noise whatsoever, so I'll leave the shims out. I retained the two rear shims which are in contact with the piston.
I saw a 'paste' at supercheap which you apply to the back of the pads to reduce noise as well, I may get some of that if needed as it looks similar to the Molykote M77 which is mentioned in the workshop manual.