mystery brake pads

[phatcat]

Hi all,

I phoned Caterham and ordered a full set of pads (i.e. front and rear) for my 2012 Sigma Academy car. 

Only one set of pads (i.e. front or rear) have turned up so far, and I need to replace my front pads before a track day on Tuesday at Oulton.

I asked for "standard" pads, but istr on my previous K-series Academy car, they were Mintex all-round, whereas the pads that turned up are:
AP Racing 225 (CP3915-42-DS25HP)

They have 2 indentations on them, which I assume indicates that they are for 2 piston calipers, but no idea tbh as I've not changed the pads up until now. 

Questions:

1. Are the pads that I received front or rear pads? (or are they the same front and rear on my car?)

2. If they are front pads, and non-standard? will fitting them with the standard rear pads cause more than a minor imbalance?

3. Am I right in thinking that fitting the front pads is an easy job, but fitting rears requires specialist tools?

4. Do I need to bed the pads in before a track day? (I'm super-busy this weekend, so wasn't planning on any blatting).

Thanks for any help.

[Mankee]

Those are rear pads. Replacing pads on standard calipers is a simple job, both front and rear. The only really "specialist" tool you need for the rear pads is a caliper windback tool. However, you can get away with some circlip pliers or even an angle grinder disc tool. No joke on the angle grinder disc tool!

Here's a useful guide on the rear pads:

http://www.alcester-racing-sevens.com/rear_brake_pads.htm

With my car being track-only, I can't bed in new pads on the road. So several gentle laps with a few stomps on the brake pedal, traffic permitting, is all they get before being hammered. I try to clean up old discs by removing previous pad material from them using paper though.

[SM25T]

If paper doesn't work ... try Garnet paper.

[phatcat]

Thanks Mankee. 

I still have the problem of getting some front pads put on before Tuesday, so I did some digging through the garage...

I found some pads with a bit of life left in them which I think are from my old 2004 K-series Academy car. These have 4 indentations on them, and are labelled as follows:

Two of: FER3441F GF   456572
Two of: FER3441F GF   109037

Not sure if the last part is the serial no? they all look the same to me.

All four have a large "L" imprinted on the metal, maybe that means left? but seems odd given they all have it. 

Questions:

Am I right in thinking that these are front pads? 

Any idea if these pads will fit my 2012 Sigma car? (I've got guests around atm, so I won't be able to check until tomorrow afternoon).  

Thanks.

[CharlesElliott]

Front brake pads look like this - quite a different shape to the rear.

[phatcat]

Thanks, yep, they look like that.

Hopefully the fitting/calipers didn't change between 2004 and 2012. 

Now if I could just get my guests to leave, I'll be able to find out...

[CharlesElliott]

They haven't changed since 2004. 

[phatcat]

Yes, just been out and changed them.

The only real difference between the ones I took off and the ones I put on was a slight design difference with a split down the middle of the pad (effectively making two smaller pads).

Thanks for the help. I'm all gtg for Tuesday now  :-)