Brake Pad Squealer Position?

[Tiny]

I should know this, however my recent experience has me confused. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Currently replacing a failed, pad damaged, front right, rotor(disc) on my 80 series Land Cruiser.
Now the pads were replaced by a mechanic (not me) when I purchased the vehicle, due to his determination that the pads were low on remaining material.
Not long after, another mechanic (not me) replaced a wheel bearing, as I had identified it as overheating & making noise. This was done 35,000km ago.
I should have done all the above myself, however I wasn't in a position to do so at the time & used a local trusted, by many, mechanic.

So fast forward to now, the brake pads have done ~60,000km, all other pads have not hit the squealer yet, even though this one pad had hit the metal backing plate, squealer broken off, never heard a noise until it hit metal to metal. Kudos to Toyota as the brakes were still working excellently.

So it failed & now I'm installing new rotor & pads, but I'm not sure if the squealer should be orientated to the leading or the trailing edge of pads. The old pads had one leading (inner) & one trailing (outer), the latter is the one that failed.

Have done some research & I get conflicting results, some say leading is best & some say trailing is best, for the squealer.

I can't blame the fail on the orientation, as the pad has obviously failed before the other pads were worn out.
I do use the vehicle in extreme conditions some times, so mud, stones & sticks can play a part in the failure.

The pads from Repco, I'm installing, have no orientation info, so should I care if the squealer is leading or trailing?

[Tiny]

Ok then, nobody.¯\_(ツ)_/¯
No one here does their own servicing anymore?
I miss you Godzilla.

So my experimentation with the old disc & a pad that had a squealer intact, was that it will squeal in either direction.

Note: my observation of the rear floating calipers, was that the squealer, placed on the leading edge of the old pads, was cemented into mud & had bent behind the pad friction surface, rendering them useless & 2 of the rear pads were beyond serviceable limit, not far off causing a disc failure.

Hope that helps someone else.

[wotnot]

top of caliper

[Tiny]

top of caliper

Thanks for your opinion, however, unfortunately that would give conflicting results due to forward or rear mounted calipers.

Eg; the Landcruiser has rear mounted calipers on the front, so that would put the squealer on the trailing edge & with forward mounted calipers on the rear, would put the squealer on the leading edge.¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[wotnot]

Not opinion, what I saw in the parts diagram ... image below is rear.... fronts differ depending on exact model

[Tiny]

Ok so that's the left rear in orientation, which puts the squealer on the leading edge.

note; that the squealer on the rear is a different type to the fronts & I placed it back in the top on the leading edge as shown, as that's how they came out & on reassembly it would be difficult to put them on the opposite end of the pad, as the pad wouldn't fit back into the caliper like that.

With the fronts I went 50/50 like the previous mechanic did.

[Tiny]

With the fronts I went 50/50 like the previous mechanic did.

Previous mechanic Wrong.
So I just serviced the Wife's Hilux & replaced the front pads as they have done 140,000km.
Believe it or not, they still had over 30% remaining before squealer contact.
Anyway, this car has been owned since new, never had pads changed before, so the original Toyota pad fitment for the front as installed by Toyota, is squealer placed on leading edge on all 4 pads. That orientates to the bottom of the rear mounted front caliper. Previous mechanic got it wrong.
So as the old LC had only been driven down the paddock & back since new pad & rotor replacement, I changed the pads to orientate as per Toyota design.

In conclusion the squealer should be placed on the leading edge of the pad, when forward vehicle movement is taken into perspective, regardless of brake caliper orientation.
Using a top or bottom of caliper position is ambiguous with the different caliper mounting positions.

Also in hindsight, I probably should have used Genuine Pads, as they are about the same price as the Repco & Bendix replacements I've used & my suspicion is that the Genuine will outlast the aftermarket by a long way.
Do they have the same braking feel & power? Yet to be tested, so I 'll draw my conclusion after I've driven a few hundred Km's.
All reviews on 4WD forums suggest the after market pads out preform in braking feel & ability. We'll see.