2nd Opinion on Brake Issue

Alright boys, mistakes were made. By me.
Truck is at 92k miles and by the feel of it was due for new brake pads and rotors (lots of shuddering on extended downhill braking and increasingly at lower highway speeds) so I ordered a basic EBC 'yellow stuff' brake kit. Installed yesterday -first time doing automotive brakes- now after driving around for a day or so, something didn't feel right so I jacked it back up and took a 2nd look. As far as I can tell... I did a piss poor job retracting the pistons, resulting in un-even pressure on the new pads, resulting in (pictured below) Replaced with old pads for the time being.
My question is; can these be salvaged? Or is it time to order new pads again

 

Weird. As far as I know the pistons share a common supply so I don't think uneven piston pressure is possible. I assume you bled the brakes for good measure? Are you rotors in good condition? Did you check that the caliper slide pins are moving freely? ...and no, I would not reuse those pads.

 

Yes, you need new pads. That one is toasted.
Take a pic of the rotor, it may need replaced as well.

 

I don’t see the pistons causing that problem.
Something else is wrong.

You said you have new rotors too?
Looks like maybe the rotor is bad (high in one spot)
Something is wiping those pads out.

 

uhhhh, yeah, thats not good. Something in your setup is out of whack, whether it be bad rotors, not installed correctly, not following break-in procedure, or an absolute anchor of a foot. Replace it all, or take it in somewhere.

 

Gave the hub a deep clean and re-applied antiseize, used a better tool to properly fully retract all pistons and swapped the old pads back in. So now with old pads and new rotor everything is working just fine. Rotor itself appears unscathed. On the first go-round, the tool I was using to push the pistons back was not working well and I didn't have any C-clamps to help out.
Hard to see in the picture, but when I took the pads out last night there was one piston out further than the rest- same piston had torn up and spit out the circular shim* that came with the new pads, and unsurprisingly that is the side which had the fkd up pad. (*not sure what that thing is actually called)

 

I've never a ring like that attached to a pad before.

 

Me either.
Never seen a shim that goes on the piston.

Why not use a standard shim on the “whole” backside of the pad like we’ve been doing for years.
Hell, most are attached to the back of the bad now. There aren’t any “stand alone” shims.

I believe I’ll mark that brand OFF the list of brakes I’ll being using.

 

Could be pin slides needed lube or not sliding , also if its the pad closest to caliper it could be the pistons hanging up. But if the old pads are working fine id say it was something hanging up with the new brake pad itself

 

If you got the pistons back far enough to install the pads, then they were retracted enough...

That's not ruling out a sticking/dragging piston...but a sticking/dragging piston is NOT the cause of what you see on the pad.

Were these black zinc coated rotors by chance? We have seen instances where the brakes were brought up to temp (during a bed in) before the zinc was abraded from the rotor...it ended up melting the zinc, which sort of balled up/sluffed off and the chunk either sticks in a groove in the pad and tears up the rotor or a chunk sticks in a slot or hole in the rotor and tears up the pad. Any plated rotors should be driven easy for the first few miles...use the brakes, but keep temps down, to wear off the plating before heat cycling them to do the bed in.

Also not a fan of that "break in" compound...it causes more problems that it solves. It's basically an abrasive slurry that's painted onto the surface of the brake pad to sort of artificially increase friction levels using abrasive friction until it wears off and the pad transfer layer is established so the pad can start operating under adherent friction like it was designed...lots of smearing on the rotors, usually high dust initially from the accelerated initial wear on the rotor...all to save you from having to make 5 or 6 aggressive brake applications to bed the pads. It's a marketing gimmick and it's stupid.

I'd get a new set of pads.