Ok, I'm doing my first-ever brake job.. newbie, I know.
I bought ceramic pads at Napa, and they came with 4 of these little shim-like things. They're metal with rubberized coating on one side, and adhesive on the other. When I took the old pads off, there weren't any shims on them. Are these just shims?

 

Also, is there any reason to put shims on if the old pads didn't have them? I'm replacing the old pads because they were brand new and squeaked like crazy.

 

personally i never use them.. i always lube the $hit out of the back side of the pad with brake anti-squeal. you can use your old pads as a reference to where to put the lube by looking at the wear marks.. i've found that they tend to squeal more with those metal shims than without them... If you lube them they won't squeel..

 

If the new pads came with some shims, yes put them on. Not all pads come with them. Just stick the adhesive side to the back of the pad.

 

the will keep your brakes from making noise, my 94 and most others come from honda like that