4drviper

Just did front brake job with rotors and pads. Centric 120 40046 and 309 07870 correctly printed/stamped on the parts as well.

And as I was ready to tighten the sliding pin bolts I get this shit.







I inspected it visually before installing but it was hard to tell. But after putting the pair in the photo back to back, I found out the little retention tab sticking out from the top and bottom, are offset by the same amount sticking out.
Accordingly the entire pad surface just shifted outward leaving that much gap on the inside too.

2 of my 4 old pads are worn past service limit so I'm gonna have to use it. But does this look safe enough to forget or do I have to get a replacement asap?

Thanks in advance.

thoiboi

What year car do you have? Type S or not?

losiglow

iTrader: (1)

Seems dodgy to me. I wouldn't be comfortable with it personally.

4drviper

Will I be banned if I answer like a sarcastic smartass? xD

Yeah, I'm not comfortable with it either.. but. I only have 2 pieces of brake pad with very little life in them and they're from each side so I can't really reuse.
Also I couldn't wait because the one of the 4 pads is paper thin away from grinding the backing plate into the rotor.
Also I can't have that (left) side with old part with new on the right because what kind of disaster would happen if I had Stoptech Sport on one side and Carbotech XP10 on the other...... in rain.
Meanwhile I just felt relatively safer with slightly off pad than options above..

Replacement is on its way but I still want to know the technical side of using a brake pad like that.
Thank you.

4drviper

Update : I got replacement parts today and when I took the wheel off I could see the inside pad was now sitting flush with the rotor. Put the wheel back on, looks like I have a spare set of front pads now.

This is just to let ppl know it was probably user mistake than product defect, although I still don't understand how.

thoiboi

Nah, you'd be promoted to moderator


In retrospect, I didn't look closely enough.. It's obviously an automatic base because they're not Brembo

thoiboi

Did you compare the original to the replacement pads to see if they were physically the same?

4drviper

Well, I have to be honest. The pad in question(pic) was sitting so normal today I didn't even bother to undo the caliper to take them out & compare...
I would have wondered what kind of drug was slipped into my drink that night if I didn't post pictures here.

I'm guessing the pad retainer clip was sorta loose and it somehow got squeezed back into place when real load was applied by the caliper?

WDPanda

How is only one side sticking out? The pads must not be seated. Takes a bit of wiggling and finding good angles.

BROlando

your rotor is not seated on the hub.

try using the lug nuts or rotor screws to make sure the rotor is sitting flat on the hub

wusty23jd

This is what I suspect as well. Last week, I replaced the brake pads on my buddy's Ford Fusion. The retainer clip wasn't fully clipped in and it took me a few minutes to figure out why the pad wouldn't seat properly.