Brake pad fitment...

mikeyk101 · October 14, 2022

So I finally received my rotors and AC Delco brake pad clips tonight so I went about installing them. Better late than never I guess but thats another story. I already had a set of brake pads I had bought over a year ago from Oreillys, BrakeBest Select Ceramic brake pads.

Background on those, when I bought them, I thought it might be time to replace the front pads as I was getting a lot of squealing. After checking the pads, I discovered they still had plenty of life left but the caliper clips were a bit rough. I swapped out the clips with the ones from the new set of pads and used some disk brake quiet paste in between the shims and pads. This took care of it and they've been quiet since.

So now it really was time for new pads. I replaced the seals on the caliper bracket, cleaned up the bracket where the clips go as well as use a little dab of lubricant under the clip mounting location and installed the clips. I then bolted on the caliper mounting bracket. So far, so good. The one thing I did forget was to put some anti seize on face of hub before putting rotor on and realized after I had everything back together. At this point, after the fiasco I just went through, I'm going to wait for now before tearing it all back down again. But when it came to installing the pads into the caliper mounting bracket clips, the outside pad went on and had the springy feel that I expect. When installing the larger inside pads, they fit extremely tight and didn't have the springy in and out feeling. They just seemed too tight. I did dab just a slight bit of lubricant on edges of mounting tabs for both the inside and outside mounting tabs. The inside pads did seem to have a very minimal gap but not much. After getting the wheels on and torqued, I took it out for a drive. It seems to handle fine. No unusual noises and there really didn't seem to be any real drag. I only went a few miles but have a longer errand to run tomorrow.

So should I be concerned about the fit of the inside pads or is that normal? I'm now wondering if there may be a slight difference between the mounting clips for the BrakeBest pads and the AC Delco replacement clips I just bought.

mikeyk101 · October 14, 2022

Well I still had the old inside pads and the old pads so I decided to check the fit on those. They fit a bit tight as well. So for now, I'm not going to worry about it but just pay attention for anything unusual.

Cupton · October 14, 2022

Good work! I did my brakes about a month ago with the AC Delco OEM pads. I honestly cant remember the fit of the pads and the clips. I do remember a couple of them bing harder to install than some of the others, but they all snapped in just fine eventually. Zero issues for me now. I had about half life left on the pads I replaced, but I was getting an annoying creak in the front when I would come to a full stop. And another creak in the rear that sounded like stretching springs when I would depress the pedal all the way in when the vehicle was at a complete stop. Really enjoyable in the drive thru! Sounded like I was driving a 300 year old wooden ship. No more noises after the brake job though!

I haven't done my own brakes in the past 25 years. My '91 Honda Civic was the last brakes I touched, so there was a sense of accomplishment there. My back however might tell you different. 25 years ago is a long time ago.

Edited October 14, 2022 by Cupton

mikeyk101 · October 16, 2022

Update...

Well I had some problems with this. The front brakes weren't locked up but there was some noticeable drag. It was pretty obvious by the way the trans shifted as well as using the throttle. Also my instant mpg screen showed a lower mpg than what I was used to. Also when taking my foot off the throttle, the speeds dropped off quicker than when they were supposed to. There was also a noticeable vibration that was new. It would even drop going downhill. I had a drive that was about 45 miles of highway driving and then about another 10 miles of lots of stop lights and stop signs. When I stopped, there was a definite smell coming from front left wheel well. Right front seemed to be ok. Fun part was that I had that same drive to return on. Not thrilled but had little choice and at least the brakes weren't frozen.

So last night, I ordered new caliper mounting brackets figuring that maybe new ones would help with the caliper fit. That didn't help. I ended up hooping on my bike as the truck was in pieces, bringing the new caliper mounting bracket for left front along with the pads mounted on them up to thto show them what was happening. They agreed with me that there was a problem with the fit. They exchanged these pads with a new set with the agreement that I bring back the other right set of pads when I brought the old mounting brackets for the core deposit. Before leaving, I did a test fit with the new pads and new clips. They fit better but still seemed a bit tight but not as bad as the ones I was exchanging.

Once back home, I installed everything on left wheel and pumped the brakes. I was able to spin the wheel and no unusual noises. I then went to the right side and swapped out everything and pumped the brakes. I did notice that the right side seemed to fit exactly like I was used to. But since I had another set of new pads, clips, and new mounting bracket, I went ahead and put them on. After the brakes were pumped, I spun that wheel and it seemed fine. I went back to Oreillys and dropped off the old mounting brackets and right pads.

On this drive, it felt like it was supposed to with throttle and shifting. The speeds dropped much more slowly and held steady on some short downhill sections. Also once I stopped at store parking lot, there was no unusual smells. I had other things to take care of at the house so I wasn't able to do a longer test. I have plans to do that tomorrow though. It looks like I should be good now...

Edited October 16, 2022 by mikeyk101

Eddie 70 · October 17, 2022

I put new rotors and pads on my truck and noticed the new pads did not fit in the new clips easily. I had to try and force the pads into the new clips. I knew that was not right. If I had to force them into the clips, then there was no way they could retract from the rotor when I let off the brake pedal. I took a flat file and took a little off the each end of the pads being careful to keep the ends flat. Once I had taken a little off, I made sure the pads would slip into the clips in the caliper brackets nicely. This has been about 5 years ago. I have had no issues since.

mikeyk101 · October 17, 2022

4 hours ago, Eddie 70 said:

I put new rotors and pads on my truck and noticed the new pads did not fit in the new clips easily. I had to try and force the pads into the new clips. I knew that was not right. If I had to force them into the clips, then there was no way they could retract from the rotor when I let off the brake pedal. I took a flat file and took a little off the each end of the pads being careful to keep the ends flat. Once I had taken a little off, I made sure the pads would slip into the clips in the caliper brackets nicely. This has been about 5 years ago. I have had no issues since.

That's exactly what I had but really only seemed to effect the driver's side pads, especially the inboard. These exchange ones seem to be doing much better. I will keep this in mind if I experience any more issues but, fingers crossed, so far so good.

mikeyk101 · October 29, 2022

Well still having issues with the front left side. Not as bad as it was but there is still a slight drag. It seems fine on highway but doing a bunch of stop and go city driving, it seems like the inside pad doesn't completely release. I'm done with these pads. I know I could probably grind off some of the sides of the ears but I don't have a way to carefully grind them. I'm throwing in the towel on these aftermarket pads and ditching these for some actual AC Delco pads. I have them ordered and they are supposed to be delivered on Sun. Hopefully this takes care of the problem.

The weird thing is the pads on right fit perfectly. As far as I know, there was just 2 sets of pads in the box but nothing indicating left or right side. Only difference is the inside and outside pads. But... the caliper brackets look identical. However, when I bought the replacement brackets, one was listed as left and one as right. Visually, I really couldn't tell the difference. If switching to the AC Delco pads doesn't fix this, I may just try buying another right side caliper bracket and seeing if that will mount on left side. This isnt my first rodeo and have always done my own brakes and on many different vehicles. This is the first time I have run into problems like this...

mikeyk101 · October 29, 2022

After looking close at the different brackets in photos, I did find a difference. Not sure exactly what the purpose of these nubs but it does show that there is at least this difference.

First the right side

Then left side

so I guess this might scrap that idea of a fix...

mikeyk101 · October 30, 2022

Lesson learned... OEM is usually the best choice. My new AC Delco pads came today. It took all of about a half hour to swap out both the left and right fronts. They went together exactly how they were supposed to and weren't tight at all on the clips.

On my bike, I tried aftermarket pads one time and they made strange whooshing sounds whenever braking. Changed them out right away to OEM Honda pads and life was good again. The original pads had worn just fine and I shouldn't have tried saving a few bucks. Same with this Silverado. Tried to save a few bucks and was pulled in by the lifetime warranty of free pads everytime the old ones wore out. Would have been nice if they actually fit properly but from now on, OEM pads on every brake change. Hopefully the rotors are OK but should be. My adventure on this started less than a month ago and there doesn't appear to be any unusual wear. For those, I went with OEM from the beginning...