First of all Thanks in advance for any help. I completed changing the rear brakes on my 2005 R53 MCS. Since I was going to tear apart the back end to a degree, I decided to replace the sway bar. This is the first major DIY job I decided to take on and I have to say, I could not have done it without the resources and help I've found from some very knowledgeable and giving souls here on this forum. Thanks to all.

Towards the end of putting everything back together, I noticed the calipers did not fit flush with the mounting bracket. At first I thought this was due to the thickness of the new pads. I asked a mechanic who lives near me and he said that was normal.

I've attached a pdf file showing the gap between the calipers and the bolts that hold the calipers to the mounting bracket. I still wasn't convinced the gaps should be there so I removed the calipers and verified there were no obstructions but the gaps remained and this is true for both left and right side rear calipers.

I just found some information on another thread saying the rear most pad should have clips that mount around/to the piston and I'm wondering if that could be a reason for the gaps. I will verify if the clips are correctly mounted, but I wanted to ask:

1. Are the gaps normal and thus nothing to worry about?
2. If the gaps are not normal any thoughts on what I should check?
3. Could the install of the sway bar have anything to do with this, i.e. could the bar be stressing the manual brake lines that appear to run near the sway bar area?

Again, Thanks to all.

 

cant tell from your pictures, but the wire on the back of the inboard pad has to slide onto the caliper piston grove. see posting # 33 on attached ---
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ginners-2.html

 

the 'bolts' that hold the caliber to the bracket are sometimes called guide pins (see Haynes) allowing the caliber to float

The entire caliber unit is not tightly bolted to the bracket, rather these pins are tightly attached to the caliber while allowing some movement of the caliber providing for an even 'grab' when the piston causes the pads to grip the rotor... While things were apart you would have wanted to ensure that these pins did freely move and some people replace the rubber bushings there with another material to facilitate even freer movement.

 

Thanks to all for your feedback. Your correct I did find the inboard brake pads have three wire guides that should slide into the piston and they were not. I have remedied that and put the calipers back on.

I did find the gaps were still there, but at least now I know the brake pads are installed properly and based on one of the replies it appears the caliper assembly is meant to float, so the gaps I'm seeing are not abnormal, right?

I have seen where you can purchase new guide pins and the bushing as well, so is this something that is recommended? I'm still at a point where I can do this and I'd rather do this now than later.

Thanks again for correcting me on the terminology and I welcome all your feedback and inputs.

Thanks