My dad and me were replacing the brake pads on the front disc brakes a couple of weeks ago. Both new pads fit perfectly on the passenger side, but on the drivers' side the inner pad would not go in-between the rotor and the back of the spindle. We carefully inspected the rotor and it's not warped. We took measurements and the spacing between the back of the spindle and rotor are the same on both sides of the car. We even switched rotors and the pads still only fit on the passenger side. The rotors are the same size and everything.

Any ideas as to what the problem could be?

Thanks

 

Did you push the caliber piston back in?

That is what it sounds like.

You can buy a tool to do it or use a large pair of pliers

 

yea, it was pushed back in. maybe there's some kind of defect that is really subtle. we were just going to replace the spindle.

 

Do you have any 'extra' space for the outer pad? The whole caliper should be 'floating' so the two pads can even up the space bwtween them.

 

The outer pad fits perfectly. It drops right into place. Its just a really weird instance I guess. When we find out what the problem is I'll post it. I guess this doesn't happen at all. We checked everything, even filed the pad down to make it slimmer. I just don't understand it.