I wonder if drilling little holes in the pads to poke the wire ends in to would make them less prone to fling off, fly out etc....?

From memory another car I had did have holes for the anti rattle springs....I can't recall which one now....too many years and cars down the road to remember that little detail now...

I wouldn't go drilling into a set of brake pads; you're asking to crack/split them.

I like to use the hardware as its intended.

Back when I played mechanic, I had the rear drums pulled on both sides of a customers van. I didn't have anyone around at the time to do my light check and when I saw one of the other guys I grabbed him and said "hey check my lights", jumped in and hit the brakes. WOW, did that ---- fly all the ---- over the shop. Right in front of the customer to further the blow! lol

I never used those springs.

It just occurred to me that maybe my long time nemesis, the rattle in the front end that I cannot find could maybe be brake pads rattling, since I don't have the hardware on the pads. I can never find slack in the suspension or steering when I check, so it's been elusive. I hear a metallic clack/clunk when going over things like railroad crossings or hitting a rough patch of road. This has me wondering... though I'm not sure how pronounced a brake pad rattle would be. Would it be enough to hear pretty loudly in the car with the top up?

Could be.

Hmm, oh well. I will eventually be getting some new rotors and pads, so I will worry about it then and hopefully that will fix it.

Rosenthal Finishline sells the clips and W springs. If you want them, they are available. If you are OK with pad knock-back and stuff then you don't need them.

Never did find that darn spring!

I lost my one spring... heard it ding somewhere.. checked everywhere within 10 feet of the damn car... didnt find it anywhere.

meh, i dont think there is enough room for the pad to get all kallywonkered in there.

when I worked at rover, i saw one that the pad was worn way down and had managed to invert itself. but there is a ton of friction material and the rotor wears ALOT. obviously the spring clip was long gone.

Since we're ranting about brake hardware, I'll go ahead and add some more.

I just upgraded to 1.8 brakes. EBC Yellows with new rotors. The pads come with some adhesive backed rubber stuff that you can cut out to fit on the backing plates to keep them from squealing. The problem is, the rubber stuff makes them too thick for the caliper to fit over the assembly. It looks like I'll just be using the awesome stop-squeal spray can stuff.

Why not get the grease in a packet thingy from autozone?

The can was a few bucks and I've done more than a dozen brake jobs with it. It's some type of glue I think, not like those little grease packets.