Anti-Rattle Clip Missing Does this affect...

[hoodsstalker]

Hello everyone, i own a E34 525i (95' Automatic) with about 140k miles on it. I'm really asking this question not out of curiosity but to just verify my suspicion. About a month back when i was replacing my rear brake pads on my passenger side i had unsoundly re-installed the anti-rattle clip that goes around the caliper. only a few days later when i found myself back down there i found the clip gone! when i drive and i'm on the freeway going about 40 mph or more and i apply pressure to the brake pedeal, my steering wheel rattles/twitches. I had some previous complications with my brakes that may have led to uneven wear but im more than certain this rattling is the source of a missing anti-rattle clip. i know its silly to ask but i wanted someones opinion to at least confirm. or should i just replace all of my pads instead?

[Ross]

The rattle clip won't cause the shimmy. The front end shimmy is well covered here.

[DanDombrowski]

On the back, I don't know first hand, but it will probably cause wear problems, and pretty quickly too. I'll give you my experience with the front brakes.

On my 01 330Ci, I swapped out my pads (not rotors) when they got low, and put everything back together. About a day or two later, I noticed that the clip was gone (don't know how it fell out). I figured that since the brakes weren't squealing or rattling that I would wait until my next BMA order to get the clip. When I finally replace the clip 3 weeks later, my pads had worn in a wedge shape due to the caliper not being centered on the rotor from the clip. When the clip went back in, I had HORRIBLE pedal travel, because the now wedged pads could move around in the caliper when you stepped on the pad (and they only had to move a fraction of an inch too). I figured that with the clip in place, I would eventually wear the pads even and the problem would go away.

After another 2 weeks like that, I gave up, and put the old pads back on (still have a few months left) on that side, and ordered new pads that should come soon.

So yes, without the clip, you can make a new set of pads worthless pretty quickly. I don't think its a safety issue though.