I came for the brakes pads, but stayed for the accent. This Scottish YouTuber points out a big problem with some cheap brake pad sets, how they fit in the caliper. His solution is to grind the pad to fit the caliper. My solution is to buy better pads.

Grinding a brake pad to fit causes two BIG problems.

• Angle and bench grinders are not exact tools. If you remove too much material you can cause brake pad to rattle in the bracket. You can also weaken the backing plate.

• You are removing corrosion protection. Without a barrier of paint, plating or other treatments the pad can turn into a rusty hunk of junk.

The sign of a bad plate might be how it fits in the caliper bracket. If it takes a hammer or a great deal of force to install the pad in the caliper bracket, it could be a sign that the tooling for the backing plate is worn out. If the tooling dies used to stamp the backing plate is worn out, the ears and other contact points will increase in size or become distorted.

NRS Brakes has developed a new method for producing brake backing plates called FineblankPlus. This new stamping technology allows for mass production of backing plates that meet or exceed OE specifications for abutment areas and flatness. FineblankPlus can consistently deliver abutment shaving of over 75% and hold within a 0.1mm tolerance on critical abutment dimensions. When it comes to flatness, FineblankPlus can establish a new standard as it is able to maintain a flatness specification of 0.1mm.