04 hyundai santa fe rear brake pad not fitting into clip?

I was doing a brake job and ran into a problem.
I changed the rotor but when i was trying to switch out the brake pads i was struggling trying to get 1 of the pad with the wear indictor on.

They are positioned correctly but they wont fit into the brake clips…only 1 side (top notch or bottom notch) would fully go in and the other is just sticking out of the clip. Though the other brake pad with no indictor slid in but very very tightly…I need to use force in order to remove the brake pad…are brake pads suppose to be this tight? I thought they were suppose to be easily moveable? I also added a very very thin layer of lube on the clips.

This is the bundle kit i bought, from 1aauto part number “BKA10942” (rotor fits good)

Side note: The old brake pad isn’t easy to put in either but because of the rust/wear of the brake it can still fit easier than the new one.
Also i have cleaned the “well” with a steel wire brush and it felt smooth

I’ve run into this a few times even with name brand parts. They are supposed to be tight so they don’t vibrate and cause noise. Some designs have pressure clips with more movement and the pads are more undersized so they fit more easily. Others rely on a tighter fit of the pads to the caliper. When I run into this, I will file the pad tab just enough so they can be pushed into the caliper/clips. Sometimes it is just an over application of the coating and others I have found the base plate metal is just on the high end of the tolerance for size so a small adjustment fixes it.

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Concerning the well that you cleaned. Many times in rust country, it may seem clean, but if you take a file or a cut off wheel on a side grinder to clean better you may find a lot more corrosion underneath the clean looking surface than you think. I’ve also seen the burr caused by the stamping process on the pads backplate be a little excessive and filing may be necessary. But usually it’s unrecognized corrosion.

Similar to what TwinTurbo noted, I too have had to grind down the ends of brake pads in order to get them to fit correctly. Then they worked fine for the life of the pads.

This was especially true on an 04 Hyundai Sonata with pads from Autozone.

Same here. The one time it happened was in winter, working on a cold and frosty caliper in a sub-freezing garage. Would’ve been a lot more enjoyable in June.

Price out the cost of oem replacement brake parts at a Hyundai dealership. You may find there’s not much difference in cost, and less likely you’d experience this sort of problem.

I had problem with an aftermarket replacement turn-signal light bulb for my 50 year old truck, discussed here recently. Contacts too big, wouldn’t twist in and lock. Solved somewhat successfully with a file.

Agree with all of the above. Aftermarket parts are frequently not made to the same tolerances as OEM and rust/gunk frequently change the fitment dimensions.

After you confirmed that you have the correct part and are fitting it into the right place , wire brush and file are the solutions