It's been a few years since I have done brakes. To the point where I cannot remember if there were clips on the last brakes I did. One was a1994 Camry wagon. They were disc however.

I have read up on prepping the caliper holder. I filed the areas where the clips go to remove rust. Then painted just that area with primer. Two days later I coated those areas with M77 and pushed in new clips.

With no lube on clips I pushed in new Wagner pads. The pads were a little difficult to push in put I attribute that to tension from new clips. But not sure. The pads are tight in the clips but I can get them out by hand with a little force. I would not need a hammer.

So how tight are pads supposed to be in the clips?

Do I use never-seize on caliper bracket bolt? It seemed a little difficult to remove when pulling off caliper bracket.




.

The pads are supposed to be tight enough so that if you grabbed the pad and tried to move it side-to-side, the pad does not move. The pads shouldn't just fall out of the bracket.

I would just clean the bolt threads before re-installing the bolt.

I did front and rears on my '16 Forester in February. Wire brushed and lubed the brackets where the clips go. Lubed the clips where the pads go. I did put anti seize on the caliper bolts because I rounded off a caliper bolt on front. Removing those bolts wasn't so easy sitting in my driveway in the middle of winter.

With respect to putting some of the Permatex purple on the metal to metal contact areas including the piston surfacr, the Permatex purple is not for rubber and if you put some on the piston surface that hits the pad you are likely to get some on piston boot.

I put 15mm socket on caliper bracket bolt and moved socket a bit. That removed enough crud. Then used a 14mm socket to remove the bolt. At first I thought it was going to take a 15mm socket. 6 pt socket.

I filed down the ears on the pads because they were jamming in the clips and causing my rear brakes to drag.

i too filed the ears of my EBC pads when i fully refurbished the lo mile but wear brakes on my 11 frontier, though it was mostly the coating. brake parts take a beating where they are located + depending like my preowned fronty came from the super rust belt massachusetts things were pretty corroded!

I prefer pastelub its a 40% solids lube, I use it on pad ears and backing.

I use sil-glyde on the caliper pins not because its the best, but because its never given me issues.

I file or grind the crap out of the pads.. they rust in solid here.. if they are too tight you have to lube them yearly at least.

if you make them a little looser you can usually go 2-3 years.. at least in my experience.. of course there is MASSIVE road salt here.

Sometimes they salt so much there are piles leftover on the roads after snowstorms.

I think everything you wrote is exactly what I did with my father's Subaru with the exception that I used OEM parts and Permatex purple. I also cleaned the bores of the slide pins with cotton swabs and brake cleaner until all the factory lube was gone. I only did this because I used sil-glide and don't know long term how different lubricants would react to each other. Besides reapplying lube to the pin, I also made sure there was a coating around the gland where the boot seats as that was a weak point with moisture actually making its way past and corroding the fronts.

My pads felt tight but you can move them along the clips so I was satisfied the fitup was correct. When I reinstalled the prepped caliper over the new pads and tightened properly, everything moved with no binding.

I personally do use antisieze on the bracket bolts too and typically don't need to reapply everytime I remove. Just a tiny drop on the leading edge of the threads.

The previous rear pads were advance auto gold and were gone in 40k and noisy which seemed strange the rears wear that fast but don't know if Subaru AWD has anything to do with that. It's been over a year and my rear OEM pads have given me no trouble thus far.

My Subaru Impreza was the ONLY CAR ever to wear out rear pads before the fronts. Rears went 60 k miles, fronts were replaced at about 80k miles. The rear pads ARE pretty small, however.

Around here, brake inspection / lubrication is a twice a year event. I find that if you don't, everything starts to seize up, and then you start eating inner pads because the brake pads are binding from rust jacking, or the pins seize solid. Salt sucks ...

It sounds like you're doing what I do with the Legacy brakes. I like anti sieze on things that I'll need to undo again. I've seen suggestions to reduce torque values if you use it, something like 10%. I've had some pads for my last couple subies that needed to be ground so they could be moved without hammering. I'm content if they can be slid by hand. My understanding is the clips are to keep brake noise down.
I have had other vehicles with back brakes that wore out before the front, I find it odd.

Never use anti seize on caliper bracket bolts. If anything use blue loctite. It’s very easy for bracket bolts to back out with antiseize. Just about every manufacturer uses factory loctite on caliper bracket bolts.

Are you saying don't file the ears so they fit better as you will file off anti-corrosive coating?

As for the caliper bracket, if you are redoing brakes in the rust belt there is probably no anti-corrosive surface left on the caliper bracket. I filed the rust off and primed with a little paint the area where the clips go. And lubed with M77 (only to prevent rust).

It doesn't seem to work, though, as the ears still rust up and swell and jam the pad in the brakcet. Unless you run without the clips, then the thing rattles all the time