I was working on a Honda Pilot, replacing the rear brake pads and rotors. Everything seemed normal until I took the caliper slider pins out to clean and lubricate them.

One of the slider pins was bent. I’ve never seen this before, and didn’t know it was even possible. I started looking around for a replacement until I took a second look at the brake caliper.

It’s not the easiest to see in a picture, but the caliper itself is bent where the slider and bolt go together. A clue to what could’ve caused it is the broken off bleeder screw on the caliper, so it looks like something must have somehow hit the caliper, even though the wheel fits pretty close to it.

One other clue that something happened back there is that the left sway bar link had been replaced, which I could tell because it was put in the wrong way around, which you can see by comparing to the right side. So whether it was somehow just a broken sway bar link that hit the caliper or some kind of debris flew up and hit the caliper and link, I can’t tell.

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-Dan