After moving into my new apartment where I cannot work on my car, I was forced to pay someone else to put my new pads and rotors on Saturday. I have an 03 g35 sedan Auto. I noticed that there is a small horseshoe like loop sticking off of the caliper and tab that looks like it should be inside of that loop... but it's not. Sorry, I dont have any pics and haven't noticed any noises or differences in braking but, is this serious? What is it for? I think I can bend it in there without taking the assembly off...

Thanks for your help, hopefully this makes sense.

 

if it's the tab on the hardware sticking straight out on the side of the caliper,
then yes it should be hooked into the loop on the pad that sticks out right next to it. the purpose for it is to apply slight return pressure to the pads, pulling them off of the rotors.

 

maybe theyre the cottar pins on the pin that holds the the spring in place

 

If they are little metal clips that are attached to the pads, then those are the pad wear indicators, and they should be facing the rotor, not the outside of the caliper. Someone put the pads on incorrectly. You need those to warn you the pads are getting close to end of life, unless you are extremely vigilant about watching pad wear.

 

is this on the front brakes? That hook on the pad mates up with the caliper assembly to provide you a warning that your front pads are low. Check the service man. you'll see. I would link to it or something, but i'm at work.