How important are the clips on the pads?

[yoda]

I just replaced the pads on my car, but when I went to put in the new pads (Not OEM) the clips on the inside pad were too damn big (long). I couldn't get the pads in with those long ass clips on on so I broke them off. I have the pads on now but I'm worried that those clips are there for a reason (safety), so can someone here tell me if I need to get new ones (OEM) or are the clips simply to hold them in place as an anti-rattle solution?
Thanks in Advanced...

BTW
This is my first time changing brakes...

[tiFreak]

they're just anti-rattle clips, you don't really need them, if they make noise, you can always just buy replacements, they can't be that expensive

[spidertri]

What pads did you go with?

[Mallard]

the prong type clips on the back of the pads are to hold the pad onto the piston on retraction... no prongs , and the pad will float about and possibly get stuck


the pic below shows pads and so on..

say which number (or not) it is you modified

[mohaughn]

#8 is the anti-rattle clip. But I know of track pads that do not have those little prongs on the back of the brake pad, and they work perfectly fine. Weird that you bought a street pad for your car and the clips didn't fit. did you try benind them before cutting them off? I would say that usually the piston is not fully retracted if you can't get the pad to fit.

[yoda]

on the diagram if you look at the pad that goes to the piston, those prongs were the ones. The OEM prongs are 4 of equal length, the ones on these pads were 3, 2 of equal length and 1 very long, all 3 were longer than OEM and made it extremely difficult for me to put both pads in. These were from a Rotor + Pad package I bought on ebay (F+R), after replacing rotors I could see that the front rotors have quite some life left in them, but the rear rotors were almost gone, I went ahead and replaced all 4 no problem. The only problem I encountered was with the clips on the pads, maybe there's some way of doing it but for my life I couldn't find it, and I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure it out... but then again, this was my first time changing brakes
As long as I am not on any kind off danger by running with them without that clip, then I'll be fine, that's the reason I posted the question here...
Thank you guys so much for the responses

[Mallard]

if you notice the discs are getting abit warm, or smelling a bit strong.. then its time to change them out, before the discs get warped