Front Brake trouble - Guide Pin?
 

I've been having some trouble with noisy brakes since I bought my SVX (Just had it for 7 months now). Today I took a mental health day off and replaced the rear pads, and checked the front. The front pads are fine, but the front caliper has a noticable ability to wobble, and yes the bolt is tight. I am assuming this is a worn guide pin, but I suppose it could be the caliper itself. Is there a bushing in there, I didn't see one on Alldata or the SubaruParts site? Anybody encountered this problem - and if so, what did it take to fix?

I have no idea what the size of the pin or caliper hole should be to tell which one (or if both are bad). When I pulled off the bolt and rotated the caliper up, it didn't want to pull free (like it did on the rear for me to lube it). I didn't want to force it off since this is my daily driver, so I don't have a visual inspection to help with any diagnosis.

Does anybody think this is scary - I've been driving it like this (apparently) for months. When the caliper is loose from the lower bolt and rotated up, I would guess the caliper has 2 or 3 degrees of "wiggle" on the guide pin. I'm assuming it is this "wiggle" that under light breaking is causing the noise.

I have had my calipers out but I have not noticed the wobble. I always take it out to change the pads so that I don't cut the rubber seal putting it back. Can you look at the other side for a comparison? Try subaruparts.com for a better drawing.

the rear has essentially no "wobble". The left front has about half the right side. I know (or at least strongly believe) it's too much play. What I don't want to do is buy guide pins and find out the calipers are a known problem area for wear around the guide pin.

I searched for this problem, but couldn't find any results (of course maybe I didn't use the right words if anybody has a reference, I would appreciate it - as well as advice).

This is probably pretty obvious, but have you checked to make sure the guidepins are tight? Are the pads wearing evenly (I mean each pad)? or is one end of the pad wearing more than the other?