Wear compensating return spring for floating caliper disc brake shoes

A floating-caliper disc brake, in particular for automotive vehicles, including a rotary brake disc, a fixed brake carrier adjacent said brake disc brake shoes, each brake shoe comprising a backing plate and a friction lining fixed thereto, said brake shoes positioned respectively on either side of said brake disc, and mounted to be axially movable towards and away from said brake disc, a brake caliper which straddles said brake shoes and an outer edge of said brake disc and which is axially slidingly supported on said brake carrier, an actuatable brake piston mounted in said brake caliper adjacent and facing one side of said of said brake shoes, said brake caliper including a supporting surface on the other side of said other brake shoe, an elongated spring element extending across both of said brake shoes and compressed lengthwise between said brake piston and said brake caliper supporting surface, said spring element including a pair of arm portions, each arm portion located at a respective end of said spring element, each arm portion engaging a carrier plate of a respective one of said brake shoes and exerting a retracting force thereon upon releasing actuation of said brake piston, said spring element elastically deformed by an actuating stroke of said brake piston, said elastic deformation limited to that occuring by a predetermined actuating stroke, which actuating stroke corresponds to a combined normal clearance of both said brake shoes with said brake disc, said spring element including a section plastically deformed if said elastic actuating stroke exceeds said predetermined actuating stroke producing an elastic deformation of said spring element.