05 Accord EX-L Rear Brakes not working ?

I have an 05 Accord EX-L, all disc brakes /EBD. I've had the car since April. I have around 2300 miles on the car. I love everything about it.

What concerns me are my rear brakes. They look as if they are not being used at all. The rear rotors still have the original milling pattern of concentric cirles on them, you can feel this when you rub your fingers on the rotor. I have noticed a few very light rust marks on the rear rotors, there might be more rust however I keep my car parked in a garage so I can not tell if there would be more. It's hard to explain but I would bet if I took a permanent marker and put a mark on each rear rotor, I would bet it would still be there a month from now. The front rotors seem to be working fine. The car braking seems to be fine to me, touchy on occasion, others who have driven the car say the brakes are touchy. I've noticed no error lights on the dash. I wonder if this is light to no wear on the rear rotors is normal?

I know on older cars maybe 70 percent of the braking is done on the front, maybe 30 on the rear. New cars I don't know. I don't know where EBD-Electronic Brake Distribution, comes into play? I wonder if this is working on my car? I also wonder when the rear calipers pinch the rotors on the rear, do they just pinch on one side - the inside where i cannot see ? I also wonder has anyone else noticed this on their accord?

Thanks in advance for any comment and advice.

Pic of rear rotor attached

It appears normal to me. The light rust is a non issue, in fact some mornings they can be completely covered until the first stop. Are you having any braking issues?

...trust me, if they weren't working at all, they'd be completely covered with rust - most brake rotors develop a thin coating of rust overnight if there's even the slightest hint of moisture in the air, one of the reasons your first stop of the day may sound a bit noisy is the pads are 'grinding' that rust build-up away...

cheers,

Lorne Miller Victoria BC
05 Accord EX-L deep green pearl with ivory
96 Odyssey taffeta white with sage
99 EL clover green pearl with ivory (now my son's)

First, welcome to the forum, MikeNjax904!! :wave:

You live in a humid place & there's always going to be a some rust....garaged or not. If you had more wear at the low mileage you have it would be of more concern that what I see in the picture. It looks normal to me.

If I don't drive mine after washing, the first time out I get a nasty growl...from rust. Now I've done the WAY TOO many times, which caused a problem with the parallelism & needed them resurfaced. Front & rear about 8 months apart...it's all in another thread.

The brakes on the 7 gen ARE touchy... it's the lack of the old 70/30 front/rear way of braking.

No worrries....enjoy your Accord!!
:D

Welcome, MikeNjax904! :wave:

How long after a drive did you take this pic? Do you do mostly highway driving?

I haven't dug into the schematics for the brakes on the Accord, but the brakes are usually cross-linked. The LF and RR brakes work at the same time and the RF and LR brakes. The EBD just helps the car stop straighter and with the same deceleration at and vehicle load, so it probably adjusts each brake individually. Just compare with the other side's brakes and the fronts.. If it looks the same, then I wouldn't be that concerned. Brake rotors are pretty durable items that should last through many years. As long as you can stop good and the ABS or Brake lights don't come on while driving, you're ok. :thmsup:

...trust me, if they weren't working at all, they'd be completely covered with rust - most brake rotors develop a thin coating of rust overnight if there's even the slightest hint of moisture in the air)

Agreed...the entire rotor face will rust just from washing your car, too... the pads are contacting the rotor adequately to keep them clean.

Rear brakes do about 20-30% of the work, and often last well over 100k miles... that's why drum/ disk argument in the rear doesn't fly....
You'll notice your front wheels get dirty w/brake dust, but the rear doesn't... totally normal.

I agree with everyone else.
We see that all the time on our '04 Accord.

Welcome to a fellow Floridian. :thmsup:

My rear brakes have that same milling pattern as yours but no rust. There is some splotchiness (is that a word? :D ) but no rust.

Thanks everone for the Welcome to the forum and thanks to those who have replied to my posting. It gives me some peace of mind to think that my brake issue, is maybe a non - issue.

I just notice that the front rotors have completely worn away that milling pattern and are always very silver, and the rears still have the pattern and always seem to have the rust splotchiness in the same places. The rears have never been totally silver in color like the front, but I guess with most of the braking done on the front of the car they would not be? That pic in my original posting was taken right after a drive.

Must be my imagination or maybe a bit of overprotectiveness.

I have also read that the brakes are crosslinked, so I guess for both rears not to work, both fronts would not also. Thanks for the info.

Thanks again everyone. Great forum!