[AccordSoCal]

I was getting a little vibration from the front brakes at high speeds so when the service minder said it was time to go in I had them check it out.

They looked at the brakes and said the front rotors were a little warped which caused the vibration, and the front pads were shot. They replaced the pads and surfaced the rotors under warranty due to the low miles, even though brake pads are usually not covered under warranty.

I drive 100 miles a day in some of Southern California's worst traffic. But 12K miles seems a little too soon for the brakes to be worn. I actually have only had the car since mid April. I usually get 30K on a set of brakes with other cars.

Has anyone else experienced this? Does this mean I should expect to replace the brakes again at 24-25K?

 

[StreetLethal100]

You must have left your E brake slightly on without knowing it ; )

 

[oOKhanhOo]

Not a single problem with mine.. Almost at 13k. Do ride on the brakes? When you're going down hills?

Or spray the rotor with water when it's spray hot?

Or the caliper are stuck/sticky


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[karfreek]

There is a good chance the brakes were not warped but had pad material stuck to them from the start/stop traffic. This will feel a lot like a severly warped rotor when the brake is applied at speed.

Jay

 

[Hogan773]

Maybe the dealer just screwed you into paying for pad replacement when you didn't need it. Easy target when a customer complains....easy sale of some pads and labor to install them. If they were turning the rotors anyway they had the wheels off so it took them about 3 minutes to "install" some new pads.

Unless you personally measured the thickness of your pads, I wouldn't assume it is certain that they were indeed "shot"

 

[StreetLethal100]

In all seriousness. The heat may be doing it. Your not only riding your brakes in traffic, but the pavement is hot from traffic and the sun.

Its a little late now, but you may want to try ceramic pads instead to see if it helps with the heat a bit. Its totally a waste of money on a new car, but soemtimes aftermarket rotors are better than stock and can deal with higher heat temps.

Otherwise, try bleeding your brake fluid and replacing with fresh fluid (dot 4). Sometimes if the fluid heats and cools a lot, it may not retract as well.

Just as a random idea... try taking the brake fluid cap off the car, and pumping the brakes a few times. See if it helps to release any bubbles or rough spots. Taking the cover off may let it breath a bit better.

Otherwise, I really dont know what it burns brakes so fast. I know the 8th gens used to burn rear pads too fast and I think there was a TSB for it.

 

[DevilDogDoc]

You must have left your E brake slightly on without knowing it ; )

Really? On the front brakes?

Maybe the dealer just screwed you into paying for pad replacement when you didn't need it. Easy target when a customer complains....easy sale of some pads and labor to install them. If they were turning the rotors anyway they had the wheels off so it took them about 3 minutes to "install" some new pads.

Unless you personally measured the thickness of your pads, I wouldn't assume it is certain that they were indeed "shot"

They replaced them under warranty....

 

[Hogan773]

Really? On the front brakes?


They replaced them under warranty....

So what.....dealer doesn't "eat" those charges right? They get reimbursed from Honda somehow. Who knows. Just sounds crazy since I thought OEM Honda pads lasted a long time. On the Odyssey people are talking about them lasting 35k to as much as 80k on original pads and rotors.

 

[DevilDogDoc]

Yeah but the OP didn't get screwed by the dealer by paying for the pad R&R which is what you said. If the shaft Honda for it that's another story altogether...

 

[RickBlaine]

In all seriousness. The heat may be doing it. Your not only riding your brakes in traffic, but the pavement is hot from traffic and the sun.

Stop and go traffic is killer on front brakes. The rotors become super heated, little to no air flow to cool them, and then the pad material gets heated too.

Otherwise, try bleeding your brake fluid and replacing with fresh fluid (dot 4). Sometimes if the fluid heats and cools a lot, it may not retract as well.

ONLY use Honda brake fluid in a Honda car. Especially one under warranty. And change it every 2 years as brake fluid is hygroscopic- it attracts water.

Just as a random idea... try taking the brake fluid cap off the car, and pumping the brakes a few times. See if it helps to release any bubbles or rough spots. Taking the cover off may let it breath a bit better.

The only way to remove air from a brake system is to BLEED the brakes- not remove the cover.

Otherwise, I really dont know what it burns brakes so fast. I know the 8th gens used to burn rear pads too fast and I think there was a TSB for it.

Pad material deposited on a brake rotor and left to cool will cause "warped rotor" feel. In an extreme example, race cars have to be left in neutral after a few laps with the brakes off in order to not fuse brake pad material to the rotor. Dealers won't turn your rotors at this point, they will replace as it is higher profit. And since they are giving you new rotors, they will give you new pads.

 

[JohnnySasakiMGS]

Brakes are a friction device. They will not last X amount of miles. I can drive like a grandma for 30kmi+ on a set of pads. Or I can go for a few laps on the Nürburgring and burn em' up in a day. You can warp rotors if brakes are super hot and you park the car.

 

[c7oud]

isn't disk warped cause by driver driving style?

 

[AccordSoCal]

Just to clarify, the dealer did say they turned the rotors, not replaced them.

It has been pretty hot here over the last month. That being said I have been driving the same route with the same traffic, and the same driving style for several years and have never gone through a set of pads this fast or warped a rotor.

I do sometimes drive a little fast, but usually on the rare occasion of open highway, so not using the brakes too much.

I may try to be extra easy on them before arriving home/work just to be sure they are not hot when parking.

If this set goes as fast I may look into some aftermarket pads/rotors.

Thanks for the input.

 

[thirteensport]

You must have left your E brake slightly on without knowing it ; )

The E brake is rear only. The driver is getting on the brakes too hard. That's why the rotors warped. Leave more braking distance in front of you !

 

[RickBlaine]

I can't believe the dangerous, and quite frankly, just plain bad advice given on this forum....

1) The driver is not "getting on the brakes too hard." That is not the cause of his "warped" rotors.
2) The emergency brakes lock up the rear brakes ONLY, not all four brakes.
3) "Cut" or turned rotors are more prone to warping, as they are now thinner and have less cooling abilities, and less life.
4) Is does not matter if the outside temp is 80 degrees F or 100 degrees F.
5) As Johnny stated- you can burn up pads in a day easily- you can also "warp" rotors easily. Search for "Eric the Car Guy" on Youtube and LEARN! "Warped" rotors are not usually actually warped. As stated, they have brake pad material deposited on them (from running through stop and go traffic for an hour and/or repeated rapid hard braking from 100 mph+ and coming to a complete stop THEN parking the car) which makes it feel as though they are warped. Real warped rotors can happen if they are hot, and you drive through a $5 car wash. Cold water on hot iron rotors will warp them.

I had a twin turbo all-wheel drive beast that ate pads in about two hours while auto-crossing. I could hit 130mph on the straight away, and had to slow down to about 15 mph to make the 120 degree turn. 2 minutes later, I did it again. After 2 hours of this, rotors were red hot, fluid was ruined, and pads had nothing left.

 

[imbln]

I was getting a little vibration from the front brakes at high speeds so when the service minder said it was time to go in I had them check it out.

They looked at the brakes and said the front rotors were a little warped which caused the vibration, and the front pads were shot. They replaced the pads and surfaced the rotors under warranty due to the low miles, even though brake pads are usually not covered under warranty.

I drive 100 miles a day in some of Southern California's worst traffic. But 12K miles seems a little too soon for the brakes to be worn. I actually have only had the car since mid April. I usually get 30K on a set of brakes with other cars.

Has anyone else experienced this? Does this mean I should expect to replace the brakes again at 24-25K?

same for me. Rear brake pad unevenly used after 10 000 miles. All rotors were wraped (brake pad material on disc not really wraped). Dealer turned all 4 disc on the car and replace rear pads under warranty. Since then (5000 miles) everything is perfect. No vibration at all.


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[JacobP]

"Warped" rotors is not uncommon. This can come and go away on its own if the cause was uneven brake pad material deposits. However, worn out brake pads at 12K miles is very unusual. Did Honda use cheap brake pads or something? Normally the OEM brake pads last very long, with lost of them designed for longevity and little dust, at the expense of a little weaker bite.

 

[tripplesix]

...Real warped rotors can happen if they are hot, and you drive through a $5 car wash...

 

[Rocket_man]

I was getting a little vibration from the front brakes at high speeds so when the service minder said it was time to go in I had them check it out.

They looked at the brakes and said the front rotors were a little warped which caused the vibration, and the front pads were shot. They replaced the pads and surfaced the rotors under warranty due to the low miles, even though brake pads are usually not covered under warranty.

I drive 100 miles a day in some of Southern California's worst traffic. But 12K miles seems a little too soon for the brakes to be worn. I actually have only had the car since mid April. I usually get 30K on a set of brakes with other cars.

Has anyone else experienced this? Does this mean I should expect to replace the brakes again at 24-25K?

Vibration, pulsing, etc while braking is not uncommon on Honda cars, Acura too since they use similar if not the same parts. But there is massive confusion on the cause of this problem. People tend to jump to the conclusion that somehow these thick cast iron rotors have warped because they overheated. If you take the time to put an IR thermometer to your rotors (as I have) you will find they don't get that hot. No you don't want to touch them, but compared to the temperature it would take to make them soft enough to warp they are still pretty cool. Cast iron melts at nearly 3,000F. The working temp of your rotors is only a few hundred degrees and they cool pretty quickly. Truly warped rotors are pretty uncommon. As others have pointed out, 99 times out of 100 this is caused from uneven deposit of pad material on the rotor which cause the brakes to grip, slip, grip, slip, quickly which feels like a pulsation of the brakes.

When people take cars into dealerships with this common compliant I suspect it is hard to explain this to customers. They don't understand, or don't believe the dealership knows what they are talking about. Replacing the pads and turning the rotors does fix the problem (because you mechanically remove the pad material on the rotors), but at the cost of unnecessary work. That is either charged as warranty or to the customer. Either way the customer drives off with brakes that no longer pulsate and are happy... until it happens again which is very likely because the driver's habits and driving routes / traffic do not change.

Did you actually look at your pads and determine if they were 'shot?' I'd bet they had plenty of life left in them.

Next time this happens, first try to re-bed your pads on the rotors. This should (if done properly) distribute an even layer of pad material on the rotor and the brakes won't pulsate. There are plenty of instructions on how to do this if you google it. It is bound to happen again because the way you drive and the traffic you drive in is not likely to change. Different kinds of pads may be a long term solution.

 

[mikeyd914]

honda has been known to have a horrible braking system with many accords/tsx's etc.

they never fixed the problem with the 9th gens either.


my solution was to say screw OEM equipment and go aftermarket.


aftermarket is a HUGE improvement, i bought cross drilled/slotted rotors from powerstop along with the z16 brake pads and the braking power such an improvement its rediuclous, not to mention how awesome they look