2002 Civic EX brake pad question (failed inspection)

Hey,
I just had my car inspected and was told that my left front brake
failed. All others showed 96-106% on the brake balance. From what I
can make of the summary, it looks like the left front brake force was
0 lbf and the right was 6 lbf (which also is their reported maximum).
The rear look like 1005lbf on left, 996lbf on right.
Called my dealer and drove there immediately. They told me the brake
pad on the left had worn down to 1.5 ?mm and 3 ?mm (not sure if that
is millimeters or centimeters). No comment on the others except to
say they were "fine". The car has 19500 miles on it with mostly city
driving (about 3 miles to work).
The dealership said that it was not unusual for brake pads to need
replacing this early (they quoted 18k-23k with city driving) - is this
right???
Also, what about the huge discrepancy in the left front from the rest
(sorry I don't have precise numbers from the dealer)?
Lastly, they wanted $225 to replace just the brake pads (350 if I
wanted to replace the disk). Should this potentially be covered under
the original warranty as a fault (or should I call around and get a
better deal...or do it myself if anyone can point out a good
information source for how-to).
One more thing, just had the 15k mile check-up 5 months ago, should
this have been picked up then?
Thanks a lot,
E

 

Brakes are a "wear" item and normally the warranty does not cover them, but
to have the brakes on just one wheel worn down like that probably means the
caliper is sticking (not releasing when you take your foot off the brake) or
the pads are simply defective on that wheel.

If your warranty is not yet up, you should be able to argue that they should
fix it for you. An abnormal situation like this should be covered because
normal usage cannot cause this sort of wear unless there is also some sort
of defect present. If the dealer won't budge on it, try calling Honda.

 

Hi

Depending on one's driving style, it could be that pads wear fairly
quickly. I am not suggesting that your driving is such that it eats
pads, but perhaps you encounter more than your average stop signs,
etc. Around 20K really isn't that bad.

Not sure why one pad would be 'fine' and the other totally worn. Pads
are usually replaces as a pair (left and right at the same
time)because they tend to wear similarly. If your dealer is suggesting
to only replace one side, find another dealer - That is really bad
practice.
Also, _replacing_ the disk seems excessive for that kind of milage.
Are you sure they didn't mean "machine" it, which is a common practice
on a good brake job?
Replacing should not really be needed unless there is a problem with
it.

It could one side has a problem: Maybe the brake caliper is not
mounted correctly, maybe the pads were not properly seated, etc.

Can you bring your car to another dealer and see what they say? The
drastically uneven wear should not have happened. They should have
picked that up at 15K, one would think.

If you want to do it yourself, brake pads are not hard to replace.
Perhaps get a Haynes manual for your car and study it -- you should be
able to get a good idea from it what is involved. A first timer should
be able to do it in less than 2 hours, carefully following
instructions, both wheels.

Hope this is of use to you.
Remco

 

The only time I had a pair of brake pads eaten up long before the other side
it was because I failed to lubricate the guide pins in the caliper. The
caliper was jamming and wouldn't release completely.

Mike

 

1. it's covered by warranty. read your owners manual carefully for
confirmation and don't take no for an answer.

2. it can be caused by air in the caliper [unlikely], jammed piston
[likely], jammed caliper slider [likely].

if its a front caliper that's not working, you'd definitely notice a big
effect on steering each time you apply the brake - it'll pull to one
side. if you didn't notice this, you may want to take the car to an
independent dealer get a second opinion, just to be sure.