2003 Accord Brake Problems

I have a 2003 Accord V-6, manual transmission, that just turned over 30,000
miles, and the brakes are terrible. I am taking it in next week for rotor
work, and this will be the third time the rotors have been machined. And, to
add insult to injury, I have to pay for it. Honda says they will only
machine them twice under warranty. Plus, the lights in my radio went out,
and the passenger side door luck is not working. This is my fourth Honda,
and I have never had this kind of bad luck before. I hope this is not the
beginning of more problems.

Steve

 

suggest you try a different shop. seriously. i've been to places where
the car's fine before it goes in, and comes out with brakes shuddering
like sob's. all they did was remove wheels for a visual inspection.
the reason for the problem is that the hub & rotor assembly on the honda
is relatively light weight [a good thing], but it means it can
elastically distort if the wheel's not fitted right. when the wheel is
re-attached, it needs to be torqued in a two-stage [or more] process,
1324, 1324 for bolt sequence, with the wheel off the ground for at least
the first torque stage. in my case, simply removing & re-torquing the
wheels makes the problem disappear again, but this may not happen for
you because if the disks have already been machined twice, they're
getting thin and are much more likely to have alignment errors each time
they go to the cutting machine.

for the future, do /not/ allow anyone to machine your disks unless
they're badly scored, especially not for a 30k mile car. it simply
shows they're "one remedy cures all" thinkers that don't know what
they're doing. if the disks /do/ need machining, consider replacement
instead. online, good quality brembo disks are about $50 each. go to
tegger.com and check out his excellent guide on how to do this simple
job yourself. or find a good independent honda specialist.

 

I had to replace the front rotors on my '03 Accord after one attempt at
turning them. On mine it seemed that there was some kind of residual
stress left when they were manufactured and the rotors would rapidly
warp again after being turned.

I put new Raybestos brand rotors on mine and it cured the problem.

Overall I have not been impressed with the quality of my Honda. Rattles
have never been fixed, transmission replaced under warranty, brake
problems, etc.

Honda has not lived up to it's reputation in the case of my car.

John

 

That's not a usual situation. you probably had defective parts.

Typical of most cars these days. And it'll get worse.

That's a bad one. Honda has lost probably millions fixing those.

Honda brakes are fragile and require much servicing to keep at their peak.
I have had worse experiences with aftermarket, since the design is still
the same.

I'm not sure I'd buy another Honda again, actually. My '91 'Teg impresses
me more than the new offerings. And now Honda wants to stuff every car with
even more airbags /and/ ABS, no matter how low-priced the model. Where's
the money gonna come from? They can't just raise the price to pay for it
all, they've got to cheapen the rest of the car. NOT good.

 

Frankly, I'm not optimistic. Volvo went through a similar period in the
early '90s and hasn't produced a reliable car since. People who bought the
'93 Volvo 850 could expect to replace the transmission ($3000) and the A/C
evaporator ($2000) at their own expense within 5 years. Failing to rev the
engine regularly led to sticking and burned valves ($1000). It was Volvo's
first FWD car and their first computer controlled car - there were many
problems with the door locking system developing a mind of its own. Sheesh.

We can hope Honda gets back on track.

Mike

 

The fact that Honda extended the warranty on V6 4-speed automatics and
issued a recall for 5-speed automatics is reason to believe that Honda has
lived up to its reputation. At least they acknowledge major problems like
this and work to fix them. You cannot say that for some Fords and Crapslers
that have higher rates of tranny failure than Honda.

As for the rattles, you can thank the environmental pussies who convinced
the governments to mandate a bunch of regulations to satisfy their
tree-hugging needs--among them, the use of hard plastics. I know people
with some newer Toyotas and Fords that have these rattles and squeaks too.
Just be thankful that it won't leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere
like a Ford or Crapsler.

 

Honda has one advantage: It's not owned by Ford...

 

LOL, I had a '96 Volvo 850 which I replaced with the Honda in part
because I was hoping for a more reliable car. So far at 38,000 miles my
'03 Accord has had far more problems than the '96 Volvo had by the
same point in it's life!

John

 

Volvo's problems predate the Ford purchase, and it is still beside the
point. Recent Hondas do not exhibit the "bulletproof" reliability which
all of the press still attributest to them.

John

 

BS. Recently I drove my friend's 30,000 mile '04 Chevy Impala and it is
as quiet as you could hope for. Not all modern vehicles rattle like
crazy. I have fixed some of the problems with my Honda myself and it is
always a matter of assemble-it-like-a-Mattel-toy construction.

Stop blaming environmental laws for everything.

John

 

I don't blame them for everything, but this is one for which we can.
Because of all the environmental, safety and emissions regulations, hard
plastics are being used to offset those added costs. I'm sure Tegger could
provide more info.

BTW, perhaps your actual problem is not your car; maybe it's your dealer.
Try another dealer to see if they can fix those rattles.