new 04 accord pulsing brake pedal

Hi,
Just got a new 04 about a week ago. It was a leftover LX.
It has Anti-lock ABS brakes and I started to notice a pulse
in the pedal during braking. Not "slam on the brakes" stops;
just normal slow downs. You know, 60 or so down to 40 mph.
I have never had ABS and wonder if there should be noticeable
brake pedal pulsing. I have had plenty of cars with warped rotors
(lots of them honda, BTW) and the pedal felt about the same;
it's annoying as all get out. This is a new car and has less than
300 miles! I don't want to take it in and "hear that's normal for
ABS." Any 04 accord owners have this problem?

chuck

ps; No, I did not hit a pothole nor did I ever take off a wheel just
to tighten all of the lug lugs on just one side of the wheel. LOL...

 

I have a '04 LX-G (Canadian model) and find the ABS overly aggressive too.
If the roads are at all slippery the ABS kicks in way too early based on my
experience with other ABS equipped cars.

Also I intentionally "tested" the ABS on snow covered roads where one
portion of the road was packed snow and the other loosely packed and I found
the car veered abruptly when I slammed the breaks on (which is what you are
suppose to do with ABS). This was much worse than my crappy Chevy Malibu...
gets me wondering if I should just pull the fuss on the ABS on the Accord...
I'm not too impressed.

 

you may just have a dud rotor. happens occasionally. get it fixed
under warranty.

 

Have you been babying the brakes? They might not be bedded in properly.
Try a couple of hard stops from about 60 MPH. As hard as you can do it
without locking up the wheels and engaging the ABS. If the pulsing is gone
after that, it was just deposits on the rotors from the new pads (which you
just scraped off with the hard stops).

If it still pulses then it is probably a bad rotor as someone has already
suggested.

 

I've heard of some Audis that have a switch to turn off the ABS
for conditions such as loose packed snow or gravel. However - for
most wet and dry conditions, you're probably better off with ABS
on unless you have race driving skills.

 

I've never tested this because neither of our cars has ABS, but you can try
this tip to temporarily disable the ABS:
http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/faq.html#ABS

 

Very cool tip TeGGer! I'll give it a try.

 

Sounds like a rotor warped. This is not normal ABS behavior.

John

 

John,
I ended up taking it into the dealer... they are about 30 miles from
me (w/ DC traffic too; so I was reluctant). It is now do'n fine ... no
pulsing at all. I was just finding it hard to believe ... less than 100
miles
and this? I am none to crazy about shaved rotors... They said they
will replace both if it shows up again.

chuck