Warped Rotors

This just doesn't seem normal. I have an '02 Accord. Replaced brake pads at 10,905 miles, had to cut down warped rotors and replace pads at 25,080 miles, and just yesterday at 39,457 miles had to replace the pads and have the warped rotors replaced (too thin to cut again). Service manager said it was normal. Right! This doesn't seem like normal wear and tear. Comments please!

 

No. I had a 99 LX with 30k on it and no brake pad replacement. My 01
Prelude went through the 30k check -- no brake pads. Dealer tells me they
will likely make it to 60k.

at 10,905 miles, had to cut down warped rotors and replace pads at 25,080
miles, and just yesterday at 39,457 miles had to replace the pads and have
the warped rotors replaced (too thin to cut again). Service manager said it
was normal. Right! This doesn't seem like normal wear and tear. Comments
please!

 

Why? If they were worn out at that milage, something is wrong.

A waste of time and money. Never turn Honda rotors.
If they're bad, replace them.

Too thin to cut in the first place.

You can go two ways. The first is to buy cheapo rotors and pads and
replace them often. Do it yourself, it's not that hard.
The second way is to buy top quality aftermarket rotors and pads.
What usage do your brakes get? Do you drive steep mountain roads?
Do you charge stopsigns like an angry bull? Do you drive in salt-laden
slush?

And stay away from dealers. Find a good independent mechanic who owns
his own shop, in as obscure a location as possible. Somebody who has
to do good work because he gets no walk-in business. Go to dealers for
parts and warranty work only.

 

Honda is clearly not at Toyota level, regarding brakes.

My Accord 99 had a few issues regarding brakes.

In 70000 miles, I am on my third set of front/read pads. Never changed a
rotor, though.

Last set of front pads (OEM Honda) lasted only 22000 miles. Now I am
trying el cheap organic pads at a third of Honda price. Being softer,
chances are that it will save my rotor for a while. I always felt a slight
pulsation when braking from 50mph. Not unbearable.

My last set of rear pads seem to tough longer this time. Where the pads are
installed on the galiber, there are two copper shims (up and down). Make
sure that they are cleaned and lubed. I suspect this to be the reason why
my rear brakes are doing so well. Also check is the wheel is really free
and can be turned easily by hand. It was mentionned to never cut rotor
because it is a waste of time; this is my opinion as well. Replace them if
they vibrate too much.

at 10,905 miles, had to cut down warped rotors and replace pads at 25,080
miles, and just yesterday at 39,457 miles had to replace the pads and have
the warped rotors replaced (too thin to cut again). Service manager said it
was normal. Right! This doesn't seem like normal wear and tear. Comments
please!

 

I would have the REAR brakes checked for proper operation.
Especially if you are noticing a the big difference in the amount
of brake dust accumulating on your front wheels, compared to the
rear. Often we find front rotor problems can be attributed to
the rears not being properly adjusted, particularly if the
vehicle is assembled with rear drum brakes, resulting in the
front brakes doing more than their share of the work and over
heating. During routine service intervals we make it a point to
always adjust the brakes, which has helped reduce that problem.


mike hunt

 

Had the same problem on my 99 Prelude. My local dealership told me I
must drive my car pretty hard (perhaps...). Anyway, after speaking to a
few mechanics, one thing they all commented on is that the break-in
period of new brakes is important and that when taking off/putting back
on wheels, the lugs should always be hand torqued (use a torque wrench).
Notice that most shops (including Honda dealerships) will use their
air gun to torque the lug on (NOT GOOD). Torquing the lug by hand
ensure that you don't apply excessive force and that you apply even
force on all the lugs (and therefore on the whole disk).

BTW. I believe that most Honda's require 80 ft/lb for the lugs. Check
your owner's manual.

 

quoth thusly in

This is nonsense. Front brakes on ANY car will generate the bulk of the
stopping power. Some vehicles, particularly German RWD ones, will generate
substantially more front brake dust than rear, and that's with the brakes
operating correctly.

So you pull the handbrake up and down a few times. Big deal.


Front rotor problems are mainly due to these factors:
1) Repeated aggressive braking
2) Aftermarket pads too hard
3) Seized pads
4) Seized calipers
5) Seized pistons
6) Rotors with insufficient heat-sink mass due to machining or design
7) Combination of the above.

 

I'm inclined to agree. The rear discs on my GSR can hardly beat their
way out of a paper bag, figuratively speaking.

I would also add to your list the make-a-buck practice of persuading
drivers that their rotors need turning when they damn well don't!

But do you not subscribe to the 'overtorquing of lugnuts with an
impact wrench' theory that one hears? Someone in a newsgroup
challenged me on that one a while back and I hope to get around to
some experiments with a dial guage one of these days to see if that's
just an automotive urban legend.

Your thoughts?

 

Can you say "Midas"?

I'm sure some cars are prone to this, but it would have to be due to the
design of the rotor and hub. Hondas are not among them.

Every time I get the car back from the dealer, and they've had the wheels
off for whatever reason, the nut torque is all over the place. Some I
practically have to stand on the wrench to crack them loose, others spin
with the lightest push. The nuts have been left like that for extended
periods. My rotors are not warped.

Our new '99 Tercel suffers from the same fate. When we got the car, all the
nuts were all over the place as well, and that car's brakes are smoother
than mine.

So no, I do not subscribe to that theory.

 

That does seem really often to me. A couple quick questions.

Do you drive city or racing miles or is this on the highway?

Are you having the work done by a dealer?

I don't know if this helps but I just had my water pump replaced on my 93 civic.
Suprise suprise, while they were under there they noticed that my pads needed
replacing and my rotors needed turning.

Of course at 150K miles the pads probably did need replacing by I did that my
self and didn't worry about the rotor. Still works great.

If you're going to a dealer it may be that is just the standard "repair" they
suggest on all cars that come in for service.

 

Very true. Most Hondas are 80 ft/lb. You have to be very careful with this
since most garages and backyard mechanics probably grew up with GM cars
which are nearly all torqued to 100 ft/lb.

I caught a mechanic about to do that with my Civic. I saw him reach for one
of those preset torque attachments for a impact gun that starts to slip at a
certain torque point. I asked him if he knew how much to torque the wheels
and he said, "yeah 100, why?" He was pretty surprised when I told him that
Hondas only torque to 80. I wouldn't be surprised if even the dealers
didn't do it right. Bunch of lazy bums. Then mechanics wonder why no one
respects them or their profession.

pads at 10,905 miles, had to cut down warped rotors and replace pads at
25,080 miles, and just yesterday at 39,457 miles had to replace the pads and
have the warped rotors replaced (too thin to cut again). Service manager
said it was normal. Right! This doesn't seem like normal wear and tear.
Comments please!

 

I've just visited your website and find that the link in the text
"For fault finding instructions here's a good site " is
regrettably no longer working.

Do you know where the owner may have located his
site currently?

I'm suffering from the same problem of hot restart but
the fuel pump runs every time I switch the ignition on.

[I run the British Rover 216 GSi which is the SOHC
1.6L Honda PGM-FI engine.]

Can you give me your working email addy too, pse.
The one on the FAQ page doesn't work.

Thanks

 

It just worked for me when I tried it.

Does the engine catch at all? Maybe stumble and then die?
Or doesn't it even fart? You might have ignition problems if it won't
even try.

I've moved across the country and haven't got my website up and
working. I dunno why Rogers hasn't shut my old website down, I
haven't paid them any money since April.

 

wow, you really are a moron.

 

On FWD cars, the front brakes do damn near all the braking. "Mike
Hunt" is a moron.

 

I'd have thought that as well, but I had to replace my bad brakes at 90K
while I'm still running the original front brakes at 115k on my 2000
Accord EX.V6.

 

That should have read - I had to replace my back brakes at 90K, while
I'm still running the original front brakes at 115k on my 2000 Accord
EX.V6.

 

They do damn near all the braking on RWD cars too. Under braking the
weight of a car shifts forward, sometimes to the point that the rear
wheels lift off the ground on cars with poor weight distribution.

Yeah, but what did you have to replace, and why?
The pads? The rotors? Both? Because they are doing more work or
because they are back there in the spray and maybe the salt? Or
because the park brake cable stuck and left the pads dragging?

 

..
Replaced pads (outside pads reportedly ok, but inside pads almost metal
to metal) and resurfaced rotors.

 

If the pads are disproportionately wearing, you are not servicing
you brake properly. If the wear is being sustained by one pad,
the calipers are not free. The calipers should be free to
'float' so that both pads are doing the braking.


mike hunt