40K Miles on my car and I need a brake job. Normal?

[Winston Smith]

I've ranted about this to my two coworkers, and they both agree that brakes at 40,000 miles is about normal (that's 64,000 kilometers, if you're into that sort of thing). It just seems crazy to me - the last time I had to do brakes on a car was about 15 years ago.

Do they just not build 'em like they used to?




Get off my lawn! Damned kids.

[Phlosphr]

What kind of car do your have Winston? Manual, or automatic? Heavy or light vehicle?

40k is about right to have the pads replaced, maybe a little young to have the whole shabang done, rotors, drums etc..etc...

[Winston Smith]

It's a 2004 Honda Accord 4-door, auto, with the regular 4 cylinder motor (the LX model). So you think this is normal, eh? I'm peevish about this, at best.

[Kalhoun]

Sounds normal to me. If you do city stop-and-go driving, it can be even more frequent, depending on how you drive.

[NurseCarmen]

Stop and go traffic, eh? 40 isn't bad at all. Just pads and turning the rotors?

[Winston Smith]

I'm not sure what the damage is going to be yet. I noticed them grinding last week, and today's the first chance I've had to get the car to the shop. Those theiving bastards at Honda are straight away going to charge me $95 for an oil change and diagnostics. I'm anticipating another $200-$300 when all is said and done. Bah.

[Hal Briston]

Those theiving bastards at Honda are straight away going to charge me $95 for an oil change and diagnostics.95 bucks? I hope "diagnostics" is a euphemism for "a blowjob".

[Uncommon Sense]

Stop and go traffic, eh? 40 isn't bad at all. Just pads and turning the rotors?
Won't be turning the rotors if they're already grinding. Prabably looking at new rotors and pads. Non-Educated guess is about $40 for the pads and $120 for the rotors (both). About an hours worth of labor at $80? You're looking at a minimum of $240....

I just replaced the front rotors and pads on my '96 Explorer and the parts were about $115 for everything (mid-grade stuff, not high end) and it only took my non-mechanic ass an hour to do both front wheels.

The difficult part about doing this stuff yourself is just having the right tools. If you had the tools I'd recommend trying it yourself, it isn't all that hard to do.

[Eureka]

I "needed" a brake job at 30 K miles on my 2000 Saturn(two years ago). Given that I'm generally a pretty low mileage driver, with much of my mileage coming in town on short drives, I opted to just let them do it at that point, rather than investigate a second opinion. I had no brake problems, but had taken the car in for a routine oil change.

[bump]

Won't be turning the rotors if they're already grinding. Prabably looking at new rotors and pads. Non-Educated guess is about $40 for the pads and $120 for the rotors (both). About an hours worth of labor at $80? You're looking at a minimum of $240....

I just replaced the front rotors and pads on my '96 Explorer and the parts were about $115 for everything (mid-grade stuff, not high end) and it only took my non-mechanic ass an hour to do both front wheels.

The difficult part about doing this stuff yourself is just having the right tools. If you had the tools I'd recommend trying it yourself, it isn't all that hard to do.


What special tools does a '96 Explorer need anyway? My 95 Ranger only needed a 13(14?)mm wrench, and a little bleeder wrench (7mm?) to do the front pads, and I don't think the rotors would have taken much more... *maybe* a drift or something if you were replacing the bearing races as well.

Rear drum brakes... those take that weird-ass tool, but it's only like $10, and is available at every Auto Zone, CarQuest, O'Reillys, Advance & Pep Boys on the face of the earth.

Older GM cars needed a weirdly sized hex key to remove the calipers in front, but the rear brakes just needed the same rear brake tool.


Disc (Front) brakes = Easy.

Drum (Rear) Brakes = Kind of difficult.

[Jeff]

Newer Accords are notorious for this IIRC - the brake pads that come with the car wear out very fast. My dad bought an 04 Accord and had the same problem.

[NurseCarmen]

Won't be turning the rotors if they're already grinding.The grinding noise may actually be the telltales in the pads announcing they need replacement. They are made to make noise, but do little actual damage.

[Winston Smith]

The grinding noise may actually be the telltales in the pads announcing they need replacement. They are made to make noise, but do little actual damage.

That's what I thought. Let's keep our fingers crossed, shall we?

[Uncommon Sense]

What special tools does a '96 Explorer need anyway?
None, really. I said right tools, not special ones. A 13 mill socket falls squarely in the realm of 'right' tools.

My 95 Ranger only needed a 13(14?)mm wrench, and a little bleeder wrench (7mm?) to do the front pads, and I don't think the rotors would have taken much more... *maybe* a drift or something if you were replacing the bearing races as well.I don't use a bleeder wrench, I use a big-ass C-clamp to compress the caliper.

Rear drum brakes... those take that weird-ass tool, but it's only like $10, and is available at every Auto Zone, CarQuest, O'Reillys, Advance & Pep Boys on the face of the earth.
I know, I didn't realise the emergency brake pads prevented the drum/disk from being removed when I did the rears a couple years ago.

Older GM cars needed a weirdly sized hex key to remove the calipers in front, but the rear brakes just needed the same rear brake tool.
Right, got one of them too, when I owned a Baretta.

Disc (Front) brakes = Easy.

Drum (Rear) Brakes = Kind of difficult.
True, true.

[Uncommon Sense]

That's what I thought. Let's keep our fingers crossed, shall we?

All you have to do is bend over and put an eye down there. You can see if there are ruts on the rotors just by looking.
I'm not even sure if they'll turn rotors anymore, for any reason.

[Rick]

All you have to do is bend over and put an eye down there. You can see if there are ruts on the rotors just by looking.
I'm not even sure if they'll turn rotors anymore, for any reason.
You won't see if the inner face is torn up. There a fifty fifty chance that will not be able to see the damage this way.

[ParentalAdvisory]

I'm not even sure if they'll turn rotors anymore, for any reason.

Of course they do. As long as the rotor is within spec, they can be turned.

[Rick]

Of course they do. As long as the rotor is within spec, they can be turned.
Again not necessarily. Some car makers warn against turning rotors as it can and often does lead to vibration problems.
I don't believe Honda is one of those makes, but if his brakes have been metal to metal for a week, quite likely there is not enough left to turn and have the rotor be serviceable.

[Ravenman]

It just seems crazy to me - the last time I had to do brakes on a car was about 15 years ago.Having one's brakes serviced every 150,000 miles or so sounds EXTREMELY crazy to me.

When I lived in the lovely hills around San Francisco, I'd get around 15,000 miles to a set of brake pads. Maybe 20,000. It really threw off my sense of what normal wear on brakes ought to be.

[ralph124c]

Your driving habits have a lot to do with brake wear. I have a SATURN (manual transmission); my brakes lasted 64,000 miles. My wife has a SATURN Ion; she drives mostly stop-and-go, and has an automatic-her's lasted 36,000 miles. A manual tranny helps because the engine does a lot of the braking for you. I wonder about hybrid-electric cars-does the regenerative braking keep the brake wear down?

[ParentalAdvisory]

Again not necessarily. Some car makers warn against turning rotors as it can and often does lead to vibration problems.
I don't believe Honda is one of those makes, but if his brakes have been metal to metal for a week, quite likely there is not enough left to turn and have the rotor be serviceable.

I hear ya. This probably applies to the compact cars more so then say a Caprice or a full sized pickup. The thinner they are, well sometimes it's justifiable to spend the small spread in $$ to get new rotors compared to the cost of turning them. Something like my car, it's worth it because they're meaty and costly to replace because of size and not to mention the bearing cups that add to the cost in making them in the first place. It's about $10 to turn them at Napa, and about $40+ to replace.

[dynamitedave]

I've got a '92 Nissan Navara, which I bought in 1999 when it'd done 120,000 km (72,000 miles). I don't know what it's previous service history was. I've had it serviced every 10000km by an ex Nissian Service Manager. It's done 349,000km (209,000 miles) now. Apart from a fluid change, I've had no other brake work done. The last 3 services, I've been told I'll get another 10,000 km out of the front brakes :D As the disks need to be replaced, I've been told to just keep going until the pads are about touching and they'll replace the lot.

Here, autos are required to past a safety check (for the age of my ute every 6 months), part of which is a brake test. Passes every time, last test 3 months ago.

With my gear loaded on, my ute is over 2 tonne, and I often tow an unbraked trailer which is usually well over the unbraked rating for my vehicle. Driving is a mix of stop/go, motorway and highway. Speed limits here are 100kmh (highway/motorway) (90 with trailer), 50kmh in towns, with various 60-90 limits too :rolleyes:

My vehicle's done at least 137,000 miles on the same brakes, maybe 209,000 miles.

[Winston Smith]

Front brakes had <15% pad remaining, so I had them replaced, and they resurfaced the rotors. The rear brakes had +/-60%, but had some corrosion (we didn't drive the Honda much before I wrecked our primary car (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=406577)). So they resurfaced the rears, too. Plus I got the oil changed.

Brakes: $354.45
Oil Change: $45.00

Grand Total: $399.45

The car is a lease, and the lease is up in August. I was originally planning to turn it in, but by then I'll be over miles by about 10K (10,000 X $.15 = $1,500), and now I've had to service it, so I'm leaning towards buying it when the lease is up. My buy-out is $8,000. A bargain, really, for a well-maintained 3-year-old Accord with 40,000 miles on it.

[Nava]

I don't know what exactly did your brake job entitle, but my car had its 60K km shortly before moving to Switzerland and it included a lot of work on the brakes. It's regular brakework, I'm supposed to get the same at 120K.

While it was "as per Toyota's instructions," I had been noticing a certain wobble which did disappear, so it looks like the engineer who created that schedule was paying attention.

My car was a "demo" which I bought with 10K km on it, so those are 10K km of bad driving.

[crazyjoe]

45 bucks for an oil change? I hope you got synthetic. Out here, even dealership oil changes don't cost more than 30 bucks.

[Winston Smith]

45 bucks for an oil change? I hope you got synthetic. Out here, even dealership oil changes don't cost more than 30 bucks.

Yes, synthetic motor oil, plus they "give it the once over". They check and top off all the fluids, inspect the belts, vacuum and wash the car, spray air freshner in it, and get rid of any dead hookers that might be in the trunk. Yeah, it costs a few bucks extra, but it's worth it. Plus, last time I brought it to JiffyLube, they didn't tighten the oil filter enough and it leaked oil on my driveway. Ballbags.

[tashabot]

Yeesh. $350 for brakes?

I'm a cheapskate. I'd have just slapped some more pads on by myself. Usually run about $20 - $40, depending on the car.

Tune ups I'll pay for. Oil changes I'll pay for. Brakes? No way, jose. I know how to fix 'em myself and I save myself - apparently - more than $300 by doing it that way.

~Tasha

[crazyjoe]

How can you know how to do brakes and not know how to do oil changes? Oil changes are way easier than brakes.

[Winston Smith]

How can you know how to do brakes and not know how to do oil changes? Oil changes are way easier than brakes.

It's easier bring brake pad "cores" back to Adap than lugging dirty oil there.

[SanibelMan]

The 2003 and newer Accords definitely have some brake issues. My 2003 Accord went in for brake service at 10,000 miles, and again at about 25,000. They had to replace the pads and replace the rotors both times. Even when I sold it after buying it out of the lease at 35,000 miles, I had a hell of a time because the right front brake was still going "squeak...squeak...squeak..." I really wish that car would have lived up to its reliable reputation, because I loved it otherwise.

[tashabot]

How can you know how to do brakes and not know how to do oil changes? Oil changes are way easier than brakes.

I know how to do an oil change, I just don't have the fees for disposing of the oil properly, so I'll pay the convenience fee to have someone else do it for me.

Some places I've lived you actually have to have a license to do an oil change so they can ensure you're not dumping the oil down the gutter. Not here, I don't think, but the fact remains that I don't want a ticket for dumping oil and I don't want to pay the fees to dispose of it properly.

~Tasha

[Uncommon Sense]

I know how to do an oil change, I just don't have the fees for disposing of the oil properly, so I'll pay the convenience fee to have someone else do it for me.

Some places I've lived you actually have to have a license to do an oil change so they can ensure you're not dumping the oil down the gutter. Not here, I don't think, but the fact remains that I don't want a ticket for dumping oil and I don't want to pay the fees to dispose of it properly.

~Tasha

Save the oil in your (empty) washing detergent containers or some other suitable holder. Then when you have two or three of them sitting in the corner of the garage you can drop them off at the local service place or whoever takes that stuff. The point is; you don't have to find a place to take the oil every time you do a change, just once a year maybe.
I've got a friend who uses waste oil to heat his garage so I never need to find an alternative means of disposal.

[gigi]

I had to get the brakes done on my 98 Civic (I even asked about it here :) ) --new rotors, replace pads which had been replaced at least once before, at 120K. $400 at the dealer, $300 at the neighborhood garage.

Minimum service at the dealer (oil change and check fluids) $30. I usually go to Jiffylube instead but I have to test my dealer this time to see if they pull the same crap as last time (filling out the service form without actually checking).

[Winston Smith]

I had to get the brakes done on my 98 Civic (I even asked about it here :) ) --new rotors, replace pads which had been replaced at least once before, at 120K. $400 at the dealer, $300 at the neighborhood garage.

Minimum service at the dealer (oil change and check fluids) $30. I usually go to Jiffylube instead but I have to test my dealer this time to see if they pull the same crap as last time (filling out the service form without actually checking).

Yeah, but like I mentioned upthread, I'm done with JiffyLube. I'd only save a couple bucks at JiffyLube, and they inevitably pull the stunt you're attributing to your dealer - JiffyLube just goes down the checklist ticking off items - they don't actually check fluid levels, wash the windows, vacuum, check the belts, and so on. My dealer does. My spin on JL is that it's easy to underprice the competition if you don't actually perform the work you promise.

[gigi]

My dealer claims they checked the spare tire pressure but the spare was buried under four tires and other items, none of which were shifted from when I loaded them just before the appt. Plus they marked my A/C at the right temp and I don't have A/C. This time I am going to remove the spare altogether and see what they do. I ranted about it to a friend and he didn't seem fazed at all, just took it as a given that the dealer makes stuff up. :smack:

Luckily the neighborhood guys are around the corner and can be trusted; my best friend has a long history with them and they know he referred me.