I have a 1992 Honda Accord (LX). She runs pretty well nearly all the time. I’m not so sure that I take as good care of it as I might, since I hardly ever use it at the U.
T’other day the brakes started emitting a hissing/crunching noise. It sounds much like driving over gravel, albeit more even. It only happens when I brake. The noise started on a hot day when I stopped to deposit money. I couldn’t restart my car. I checked the oil, which looked fine, but on a hunch I put in a quart, which worked. The brakes quieted down a bit after I used them a few times.
But the problem continued. The car may be leaking oil or something; I out in another half-quart yesterday. The sound itself sometimes continues after I stop when I accelerate - but then it becomes an on/off noise. It on a moment then off, on/off/on/off. It sounds like the axles may be triggering it. Could the slightly cold mornings may be exaggerating the effect? here is no loss of braking power. Do I need new pads? Should I check my oil? What’s up here?
Sounds like the rivets on the pads are grinding into the rotor. The rotors also sound like they are warped, (on, off, on, off).
The oil situation is something different. You should notice a leak if you park on a clean surface and check under the car for wet spots.
You`ll probably need new pads and rotors. At the least the rotors will have to be turned.
Hmmm… OK. I’ll call the dealership and see if they can fit me in. I really don’t know that much about cars, sadly. I can dissasemble PC’s and build new ones, but…
How often should I change brake pads, etc? I wasn’t really sure, since the car came with no indication of how long any “disposable” part had been in there.
A yearly inspection would catch things wearing out.
For the most part, Brake pads are cheap–15- 20 bucks for both front wheels, thats for DIY which is pretty easy, get a book and check it out, I don’t know squat about a Honda but for me it is usually, pull one bolt, slip the caliper off, push the pistons back in with a c-clamp, drop new pads in, slip caliper back on, replace bolt. When doing brakes do both wheeles on the same axle at the same time.
Could be your lug nuts aren’t tight. Could be a whole bunch of things but you should get it looked at. Pad should have a little metallic strip that makes a light noise when its time to change the pads. I can’t hear mine but some people did & when I looked at them they had another 5000 miles on them or so.
I’ll go with the brake wear indicators.
Don’t go too long or you’ll be damaging the rotors.
Yeah you should check the oil often.
Did I understand right???
Did you put in a quart of oil eventhough the dipstick said you didn’t need oil???
If so it will probably throw that quart out.
Don’t overfill .
It will cost you much more than it should if you use the dealership.
This car is 11 years old, take it to a autoshop, like one of the brake places (Midas or the like). The dealership will rob you blind and the brake place will tell you if you need something other than new brakes.
I’m having trouble with why you would put a quart of oil in when the oil looked fine. That didn’t make any sense to me but I agree it is likely the pads are just worn, or the rotors are rusty (You said you don’t drive it much and it quieted down after use).
I’m with the others who are having trouble seeing any connection between the brakes and the engine oil. I also can’t imagine how a no-start condition could be related to the brakes in any way. I think you have two separate issues/problems here.
Regarding the brakes, of course an actual inspection would be required to be certain of anything. However, I’d agree that it’s pretty likely to be worn pads. Hopefully they’re only down to the built-in wear indicators, which usually cause some sort of squealing sound IME. If the friction material is completely worn through, then you’re hearing the discs themselves being gouged by the metal pad backing.
Where should you go? As you can already see, opinions on this vary. I personally would avoid brake chains like Midas. The dealer, while almost certainly more expensive than some other good options, is IME likely to be a “safe” choice. A reputable independent shop is probably your best bet, but finding one is not nearly as trivial as it’s often made to sound by the folks making that recommendation. If it were me, I’d probably go to a dealer unless I knew someone who could recommend a good independent - but this is probably my conservative nature speaking.
Unless your car really is leaking oil, you’re now (I think) about 1.5 quarts overfilled. Is the level really dropping? If not, don’t add more - overfilling can be bad, although as I understand it there’s some wiggle room and most cars can handle an extra quart without much risk.
It seems unlikely to me that the no-start was actually fixed by adding oil - I believe that was probably a coincidence, or that simply the passage of a few minutes’ time was enough for … something … to cool down, fixing the problem. Was this the first time the car had failed to start on you? Has it since?
Can you be more specific about the nature of the no-start? Did the engine crank over? Was there nothing but a loud “click” when you turned the key? Did absolutely nothing happen? Failure to start can be caused by several different things, and more info will make it easier to guess which was in play here.
The price was a little expensive, but not overboard. And they did notify me of a potentially serious problem. Something was rather cracked from wear and tear that I didn’t want cracked, right.
Just a hunch. And in this case, I was quite correct. My oil-checker sometimes seems to over-state the oil amount. Why, I don’t know, but it works fine.
Regardless, things are back to normal. Its a good thing I took it in for service, as they caught a problem I wouldn’t have. Thank you for your advice. I got my disks resurfaced and new pads, and my CV boots replaced.