I have a 2003 Honda Accord with 26,000 miles on it. At about 10,000 miles, I noticed the brakes were going soft and I took it to the dealer. They replaced the rotors and pads and said the factory brake pads were defective. Then a few months ago, I noticed a vibration when slowing at highway speeds. Took it back to the same dealer, who replaced the right front rotor and machined the left front rotor. Then not two days later, on my way to Florida, I had the problem again. The dealer down here is replacing the pads and machining the rotors.
What would cause a recurring problem like this? It’s covered under the warranty, so I’m not raising hell about it, but it’s a pain in the butt all the same.
Do you ride your brakes (rest your foot on them when you’re not actually braking)?
Riding the brakes wears your pads out quickly, and the heat buildup this produces leads to warped rotors (which was the cause of the vibration you were feeling).
No, no, I drive with one foot only. My uncle suggested that it was from applying the brakes continuously while stopping, rather than tapping them, but he also thinks you should downshift an automatic if you’re not on the highway and lots of other fun-but-useless car advice.
Maybe a little more detail on the vibration you felt would be helpful. I would discribe the feel of a warped rotor as “pulsing” rather than vibration.
Also, “going soft” implies air in the hydraulic system, rather than a failure of the parts discribed…did you mean the pedal felt soft? (“spongy” )or that the pedal seemed to require more force? or that it went closer to the floor before it became firm? or that it took multiple pumps to become firm?
Yes I know it seems overly picky, but the nuances of language are important in many cases.
It’s just a guess at this point, but a sticking piston, or binding caliper slides might be the cause of your trouble.
I have never heard of wear this extreme. Are your wheel hubs hot after an extended drive on the highway where you don’t hardly use your brakes? That would mean that somehow pressure is being kept on the brake pads even when the brakes are not being applied.
My guess is that the braking system has a malfunction which keeps the brakes applied continuously.
Another possibly is that your new pads are leaving uneven deposits on the brake rotors, effectively resulting in “warped” rotors.
There is a process you can go through to prevent this, calling “bedding in” the brakes. It involves rapid deceleration from highway speeds, several times in succession, in order to get the pads and rotor up to a high temperature and deposit an even layer of pad material on the rotors.
The vibration was a noticeable shaking, very fast, when the brakes were applied at all at highway speeds - for example, going from 60 to zero. The vibration stopped or became less noticeable below 30 or 20 mph.
When I said “going soft,” I meant that it took more power on my part to stop the car. When I took the car in that first time for brakes, they said the pads were nearly gone and they had a service notice that the brake pads were defective. Is it possible those defective pads caused more damage than they realize?
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Another possibly is that your new pads are leaving uneven deposits on the brake rotors, effectively resulting in “warped” rotors.
There is a process you can go through to prevent this, calling “bedding in” the brakes. It involves rapid deceleration from highway speeds, several times in succession, in order to get the pads and rotor up to a high temperature and deposit an even layer of pad material on the rotors.
At the bottom are links to bed-in instructions. Notable is this quote:
I feel like I have to sneeze ah–ah–ah bullshit!
The single most common cause of brake vibration is warped rotors. Period, end of discussion. Warped rotors can be caused by overheated brakes, over tightened lug nuts, (warps the hub, which warps the rotor), or improper machining. In the OP’s case I suspect that either the hubs are warped or the rotors are being machined incorrectly, or with a poorly maintained brake lathe. I have seen more than one brake lathe that would install a brake vibration when none existed before. :eek: In fact for this reason, several car makers do not allow rotors to be turned under warranty, instead they pay for new ones, just to make sure that a bad brake lathe does not give a bad result.
As far as bedding in goes, while I agree somewhat with the theory, I must note that I am unaware of any carmaker that recommends this procedure. If it is as necessary as the link would seem to indicate, then you would think that the guys that designed the brake systems would have that in their service instructions for repairing brake system. The fact that they do not recommend such a procedure should tell you something.