2000 Accord Brakes - Ceramic Pads?

Wife's car had a brake job (not at dealer) less than a year ago, at ~90K
miles. Full job - and way full price. I drove it last night and found that
the job is way way shot - there's so much wobble in the steering and brake
pedal when braking that I don't think it's safe to even be driving.

I'm taking it back tomorrow to see if I can get the shop to make it right -
but I wonder why the job failed so quickly (about 10K miles). I did see on
the bill that they installed ceramic pads (they charged 55 bux for them
too!). Are the Honda OEM pads ceramic? Or - did this shop just "do us a
favor" by selling us the most expensive pads instead of the proper ones?

Aside from bad pads - any other reasons the brake job may have failed to
last?

Thanks -
Bo

 

They machined the rotors, changed the pads and flushed the fluid. There was
no apparent quality issue when they were finished. As far as the lugs go, I
haven't checked them, but the wheels haven't been off since they did the
work.

I'd assume a missing weight would cause symptoms other than only when
braking - yes? The car's fine until you hit the brakes.

- Bo

 

Hi,

Ceramic brake pads are bit nicer than the regular OE ones. Sure they cost a
little more $$ and let off a white brake dust, instead of black dust from OE
pads.

Did you check your lug nuts? Did they change/machine the rotors? Missing a
wheel weight?

 

Warped rotors - never ever let anybody ever turn the rotors unless they
are warped. Rotors are generally warped by idiots using a torque stick
and a impact wrench to tighten the lug nuts. Fortunately the rotor on
this one is fairly easy to change - older accords had to have rotors
pressed into the wheel.

Has anyone removed/replaced the front tires since the brake job? Some
say braking and hitting a puddle of water will cause warped rotors -
doubt that. When I have someone other than myself removing/replacing
front tires - I take my overpriced snap on click style torque wrench
and make certain they use it correctly. Finger tighten all 4 -
slightly tighten - maybe 30FPS crossing pattern and then final tighten
at 80FPS.

If this dealer automatically turns the rotors every time - find some
place else to do your work - find a good locak mechanic and it will
cost you half what the dealer charges and sounds to me like this dealer
is a crook trying to empty your wallet.

WHen I walk through a dealership - I literally have one hand on my
wallet - high crime area.

 

Definitely take it back to where the work was done. You may find that the
problem is not with the brakes but with the suspension.

 

for my money, the problem is most likely the result of incorrect lug nut
torque procedure by the people that skimmed the disks.

first, the fact that they skimmed the disks in the first place is a sign
of people that have a "one size fits all" mentality and are not aware of
the peculiarities of hondas.

second, read this to get an idea on the likely cause & therefore solution:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.autos.makers.honda/msg/c50bca287aa51e3c?hl=en

if the disks are /now/ warped because they've been run in this condition
for too long, the best solution is replacement. brembo [good quality]
aftermarket disks are about $45 - $50 each. replace what you have now,
use oem pads & make sure the wheels are torqued right. you won't have
any more trouble.