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Honda Civic Brake Questions

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Comments

  • cz_75cz_75 Posts: 7
    MC should be bench bled before install, so you did it right, at least procedurally.
  • cz_75cz_75 Posts: 7
    edited September 2010
    After you exhaust the reserve boost, keep your foot on the brake pedal and start the car; a properly functioning booster should experience a slight drop in pedal height. Too bad I gave away my factory service manuals for the Integra when I sold it.
  • kagedudekagedude Posts: 407
    Hi, picked up my 2010 Honda Civic LX-S auto yesterday and the first thing that I noticed was that the brakes does not feel responsive enough. Is this by design for this generation? Coming from a 2007 Honda Fit Sport and my wife's Mazda 3i touring where I can gauge how the car stops, the Civic feels like it slows to a stop even when I am already pressing hard on the brakes. It reminds me of our 1998 CRV and 1988 Mitsubishi Van. Both heavy cars that takes a while to come to a complete stop. Why does the Civic feel the same way? :confuse:
  • cz_75cz_75 Posts: 7
    Brakes need time to wear in and mate between pads and rotors. If I wanted good brakes, I would've spent the cash and gotten the EX with all disc brakes, not antiquated rear drums. Better tires brake pads will do wonders for improving stopping ability.
  • kagedudekagedude Posts: 407
    edited March 2011
    I agree. Speaking of antiquated rear drum brakes, I noticed the cover on mine for both sides are already rusty. I understand that it can get rusty over time but it rusted up after a few months. Its an eye sore at this point (shiny silver alloys with a bright red rusty background) but its not affecting driveability.

    Any Honda Civic LX-S owners that can confirm if this is normal?
  • ruking1ruking1 Posts: 19,826
    edited March 2011
    It is absolutely very normal. It can also get rusty in a day or even less. I take it by "cover" you mean the brake drum, facing you as you look at it. I do not have a Civic LX-S.

    However, the 04 Civic VP sedan has REAR drum brakes. They have black "steelies" wheels and an intergrated (with the lug nuts) silver plastic painted wheel cover: so appearance iis not @ issue.

    Now if you have other than stock oem "sized" alloys, that might present some unseen and unknown issues.
  • ruking1ruking1 Posts: 19,826
    edited March 2011
    Really, the issue of the brake's "responsiveness" is in a way subjective and one of managing expectations. Now if they felt radically different between YOUR new 2010 Honda Civic LX-S and another 2010 Honda Civic LX-S, then that might bear further analysis.

    To expect them to feel EXACTLY like your Honda Fit Sport and/or Mazda 3i touring, might be an exercise in unrealistic expectations. There are literally a host of reasons why/why not. There are also a lot of reason's for the rear drum brakes. Durability (in the rear stopping application) seems to be one of them. They (seem to) do last app 2 times longer than the fronts which are disc/pads. In addition, there are indications REAR PADS/ROTORS might even wear FASTER (than the front rotors and pads) by a factor of 2 TIMES, for a delta of up to 4 times !!!! The "English" translation (in my case) would be rear pads lasting 20,000 to 50,000 vs the 200,000-240,000 miles projected.

    So for example, I just had a front brake job done. The front pads and rotors lasted 117,946 miles. I went with OEM brake pads and OE SPECIFICATION front rotors (Brembo). No aftermarket vendor has stepped up and claimed their product will last miles to percentages GREATER than oem pads. OEM rotors are much costlier (48%). If the OEM pads are only going to last 117,946 miles, I decided to get a good quality, yet $ CHEAPER replacement rotors. My hope and expectation are this 2nd set of pads/rotors last @ least 150,000 miles as the oem set had a lube issue on one side of the caliper which caused the inside right side pad to wear a shade quicker. One to all of the other three drivers did not catch this in time to save the one front oem rotor. While I would have prefered to REuse the oem rotors (if it met all conditions), using the rotors a second cycle (in my case 120,000+ miles est) can be done if you know the drill, accept the gambit of risks and is situational. In my case, the rotors COULD have been used, (if we had caught the lubrication issue earlier) but going 150,000 miles MORE miles (270,000 miles total) on the new set of pads MAY have exceeded rotor limit specifications. If it does and you do not know and/or monitor it, ...IT is NOT a good thing.

    The rear shoes and drums were measured and inspected and pronounced good to go for @ least another 100,000 miles, or to 220,000 miles. At that time, the most likely failure will be a brake cylinder seal leak. In which case, a $5. rebuild kit and brake cleaner will probably make @ least the drum reuseable. Shoes will likely need to be replaced.
  • kagedudekagedude Posts: 407
    edited March 2011
    It is absolutely very normal. It can also get rusty in a day or even less. I take it by "cover" you mean the brake drum, facing you as you look at it. I do not have a Civic LX-S.

    Thanks for confirming! I finally saw another Honda Civic LX-S yesterday and the brake drum cover (visible side) is also rusty red.
  • kagedudekagedude Posts: 407
    edited March 2011
    To expect them to feel EXACTLY like your Honda Fit Sport and/or Mazda 3i touring, might be an exercise in unrealistic expectations.

    Oh no, I have no expectations that it should be the same as my previous '07 Honda Fit Sport but more a comparison/observation. The 2010 Honda Civic LX-S brakes and even my dad's 2009 Honda Civic LX "brake feel" felt like a minivan specifically like the ones we owned (Mitsubishi Van LS and Toyota Van LE). When you step on the brakes even in emergency situations, it "feels" hard and "feels" like its not responding in conjuction to your foot depressing on the brake pedal or not stopping fast enough as you perceive you think it should. Its definitely an adaptation issue and I've since learned to adjust and have no issues with it today.

    The funny part is the Mazda 3i (my wife's car) felt the most responsive but checking Edmunds' road test results, the 2007 Honda Fit Sport comes on top with 60-0 of 123.61 feet, the 2008 Civic LX comes 2nd with 128 feet and the 2010 Mazda 3i Touring with 135 feet.
  • ruking1ruking1 Posts: 19,826
    The stopping lengths ( 60 mph to naught) are pretty comparable. That is interesting despite a whole lot of variables ie., different years, weights, etc.
  • kagedudekagedude Posts: 407
    edited May 2011
    It is absolutely very normal. It can also get rusty in a day or even less. I take it by "cover" you mean the brake drum, facing you as you look at it. I do not have a Civic LX-S.

    Thanks for confirming! I finally saw another Honda Civic LX-S yesterday and the brake drum cover (visible side) is also rusty red.

    Thought I'd update: Although I did find 2 other Honda Civic LX-S that had the cast iron type drum brakes which rusted right away, I also found over 10 Honda Civic LX-S with the black finished (rust proofed) drum brakes.

    I brought this up to my dealer this morning during my first oil change and off the bat he said it was normal but when we took a walk to look at their two 2010 Honda Civic LX-S loaner cars, they both had the black finished type.

    The dealer offered to paint my drum brakes and give me a loaner for the day which I will have to schedule.

    It is just odd that Honda would manufacture a model type with totally different part types that would affect aesthetics.
  • Kirstie_HKirstie_H Posts: 11,077
    A reporter is looking for owners who have had premature wear on the their Honda Accord and Honda Civic brakes. If you would agree to be interviewed by this reporter, please send your contact information to [email protected] by Wednesday, December 14, 2011.

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  • morrisonmanmorrisonman Posts: 2
    it may be caused by design but honestly you can warp a brand new rotor right after replacing it if you hit the brakes too hard enough even once. You may be a conservative driver but 30,000 miles before warping rotors really isn't that bad and if they haven't been turned as of yet you should be okay to turn them to fix the issue. I'm not sure if the braking system in the newer civics are similar to the older ones but you can cause warping if the screws are not in place in the rotors (they rarely are if the brakes have been done), it causes the rotor to almost shimmy when braking causing it to warp over time. Also I know the accords have a rotor that have 4 bolts in the center holding them down, just based on design these always warp rotors. If the design is similar to either it could be the cause.
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