Call American Honda and create a problem ticket, a rep will come out and look at it. Get your research together on possible causes and they will end up honoring the work. There is no reason for the brake to make that noise, and "live with it" is not acceptible.

 

Well at least you know that they blow everybody off!

 

Alright everyone.....I just got done troubleshooting the brakes, and it was easier than I originally thought. Only took like 20 minutes. The problem IS Pad Shift. The rears are especially bad. There is approximately 1/8 - 1/16" of play from side to side (passenger is worse than the driver's side). I was able to slide the pads with my tire iron, so they are definitely loose. I have currently running OEM replacement pads from the Honda dealer. The problem is in the little "T" looking extensions on the top of the pads, that is the part that contacts the calipers. Does anyone know of any aftermarket replacement pads that have a slightly larger overall dimension than the OEM replacements? Also, these replacement pads are metallic based. Would replacement of them with non-metallic based pads reduce this noise (my gut says no, because when the car is braking, there is probably close to 1/4 of the intertial weight put on each pad, and that much force should cause a noise, no matter what its made out of)?

If there are no replacement pads available, a buddy of mine works in a machine shop, and can probably fashion some kind of shim that can be welded onto the backer to the pad. How hot do these pads get under braking? I need to know this because we need to know what type of metal to use (expansion properties) and what kind of welding technique to use. Any temperature readings would help out immensely.

Thanks again.

John

 

Just pick up a new set of OEM pad from HardTopGuy he will include the shims and your brakes should be fine. You should not have that kind of trouble from a set of OEM pads and Shims.

 

I thought the OEM shims were to keep the pad from moving between the rotor and the caliper. This shift is horzontally....kind of paralleling the rotor. All of the correct OEM peices are there.....I used the Honda Repair Manual in the Library forum to troubleshoot this issue, and all the necessary pieces are there. It looks, though, that the little copper shims act almost as springs, with some tension that keeps the pad in place, not physical mass. Could these have just worn out?

I will call down to Auto Zone tomorrow, as they ONLY sell OEM stuff (according to them, when it comes to brake and mechanical parts). I will just bring a shim and pad down and ask to see a replacement pad and shim. If they have them in stock, and there is a noticable difference, I will get them. I will also email hardtopguy, and see if he has any solution to this problem, as he has probably seen more of this than any of us.

Thanks again.

John