danilo1

Wifes' car ~50,000Miles (yes, car is like new.. everywhere)
She bought it new.
Middle of Summer, I fitted EBC ultimate pads all around.
Worked Fine .. bedded in properly ..went on a road trip.. early sept.
All was good.
Mebe 2500 miles on the pads total.
Last few days I get Grinding from left rear wheel ??
Seems the pad is wearing/chewing? the disc, also the front left Drivers is looking similar.
RF and LR seem normal.
Clearly some Hyd Bungle??
Dunno Yet.
Have to pop the wheels.. pads.. rotors (everything, 'till I get the the source issue(s?) for careful inspection.
Only impediment is I've recently (Few days ago) had Hernia Surgery.
So doing the necessary work.. Yet.... Isn't healthy/clever.
While I wait and recover :
Anybody Have... Any... guess as to what the heck has happened?
Thanx.

ezone

Does car have ABS?

Does the car roll freely in neutral, pushing by hand, without brake drag?

Jack up car and test spin each of the 4 wheels. Does each spin without brake drag?

Is the drag caused by a hydraulic issue or a mechanical issue?


Remove all 4 wheels.
Inspect the pad wear of each set, all 8 pads

NOTE the thickness of each inboard and each outboard pad for each wheel.
Which one is wearing will determine the next answer.

If inboard and outboard are evenly worn, look for a hydraulic problem or sticking caliper piston.

If only one or the other is seriously worn, tell which one
If inboard pad is seriously worn, look for stuck slide pins or seized outboard pad
If outboard pad is seriously worn, look for a seized inboard pad

If pads are seized in the brackets, remove the brackets remove stainless clips and grind out the rust buildup between the clip and bracket, and wire brush the clips.
All 4 areas on each of the 4 brackets. I coat the freshly ground cast iron with silicone grease before reassembly to protect the thing from rusting.

Example rust pic:

danilo1

Thank you... for your Reply and experience. I;m hoping it's NOT some ABS nonsense. (yes it does have ABS in answer to your question)
I must say that when I fiitted fresh pads ...ALL.. was virtually showroom Pristine.
Only rust was on the rotors outer edges and only little to moderate at that
Caliper plating is intact, Pins are as new, even the Shims are spotless.
I examined, cleaned and regreased All the pins sliders using the copper goo include with the EBC pads Everything worked Perfectly even the symmetry of the handbrake pull/action.
THIS is what confuses .. I've done dozens of Brake jobs on my cars over the last 50 yrs. Barring a seniors' moment F'up.. I Know the drill.. or thought I did.
Given the apparent LF and RR disc scoring (light .. so far) I'm suspecting some kind of ABS/ Hyd circuit bungle. As in RF and LR seem to be doing Fine (maybe not even braking ??
Is that possible (never seen such before) or god forbid ; a Common problem? On a 50Kmiles car??
Erm: IF so... How does one fix this ?

Well... First I needs get this things rotors Off as a start.. Gotta actually see what's happening Hoping for tomorrow (son will be home).

IF I needs order new rotors (Rock Auto) What brands are good ?

ezone

You FIRST need to identify the source of your noise!
Once you know what it is, then you can decide how and what to do about it.

It might only have 50k miles, but it's also 13 years old now.
What kind of fluid got dumped into the brake reservoir? Is the rubber seal on the cap swollen and deformed?

It could just be rust buildup on the rotors from sitting for days? I've seen pad imprints of rust embedded so bad after only a few days (like after washing or a rain storm) that the rotors had to be machined to get rid of the spots/noise/vibration.

danilo1

Update;
Spent 3 hours on the car today.
Removed and resurfaced 4 rotors.
Resurfaced the pads. Cleaned and relubed the sliders etc.
Checked the abs for clogging.. blew thru the lines. ALL "fine"
Mr Ezone you were correct:
The rotors had picked up a bit of rust .. mostly from washing the car... abetted by 4 days of non use .
Pads picked up the rust and imbedded it into their Matrix ..Present and clearly visible for the looking at.
Causing all kinds of disc scouring and noise producing grief.
Hondas are so lightly built that even a tiny rock chip in a tire tread sounds horrific. Grinding pads sound genuinely Frightening.
NEVER seen this before.. Ever.
Been living in the dampish climate of the Pacific Northwest for over 60 years. Car has spent the past 13 yrs living here .. with ZERO brake issues from rain rusted rotors.
The Oem Pads simply wiped off the rust on the first brake application on these Very Same rotors (so they are not the problem).
Just as pads have always wiped off rust cleanly.. on EVERY other car I /we have ever owned (and there have been a few:-)
Complete Garbage EBC pads simply ingest the rust, apparently not being hard enough to erase it.,, then proceed to chew up the rotors with it.
YIPEEE!
Brakes are working .. Now! just like they did with OEM pads for the previous 13 years... smoothly/silently
This rain /rust issue happens again and the EBC ..complete garbage! pads are in the trash bin.
Woulda done so today but I had no replacements on hand.. YET.
Caveat Emptor Kids.

PS thanks for the postings help.

ezone

Thanks for the update!

NDNV

I've owned 2 Hondas now and both have had very little problems when using OEM pads and rotors. I know, not that exciting but no noises.


Until you figured out the solution, I was going to vote as well for a seized caliper(s). My 03 EL has gone through a caliper after I noticed the steel winter rim hissing with steam when using a pressure washer due to the heat of the bad caliper.


For a 14 year old car, these cars sure aren't a bad vehicle to drive when maintained.


FWIW, I've gone through a head gasket job, timing belt job, ball joints, a cat converter, P1457 By-pass shut valve, O2 sensors and an alternator for major repairs. I am at 175K kms.

danilo1

Talked to Auto Anything .. where I bought my EBC Ultimax pads. They said there is a 6 mnths Warrantee. So the conference called us to EBC headquarters Where they said this should.. Never.. happen.
Possibly a faulty pad pad material batch slipped through?
So they will be shipping me a 4 wheel set of Greenstuff pads as freebie warantee replacements.
More than I expected to be honest.
Hopefully these 'greens' will cure the problem .. they being of harder, more aggressive pad material.
Now I hope they actually show up .

Yeah Hondas can be decent cars.
Son had a 97? Acura RL, ran it up to 300K miles.
Oh yeah Well used! But everything on the car Still worked, including traction control and AC.
Finally sold it for 1000$.. unbelievable.