taylorde

At 140,000 Kms I replaced my rotors on my '06 Civic EX with EBC slotted & dimped front & rear, along with their 'redstuff' brake pads. The instructions cautioned that these pads need a long time to break in, so I thought I was careful braking for the 1st couple thousand Kms. At first, these brakes were perfect, braking in town or highway was perfect & smooth, no vibration like the old brakes. Now, at 145,000 Kms, I have a lot of vibration under braking - the steering wheel vibrating back & forth when the brakes are applied. Could the rotors be warped already? What else could it be, anything I can check? Can these slotted & dimped rotors be machined??

Thanks
DaveT

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

altho very surprising this happened with red pads, which almost never get up to operating temp on the street, its possible. do you leave your foot on the brake pedal after coming to a stop? if so, thats what caused the problem. after a hard stop above 40mph or several smaller stops made within a short time, the pads can get hot enough to either leave a pad imprint on the rotor or deposit some pad material to the rotor. you may not notice it the first time, but after a while the deposits and imprints can build up, forming an uneven rotor surface that causes the caliper and pads to move up and down while braking. the only way to prevent this is to modify your driving style and never keep your foot on the brake after stopping. use the e-brake (rear brakes only, which never get as hot as the fronts), or shift to N to keep the car from moving. ive followed this process and never had my stock pads and rotors "warp" at all. i put warp in quotes because you do not actually warp the rotor. the vibration is caused by uneven pad deposition on the rotor. there are ways to remedy the damage, but with your redstuff pads i would say its unsafe to do on the street. i would have the rotors machined and then start watching how you stop.

the only problem i have with machining is it takes off some of the rotor material. a thinner rotor is not as structurally sound as a new one and also cannot dissipate heat as well. one machining prolly would be okay, but after that i would recommend replacing them.

lazlong

Does it feel like it's both sides or just one? Front and rear or front only (probably the culprit)?

For now pull the front pads and look for uneven wear or any irregularities in the pads or rotor.

Please, post back with results. Pics are nice too.

EDIT: Dangit GB, you beat me by seconds. lol

EDIT X2: Well there you have it, look for deposits on the rotor= new pads and rotors. Uneven wear of the pads with no deposits on the rotor= a stuck caliper piston or slide bolt (it's usually a slide bolt)

Hardcoresteve

dnt forget to make sure u evenly torque the lugs down too. i did brakes n alignments for a few years n all the complaints came from when i wwas in a hurry n jus hammered down the lugs. hondas are fairly sensative to that ...imo. just a thought.

taylorde

Here are pictures of the rotors & Pads. They have 5000 Kms on them. I notice a little black streaking on the left, and a small groove on the right. Also, on the pads, there was a rough edge all around them, I think from the break in coating that was all over the pads when new.

The wheels are always torqued 80 Lb/f

Because my old rotors were warped, I researched causes, and one thing I do now is when I come to a stop, I leave a car length ahead of me, and I inch up a little at a time so that the pads are not in one spot for long at a stop.


Left Front:




Right Front




Pads (Right Inside, Right outside, Left inside, Left Outside)


Pads

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

so you never sat on the brake after stopping with these? in that case i think you just got too hardcore of a setup. technically this should only be used for racing, or if you use the brakes a lot coming downhill from a mountain. the rotors are a mess, that is pad meterial all over because they are just too aggressive. they are not reaching their operating temp (and likely never will unless you routinely make 60-10 stops on the freeway), and as a result it looks like the pads have not even broken in yet. im not sure about your stopping power, but i cant imagine its any good. i think you wouldve been fine with oem hardware to be honest, they are setup for the street and so long as you dont keep your foot on the brake after stopping, they should never get messed up.

you can fix the ones on there now by doing a bunch of hi speed braking and hope the stuff will get cleared off the rotor, but idk. its hard to tell. could also do the bedding/burnishing procedure which requires about 10 back to back near stops from 90-0 i believe. may want to look it up, but there is prolly no way you will get to do it properly unless youre on the freeway by yourself.

taylorde

Do you think if I replaced the redstuff pads with regular pads from local car supply shop I would be ok?

If so, I will put the red stuff pads on ebay !

DaveT

BlueEM2

iTrader: (1)

I didn't read the whole thread because the posts are long. But, did you clean behind the rotors really well when you installed them? I can tell by the corrosion of the axle nut and hub that you probably have a lot of crap back there. It also happens that some rotors are warped right out of the box. I've had that happen. Also, it's very dangerous not to keep your foot on the brake pedal at a red light. If someone rear ends you there is nothing to stop you from smashing into the car infront fo you.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

that didnt help me much when i was on the brake and someone smashed me from behind. felt like the brakes werent even on til i mashed em again and still went 20ft. no cars in front. the way people stop here 1 inch apart, you will hit the guy in front regardless.

anyway, you could try new pads but the rotors are prolly already ruined from the harsh pads. gonna have to turn em or a softer pad will have no chance to break in.

Hardcoresteve

I just buy the pads from the dealer and whatever rotors I can find n they never give me troubles. I always have issues wit the aftermarket pads. The dealer ones perform great but wear fast. Eh..thats just me tho

sdaidoji

iTrader: (1)

break-in procedure - don't come completely to a stop when doing it

lazlong

I feel ya. I have OEM rotors and cheap $15 pads from O'reillys. They work just fine. Although, I had to panic stop from 60mph the other day and ruined 'em. Just got done changing the pads. They lasted about a year.

sdaidoji

iTrader: (1)

heh. this thread serves as a warning to all that thinks anything labeled "racing" is better than stock. No, they are designed to work in racing environment. If the range does not include street conditions, they will not work well. Research (not asking) required before jumping on the, like the stage 3 clutch, light flywheel, racing pads and stuff.

nucnik

I hate opening a year old thread for my first post, but I found this thread on Google after searching for a solution to the exact same problem. Same rotors, same pads, only different car. Only mine already had these brakes on it when I bought it, so I inherited an unknown problem.

I've since changed the front rotors once, and the problem happened again, so this thread pretty much answers it. This question was never answered:

So... Would this work, or do I have to buy new OEM rotors as well to fix the problem?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

you would have to machine the rotor down to a flat surface again to switch pads.

nucnik

I know, but would it be fine after that?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

well only the machinist can tell you for sure. if there are hotspots and blue marks on the rotor, its trashed. if there is just pad material, that can be cleaned up. but remember with any "new/resurfaced" setup, it takes time for the pads and rotors to wear into each other and create a flat surface for braking. usually for oem rated materials, this takes at least 400 miles of city driving. so when you first replace pads and rotors, keep in mind braking performance will not be great. just keep driving, and do not hold the brake pedal down when stopped. as soon as you come to a stop, release the pedal and use the ebrake. this will keep the hot pads from leaving deposits or imprints on the rotor. this can happen with ANY rotor and pad combo. i myself prefer straight oem parts, but others like the hawk hps pads better. you get more stopping power but they usually wear out faster and make more noise/dust. wagner is a fairly good oem replacement as well. just stay away from the cheap stuff at the auto stores.

nucnik

I know about the bedding-in process, no worries there. I'm not going to risk with more aftermarket pads, OEM time for me.

Thanks for all the info!

sl33pyriceboi

iTrader: (3)

Just get some hawks hps or hpc

nucnik

From what I see I can only get those in the US, which doesn't work for me. I'm sticking with OEM.