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2018 Honda Accord Sport brake issues
- Thread starter zebra03
- Start date
noogies
My Favorite Woofers.
Well, I'm stumped. You mentioned earlier about having a mechanic you trust? Might want to run it by him.
olson_jr
Lunatic Member
On vehicles with Adaptive Cruise (or whatever term Honda uses) the rear brake calipers have an electric actuator that can apply the brakes. It is part of the system that is also needed for the stop/start feature. (when the engine shuts off at idle the electric rear brakes are applied, they are released when the engine restarts) Your emergency brakes also use this electronic system. I assume that there is a button or switch to use the parking brake in your car.
When Adaptive Cruise senses that you need to decelerate it first backs off on the throttle. (IIRC it may also turn off your fuel injectors and use engine compression braking to assist deceleration. That would be dependent on some other factors, engine speed, vehicle speed, gear selected, etc.)
Then if it needs more braking it will actuate all the brakes via the ABS system. To the best of my knowledge, the system never uses just the rear brakes. If you have ever tried to stop a vehicle with just the rears you will know why they actuate all the brakes.
Of course, this is all based on my knowledge of Ford vehicles. Honda may do something different, but I would doubt it. I believe that Bosch was the supplier that did the Ford brakes, not sure who does Hondas?
All that being said there are a few other things to consider.
- Honda may use a soft rear pad material to reduce noise or reduce rotor wear.
- The Accord has had rear brake issues in the past. (Google Accord rear brake class action)
- Dealers Techs consider brakes gravy work and are a big upsell.
- Pads are cheap to replace as compared to rotors.
- I believe that Honda still uses a pad wear indicator that will start squealing when the pads need replacement.
- A good shop would have recorded the actual thickness of the friction material and noted it.
- I've had too much coffee.
Accord rear caliber with electric motor shown.
Lots of material left on these pads.
The wear sensor is shown at bottom left of the pad.
olson_jr
Lunatic Member
Haven't got to him yet . Today .
Thank you so much . Like I said , when the service manager said "Honda designed it so it wouldn't nosedive" , That statement made me wonder if the car was only applying the rear brakes . My wife just told me you can turn that part of the cruise control off .
Do you think Honda will help out with the cost of new pads if I whine enough ?
olson_jr
Lunatic Member
If you are a good customer and have bought cars or other service items from this Specific Honda Dealer they might do something for you. I doubt the Honda Corporation would, but no harm in asking.
I would be interested in seeing the pads that come off.
I suspect he was pointing out that the braking effect would be gradual. My only issue is when you're behind someone with an unsteady foot. In that case I temporarily cancel the cruise control so I can control the throttle smoothly.Thank you so much . Like I said , when the service manager said "Honda designed it so it wouldn't nosedive" , That statement made me wonder if the car was only applying the rear brakes . My wife just told me you can turn that part of the cruise control off .
According to what Olson said, Adaptive Cruise does NOT cause early wear on the rear brakes only.
Missed that. Thanks BigEl. Of course I doubt if the car requires more than a gradual slow down that Adaptive wouldn't use braking.
Only thing I've had that ate rear brakes was my Towncar after I converted it to rear disc but before I changed the master cylinder. Drum brake systems retain a small amount of pressure all the time, and when you connect that to a disc brake it wears the pads. I got like 20k out of them. Since replacing the master cylinder and prop valve with late model stuff designed for 4 wheel disc I've put some 60k on those pads and they're fine. I got about 80k out of the front pads, so its not like I'm hard on brakes.
The Hondas use a brake proportioning system, so that they can get equal grab front and rear on the brakes. Typically, yes, the fronts would do a lot more of the braking work. But with the proportioning, they are able to send more braking power to the rears and stop the vehicle quicker. ABS will kick in if there is too much braking pressure on either end.
That wouldn't be right. But with the brake proportioning system I mention above, they could better equalize front and rear braking which would help reduce the typical dive you'd get in the front. A friend of mine with a 2010 Accord had rear brake pad wear issues, but those are easily solved by going with higher quality aftermarket pads. (The Honda pads are actually quite good, as I suspect they are made by an OE like Akebono, which is the pad I use exclusively now. I no longer use the garbage sold at places like AutoZone.
Dealers make their money on service, not the vehicle sale. I'm lucky in that my local dealer has a service manager I have a good rapport with, and he's very up front and honest about everything. And his estimates were always more than the actual repairs cost me, the few times I've had them repair something. (I do just about all of my own wrenching, and will only have someone do the service if I don't have the equipment, or the weather is awful and there's no way I could do it in my driveway, since I don't have a heated garage to work in.)
For loyal customers, they sometimes will do an "accommodation" and pick up some or all of the cost. But I've also seen that per a vehicle warranty, brake pads (like tires, oils, fluids) are "wear" or "consumable" items and would not typically be covered. Although in the event of an actual defect, I could see brake pads being covered.
On the ridiculous side, I've seen some guys throw hissy fits when they can't get an accommodation on a 10 year old car that is seven years and 100,000+ miles out of warranty...