GVSusAssy

Just bought '98 Accord EX sedan L4 for the wife and brakes are causing serious steering wheel vibration. Has only 42k miles on it and service records show that rotors and pads were replaced at only 20k miles! Sounds like this is Honda's weak link?

Suggestions for replacement rotors and pads? I was looking on tirerack.com and found brembo rotors for cheap, but are these just OEM? I mean, I don't want to buy 'aftermarket' and have them be the exact same thing as OEM and then a few miles down the road have the vibration kick up again. Or, is the Brembo (non slotted or drilled) rotor better than OEM?

Thanks for any suggestions,
Frank

Al Czervik

My 99 accord Ex has the same problem. Vibrates a lot. Not sure how to solve the problem.

AngryTR0LL

I wouldn't call it a weak link. The Accord pads are normally replaced between 40k and 60k miles (and up). If they were replaced at 20k, they were either replaced way to early or the previous owner doesn't know how to drive.

Did the dealer do the brake job at 20k? If not, the aftermarket doesn't usually machine the rotors on the car (highly recommended by Honda) and they love to use the cheapest pads they can find. Another problem you will run across is some techs still don't torque wheels to factory specs (this happens at the dealer, too). If you have uneven torque of the lug nuts, it will warp the rotors which is the cause of your pulsation.

One thing to remeber, it doesn't matter what kind of car you drive, if you are hard on the brakes (like me), they will get extremely hot and they will eventually warp.
Some makes are more prone to warp (like Chrysler), but no make is immune from this problem.

Chiovnidca

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by GVSusAssy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Just bought '98 Accord EX sedan L4 for the wife and brakes are causing serious steering wheel vibration. </TD></TR></TABLE>
Check the rotors for spotty rust buildup. They tend to rust up except under the pads when sitting on the lot waiting to be sold. Turning the rotors should clean them up.

AccordCoupe

Sounds like your rotors are shot. Don't bother resurfacing them since I've never seen it fix the problem for more than a few thousand miles. You may not need to replace your pads if there is pleanty of life left in them. Just sand any glaze off of them with coarse or medium grit sand paper. importcarparts.com carries the Brembo OEM replacements for about $40 each (I replaced mine 4 weeks ago) and any order over $75 was shipping for free (big savings on heavy items like rotors). Chances are that you don't need to replace the rear rotors. Be sure to break the new ones in properly.

GVSusAssy

Honda did replace the rotors at 20k. Chances are that since the vehicle was rarely driven (42k/5+years= ~8k/year) that there was 'lot rot' on the rotors, causing the rust build up. Yes, the current rotors were all rusted from sitting too long also. Also, all pads look brand new. I went ahead and took the front rotors off Fri. night and had them turned down Sat. morning. Problem solved, well at least there is no steering wheel vibration, but the pedal still has some vibration from the rear rotors. I know the resurfacing is probably a temporary fix, but I'll let my wife keep driving it (she never drives hard) and we'll see if the vibration comes back. If it does, I'll just get the Brembos for all 4 corners w/ a new pad and call it good.

thanks for all your help!
Frank