Hi All,
I have a 2006 Acura TSX (never replaced the brakes before). My mechanic just called and said the vibrating noise I'm hearing under my car (sounds like a wind-up toy) is due to my rear brakes being extremely low. My car is a year old. It's a front-wheel drive car. He says my front brakes are fine but my rear ones need to be replaced. I've got 30K miles on it (long daily commute), but how does this make sense? Is there something else wrong with my car that's causing this if it is true?
Any thoughts or guidance?
Thanks,

 

Actually, your fronts should wear out before the rears. Dp you hear the sound only when braking? If not, my guess would be a wheel bearing which would be covered under warranty. There have been noted cases where bearings have been going bad.

 

Hi Miner,

That's what I was thinking. The sound, though, is actually intermittent and occurs most-often when I hit a bump in the road/freeway. It has no added response to my braking or accelerating and justs cut in and out for random periods of time. Likewise I can't make it happen by stepping on the brakes....

 

FWIW, my 2006 TSX currently has 33k miles. At the 30k mile service I also needed the rear pads replaced; the front pads were at 50%. However, I will be returning to have the front pads replaced and the discs turned as there is some steering wheel flutter from disc warp. I don't think there is anything wrong with your TSX except that, in general, the brakes seem to be under-engineered for a "sports sedan".

 

Hi Micvog,

I missed the tail end of that post... What were you saying?

 

Fixed.

 

Thanks for the tip. Sounds like I'm going down the same road with mine.

 

My rears pads went faster than the fronts. I didn't understand why, but that how it was. I think other members reported the same thing.

 

Thanks for the heads up.

That just doesn't make sense. I mean it's good to hear that others are having the same experience (and bad, of course) but it makes me think something's wrong with the whole thing if that's the case. Or maybe it's like Micvog said, that they're "under-engineered."

 

maybe the front pads are thicker/larger?

why not take it to Acura and have them diagnose the problem?

 

It's actually at the Acura dealership now and the guy couldn't explain why they were worn down and the front brakes were still good.
But that's so simple, it's funny. I'll have to ask when I pick my car up. Unless anyone knows?...

 

I dunno...I changed my rotors and pads before they were ready b/c I couldn't take the vibrating/shaking anymore.

 

I would like to thank those who posted here, at acurazine.com, about the importance of bedding your brakes, plus some pointers on how-to.

It was also suggested here, somewhere, that perhaps the stability control is "prematurely" wearing out the rear brakes; maybe some people are braking more often than they think!

 

Don't know why but it seems that the TSX wears the rear brakes down faster than the fronts. I've seen this reported on a number of threads. BTW, I don't think 30K on a set of brake pads is all that unusual.

 

Go figure?! Well at least I'm not losing my mind over it. I thought the guy was trying to pull a fast one over me. Thanks all!

 

I agree. That was my experience. I feather the breaks v. stomping and that allows me to control (grab) the rear end and have less nose dive. This will wear out the backs faster. Do a search on brakes and rotor upgrades and you'll find a lot of info and suggestions. I for one upgraded the rotors/pads/lines and now love my brakes. The only thing left to do would be a caliper (F & R) upgrade with up sized rear rotors. The cost would be $2k +/-. Not worth it for what I want the car to do, etc.

BTW - Change out all 4 pads now with upgrades (NOT OEM) and be sure to bed them in correctly. You'll be happy you did.

 

the reason y they wear faster in the rear is because they are organic and the fronts are ceramic. i had the same problem. organic is crap jus put ceramic in the rear and u will be fine.

 

I took off the front and rears, both looked the same in material to me. I replaced them with Hawk Ceramics and those bite much harder than stock. So I don't think the stock fronts are ceramic.

 

Picked up my car today from the dealership with my new rear brakes. Not sure about them being different material than the front but it's true about the difference in thickness.

Rears are 8.-something mm
Fronts are 10.-something mm

Go figure.

 

i think i have the same problem. im hearing a hissing sound comming from the rear without stepping on the brakes if its the bearings how much does it cost to get it fix at the dealership

 

They quoted me around $180 to replace my rear brakes. I paid a little less than that.

 

I got Hawk ceramic for under $200 front and rear, might as well go for that since you get the fronts too.

 

im almost 100% positive the rear is organic. jus ask a dealer. and the front is ceramic.i have opver 1/2 of front left and the rears were toast.

 

On mine with 22000 miles, I had 60% fronts and 70% rears left. I do mostly city driving. I tend to put the blame on highway miles causing the rear pads to wear quicker. In city driving where you brake harder than on a highway, your car's weight is transferred to the front and the fronts work harder.

 

I have Hawks ceramic pads for front and rear, and the rear is still wearing faster indicated by the amount of brake dust on the wheels.

 

by any chance have you driven accidentally with the e brake on

 

are you guys saying that my problem is the rear brakes? even thou im not pressing on the brakes. somebody in this board said it maybe the bearing

 

The ESP maybe braking for you to balance the car. I do have noticed that there are alot of brake dust in the rear than in the front. And, FYI, the OEM rotors suck!!! last only 30k and it is warped!

 

Is your sound a whirring sound? That's what a shot bearing sounds like. I don't think it is the rear brakes in your case.

 

yeah something like that whirring sound. its high pitch i cannot duplicate it by pressing on the brakes if its the bearing how much does it cost to take it to the dealer

 

The bearing's whirring sound is not high pitched, and it increases with vehicle speed, not with RPM. Does your increase with speed or RPM?

 

it only happens on the freeways seems like when i hit a bump or something then it stops the sound doesnt last that long

 

the v6 accords had the same problem with premature wear on the rear.

 

Its your rotors being warped. In my case, all my rotors. I actually had the same problem where hitting small bumps I hear a metallic grinding sound for a couple of seconds. It doesn't get noisier with higher speed so definitely not wheel bearing.

Thought it was my CV joints but was able to reproduce the noise going in a straight path just hitting small bumps and there was no knocking sound when making turns. I had my rotors resurfaced and my Rear brakes replaced. Only 28,000 miles on my car which surprised me that the Rears went out first and they were actually metal to metal. So get your brakes replaced and rotors resurfaced, it'll get rid of the problem.

 

if its the brakes? whos good in doing brakes i live in socal ie

 

I had mine done at a Firestone. Was around $240 total for resurfacing all rotors and rear brake replacement. The dealer wanted $249 to replace just the brakes. I didn't really shop around though because the noise was just annoying and I wanted to get it fixed. But the techs were also surprised the rears were metal to metal when they thought, as I did, that the front would be the first to go. But they said my fronts still had a while to go which is odd.

 

did you resurface all four rotors or just the 2 rear

 

maybe VSA activate the rear brake to help weight transfer during turns and result more wear at rear?

 

I had all 4 resurfaced. Was $70 for all four. Just to replace the rear brakes was $150. Then you add tax. So around $240 all in all.

 

i was flushing and "attemp" to service my brakes today, and plan to change ATF fluid as well. this is my first time service any brake system myself. few weeks ago i tool my car to dealership for alignment and was told brakes was "frozen" and dragging. they want $300 to service - clean, lub, and resurface the disk... i decline and decided to do it myself (change pad on all of them may just cost the same and i want to see if it was really what they said)
well, i found out today is that there is no drag at front brake, but there are some drag at the rear. is it normal for have some drag? or wheel shall spin freely? it is 10pm and is dark so i have to wait til tomorrow to see if i can "un-forzen" the rear brake somehow (so do research tonight). perhaps this is the reason rear pad wear out faster.. ...

btw, ATF is pain in the xxx to change... i will start another thread and seek suggestion...

thanks.