Hi All,

In the last few days I've noticed really bad vibrating when braking at highway speeds only. If I'm driving at city speeds there is no feel of vibration at all. It becomes harsh if I'm cruising at 70Mph our more and I have to brake.

It feels like its from the front of the vehicle. I've looked at the brake pads and suspension but see nothing that looks out of the ordinary. The braking its self is fine, just the vibration so I'll wait until my first service in a month or six weeks.

No way it could be rotors already at 6800 miles could it? Probably allignment.

 

warped rotors?

 

That is what I thought but at 6800 miles? That doesn't say much about quality or durability. If it is, they should be covered under warranty.

 

I just had to have my front rotors resurfaced for the same issue. It was covered under my warranty.

 

Did the dealer give you a hard time about the issue? Just wondering if they know about this.

 

They didn't say that they had seen this issue before but also they didn't give me a hard time about it either.

 

Did you experience the same thing, vibration under breaking at higher speeds? Thanks.

 

When on a road trip and both my wife and I noticed a vibration when braking but only when going over 70ish MPH.

 

warped rotors...seem to be a common thing with hondas...also depends on the driver.

i haven't had issues since i don't brake terribly hard all the time...the other one in the house on the other hand, drives it like he stole it and brakes hard all the time (he denies this of course).

 

^^ LMAO. I am like you though, I am very easy on my brakes....

 

^^he's warped one set of rotors, then had no idea what the vibration was (i felt it sitting in the car when he drove) and he managed to scorch another set (which were resurfaced). i have yet to have issues with rotors in my cars. brake pads on the other hand....

 

I guess I'm like your other half In city or back road driving I'm relaxed and mellow but once I'm on the highway, traffic permitting I never do under 85 - 90Mph. I don't think I'm brake crazy as I'll let the car coast and slow down on its own and only brake when absolutely required. I've never had a vehicle have this problem before, let alone at 6800 miles.

 

Its obvious that he has a warped sense of driving.

 

I've had this problem before with Chrysler minivans. Usually, replacing the pads was sufficient. However, replacing the pads on my son's Dodge Dakota brought only temporary relief. Ultimately, the problem was not resolved until we had the rotors replaced.

I should add that the truck had 40k miles on it at the time.

 

among other things...

he always waits til the last second to step on the brake even when it's obvious the light is red.

it is possible to warp them in 6800 miles. my MDX came that way when i bought it with 25k miles. previous owner was a little hard on the car in a number of ways. my dealer resurfaced the rotors no questions asked or argument after we got back from a road trip in the first two weeks of ownership.

 

LOL

My GF would argue the same about me.

Which means I'll have to get my struts redone at the 1,000 mile mark. LOL

 

More than likely you just had an uneven deposit of pad material on the rotors. If you perform a pad bedding procedure on the car it is likely to fix the pulsating feeling.

http://www.stoptech.com/technical-su...ake-pad-bed-in

If you really think you have warped the rotors, why would you want to remove more material from them? It will only recur. I suspect the dealer is happy to resurface they rotors since they must get paid for it by Honda. Resurfacing does remove the old pad material when it removes the rotor material and solves the immediate problem. But it will return. Likely the pads are never properly broken in and this results in the uneven build up over time. If you just got the rotors turned, you should bed the pads. But don't over do it, you can really build up heat in the brakes if you over do it. More is not better.

 

Thanks for posting the article but it doesn't give ANY specifics. The bedding process has so many variables how would anyone know how to do it correctly from pad types to temps etc. Not too practical and lots of theory.

I'll know more once the dealer looks at them.

 

Sorry. You can google and find several steps. In general here is how it goes....

- I usually do this at night on a deserted feeder road near my house. You don't want to do this in traffic, or with a car behind you even a little distance away as they may think you are drunk!
- If you have new pads and rotors you don't want to get them too warm before you do this procedure, but you may not be able to help it, I don't think it would be a major impact if you can't.
- You want to build up heat in the pad/rotor over several decelerations.
- Start with a few (2-3) medium decelerations from about 35/40 to ~10-15 mph. DON'T come to a complete stop. You are heating up the pads/rotors.
- Build up to 50-60 mph and hit the brakes hard, like a cat just ran in front of your car, but not so hard to activate the ABS (pretend it is your neighbors cat lol). Again slow down to about 10 mph but DON'T stop. You don't want to park the pads on one spot on the rotors during this process. You want to evenly deposit pad material around the rotor. If these are new rotors you will feel the brakes become 'grippier.' Repeat this 2-3 times but DON'T OVER DO IT. More is not better. I made this mistake and literally had my rotors glowing red*. Ruined my new pads.
- Drive and let the rotors cool. Won't take long. Your brakes should be working fine after this. You can repeat after the brakes have cooled if you think you didn't get it right the first time.

* Yes my rotors were cherry red which is around 1,500+F. This way hotter than your brakes should ever get. If you've ever seen F1 racing and seen the rotors heat to cherry red, those were my rotors! I've measure the rotors after normal driving with a IR gun and they never get more than 400F. Like I said the pads were toast (and sizzling) after my stupid mistake. They still worked but I replaced them and the fluid. I did not replace the rotors and they have been trouble free ever since. It is hard to think that after heating mine up over 1,500F and not warping them, that normal braking is going to warp them due to heat. Even driving through water is not going to warp rotors that are only a few hundred degrees. I'm not trying to re-start this debate that has been beaten to death many many times in many many forums all over the interwebs. This is just my experience.

 

That is far more clear than the article I'll try this if they machine my rotors. Thanks.

 

I am with TLgirl - I believe this is a Honda issue. My old 2001 CL-S had warped rotors most of the time I drove the car. I had them resurrfaced several times and replaced once over the 142,000 miles that I put on the car. Over time they would warp again, and it got to the point that I just dealt with it. I will admit I am sometimes hard on the breaks, but living and working in Houston causes that. I guess I was hoping/expecting things to be better this time around. my RDX has about 150 total miles on it, and I am trying to go very easy on the breaks.

 

The techs may have already done it for you. Ask your service advisor when you pick up the car. Or if you want to do it yourself go ahead.

BTW I forgot to mention that in between 'runs' you don't want to let the brakes cool, as soon as you slow down, hit the gas. If you aren't getting a little car sick you aren't doing it right lol! Makes me car sick every time.

 

Speaking of brakes has anyone seen a drilled rotor set up for the current RDX?

 

http://www.autoanything.com/brakes/61A5870A0A0.aspx

I can't say anything about these, but they are available.

 

Warped rotors is a bigger problem with certain brand cars (because of the metal used by the actual rotor manufacturer) more than others.

It only takes a single run through a puddle of water when the rotors are hot to warp them. Then all of a sudden, when you hit the brakes it shudders so bad, it feels like the front end is falling apart.