First day with my new RL, only 46 miles and I did the
worst thing possible.....

I slammed the brakes.

Not being used to this new guidance system I just
barely missed the turn. I had to slam the brakes and
do a quick ramp exit off the highway.

I'll be more careful next time, everything works fine, but I am
concerned if I did any damage to the brakes.

I do smell a little burning from beneath the car, but
I sort of attribute that to the fact the car is new.

Any thoughts?

 

You should be fine. Remember those 10 or so miles that come on your car when you buy it, well part of that is breaking the brakes. Is only an initial breaking, but enough not to cause any damage when an incident like yours happens.

 

I doubt that you did any harm - the RL's brakes are wonderful and unless you did a 150mph - 0 stop, your actions will have no effect whatsoever. The only way to do damage is with repeated high speed stops (ie at the race track) and then sit with your foot on the brake or with the parking brake on - this will warp the rotors. The fact that you proceeded with freeway/highway driving immediately after your panic stop would have allowed the brakes to cool properly.

 

No. You have nothing to worry about. Just don't make a habit of it within the break in period.

 

The Nav system has a slight delay, and has caused me to do the same a few times.

 

That's interesting, because I find that the nav system in my RL is always "one step ahead" with its directions. The system gives visual and voice reminders such as, "in 800 meters take the next left turn" which seem to give plenty of notice of upcoming directional changes. I especially like the fact that the nav system will tell me to "take the 3rd right turn" so that I don't have to watch the odometer to determine which is the correct turn to take and then, as soon as I have passed the 2nd right turn it reminds me again with, "take the next right turn". Some of this may be a difference between the U.S. market program and the Canadian program that I am using.

 

The voice reminders are given far enough in advance. The visual display gives the impression that there is some distance before a turn when in reality the car is at the turn. I live in the Boston area where many streets lay out in random patterns, and two streets may intersect at an acute angle. I found myself sometimes had to slam on the brake to make the turn or to over shot the turn.

 

I can see where it would be a problem with "unusual intersections". To be honest, I don't really look at the nav screen when I'm driving, I just put my trust in that nice lady's voice to lead me to my destination.

 

I highly doubt that was the worst thing possible...you could have flipped the car or hd it in manual shift mdoe and been bouncing off the fuel cut off for 25 mins Anyway, I dont think what you did is a big deal.

 

You should be fine, just keep it easy from now on.

 

Oh yeah...by chance are you Ron Epstein of HTF fame?

Congrats on the new RL

 

I had the Magellan GPS for a year.

The Honda NAV kind of threw me for a loop at first, though
it's light years above the Magellan.

Yes, Rob, it is I.

 

When you purchase a new car, you should bed the brake pads in. The dealer may have done this for you, but it's always good to do it just in case.

It's simple. Do about 10 moderate stops from 25-35 mph. Then drive it on the freeway for about 15 minutes to cool your brakes.

It will help seat the pads and bed them in. After that, you can have at it.


Also, Honda brakes discs are really poor. I've seen so many warped ones. When it comes time to replace them, I would look at a good set of aftermarket discs if I were you.