goofytek

Hi everyone,

I have an Acura TL-S 2002 80k miles and I need to replace the front brakes. They sound like they are warped, because when breaking, they start making grinding noise when I start coming to a stop. And its dont sound even, like a pulsing grinding, swoosh,swoosh,swoosh.

I check alot of places for brake jobs, from midas, to acura dealer, and most of them quote prices of 200 bucks to resurface the rotor and replace pads, but that wont fix any warping right?

So, i found an Acura/Honda specialist and he going to give me NEW OEM disks and brakes and labor for about 450 total. Thats sounds like a fair price? I'm waiting on the dealer to call me back, but the specialist said, its going to be about 100 bucks more from dealer most likely.

Any feed back would be great, and I do need it done asap (as in the next hour or so! haha)

Thanks everyone.

(I live around the San Francisco Bay Area)

MOBB

I would suggest not to get OEM rotors. You most probably will have to replace them soon because they do warp abnormally quicker than any other rotor. I myslef have replaced all 4 rotors with an aftermarket brand (autostar) which is a generic brand, and put in OEM pads.

The rotors where $100 a set for the front and $60 for the back, the pads were picked up from the dealership at 76$ a set. In total I spent about 300 on parts, even though I have the cheapest rotors, they do the job for me and 5k later still no warping. Braking quailty is just as good as stock. If you want better performance, I would suggest you to look into Rotora, Brembo, EBC, Stoptech for disc's and pads. But for me, I was satisfied with the stock set up, even when I do extreme braking, or drive like a riced out civic the car does stop when I want it to stop.

The best advice I could give you is stay away from OEM rotors, stick with Acura Pads. Buy the parts yourself and have your mechanic do the installation.

I paid about 400 installed for my brakes, while the Acura dealership wanted about $800. I also live in Canada, so it's a bit more expensive down here, so keep in mind you should be paying a little less if you live in the US.

goofytek

***Update***


I visited the Acura/Honda Specialist, and he found out that my brakes are almost like new, and don't need to be replaced, looks like the last time my brakes was worked on, they didn't torch(?) one of the bolts on my FL caliper and that it fell out. When I hit the brakes, the caliper lifted up and was hitting the inside of my rim. He tested out the treads for socket with the missing bolt and it seem fine. So now im at the shop waiting for the replacement bolt for it from a Acura Dealer near by. Everything else he said checked out, and don't seem like any major damage to the parts or the rim.

Wow that some service from this independent Acura / Honda Specialist and advised me that i didn't need new brakes at all (they still look very new he said), I will def come back to him in the future for all my work done on my car!

Estimated cost is about $130ish (USdollar part and labor) he said, the bolt is rare and expensive because its for the braking system and would had been reused for its life, but now is missing! haha

I'm posting from my laptop from the shop itself, so I'll keep ya posted!

01tl4tl

those caliper to bracket bolts are not rare at all~ I have 3 in my toolbox
When you buy rebuilt replacement calipers, they come with all 4 new bolts

Just go to the hardware store and get Grade 8 bolts- thats the strength rating

Never get brake estimates over the phone- no one can possibly say manythign but replace all parts would cost---
Only with the wheels removed can you tell whats happening.

I worked on a ziners TL -after the dealer did brakes and left a caliper mounting bolt OUT/OFF!!! and the other bolt at double spec torque value, which is bad because it stretches the threads...on this car, the vibration under braking was so bad-- it pulled the threads out of the bracket!
Have to find a bracket by itself- now thats a junkyard search~ they dont sell it seperate, and would have to order new caliper just to get one.

01tl4tl

Keep that private shop as your friend now- finding one that takes care of you in an honest fashion is hard to do
You will need a 1000 dollar service soon~ somewhere you trust!

goofytek

Well he told me, prefer OEM parts (and I do as well), because he use to work at the Acura Dealership himself. And he told me he didn't want to just put in any old bolt just like u said, he didnt want a different grade of bolt, so he called around the local Acura Dealerships for it, and the one next to his shop didnt have it (right across the street where he used to work for them! haha), the closest one was my dealership back in the city, and they had 4 only in stock. Looks like 2 per caliper if they needed. So I guess they are not rare pe say but not normally needed and not always instock at the dealership.

And yes, i will be coming back for my 105k service! Thanks everyone for your input.

goofytek

Ok, at the end it was about 95 bucks with parts and labor. Better than the 450 i might had spent on new pads and rotors if he didnt tell me about that one bolt, and I went somewhere else maybe.

Luke7

Acura and Honda Rotos are lousy, I've driven Honda products since 1985 and can tell you horror stories about their Rotors. On my 86 Prelude SI the dealership replace the front rotors 5 times-yes 5 times till they found a set that were not warped at the dealership. The service manager finally admitted that they had 1000's that were bad in inventory from the manufacturer at different dealers and it was impossible to track them all down. But yet they were selling them to unweary customers. That's only the biginning of the problems with Honda rotors I encountered.
After I switched to aftermaket, my problems all dissappeared. But then I didn't buy cheap CHINA rotors. About to put Brembo's on my TL next month.

Seantype-s

$95 for labor??? All this job entails is taking the wheel off...ridiculous.