when braking I am experiencing a slight shimmy, I think this may be the rotors. If so I think they can shave them. My question is would it be cheaper to buy new roters the same size as stock with slotted/drilled Rotors? I saw them on ebay for like $250. Sometimes the car also pulls to either side when breaking like the car has a mind of it's own. I think I may need to have the tires balanced, I recently replaced a rear tire but I do not think that this is effecting anything and I always keep my tire presure correct at around 35psi. I am driving on type S wheels with falcon all season high performance tires. So what do you think ROTORS, Balancing?? Any other ideas!! Thanks for the help!!!!

 

Sounds like your rotors are warped. When I first got my TL, it was from the Toronto area, and I brought it down here to Atlanta, the brakes were awful. I just had them re-finish them or what not, and then that was fine. Then I bought new rims and tires and after all that was done it felt like I'd spent a million bucks on the car. Rides awesome now! I dont know a lot about brakes though, so wait until you get a second opinion from someone else here!

 

I too believe your rotors are warped and am curious to know how many other TL owners have experienced the same problem. I have had my rotors warp on three separate occasions. The first time (around 23K miles) Acura turned the rotors, installed new pads and sent me on my way. The seocnd time (around 40K miles) Acura wanted to turn the rotors, replace the pads and send me on my way once more. Realizing that my warranty was about to run out and that I had warped the rotors twice led me to believe there was something more serious than simple maintenance. My wife and I have owned Honda products since 1988 and have neved experienced warped rotors. My wife is the primary driver of our TL and she does not abuse or over cook the brakes. After repeated phone calls, I insisted that our Acura dealer replace the rotors. After much hesitation they agreed. When I picked up the car my local dealer claimed that they had just received a service bulletin from Acura about warped rotors and their solution was to replace the pads with a softer compound to fix the problem - at the expense of much longer stopping distances I might add. We now have 70K miles on our TL and you guessed it, the rotors are warped once again. This time I guess we will replace them with Brembo's or something a bit more durable. Has anyone else had a similar experience? Or is my wife secretly showing up to track days at our local race track?

Anthony Crisp
1999 Acura TL
Pure Stock - except for the soft brake pads

 

LOL - I have seen some women drive their TL's worse than me, so its possible! Yeah, you'll find that its a common occurrance to get warped rotors... Although I'm not sure about the brembos, you'll have to ask someone else. I think from what I've heard they're a pretty reliable product.

 

I know if you are going to go with all new brembo's it is going to cost you a few thousand, and if your TL is stock w 70k I do not know if that is a good investment for you. I now have like 53k on my 99 TL, only mod upgraded type s wheels whick makes no difference because tires are smaller. I replaced my break pads like 2-3k ago. they were almost to the metal and I was told it was good that I got them changed when I did. Let me ask you, when the rotors are warped is it extreamly noticable because mine shimmy is slight and it only pulls when I am almost at a stop but it pulls hard I think it could actually be the ground surface at the time of stoping. I also just had my 45k service and they told me I need new pads but the rotors were fine!! I am going to have them checked out anyway.. let me know what you guys think!

 

When I am going kinda fast like maybe 40mph+ and I brake kinda hard the car seems to turn to the right slightly and I have to compensate and it keeps turning to the right until I come to a stop. Is this normal? It feels very weird. It wont continue going straight when i brake.

 

I agree, getting a complete brembo brake kit is expensive and would set me back a couple grand. That would not be a wise investment for a TL. I was looking at getting only a set of Brembo OEM rotors. I have seen them on the TireRack website and a complete set of four rotors would cost less than $350. Of course, I would also have to replace pads, but this is still less expensive than having my local Acura dealer put on another set of rotors and pads that are almost guaranteed to warp.

Has anyone tried just the Brembo rotors? I have used them on my race car (Legends, 34 Ford Coupe) for the past two years and have had no problems. However, my race car only weighs 1,300 with me in it - a good bit lighter than the TL. :-)

Kevin - if you buy and install the drilled/slotted rotors you saw on ebay, I would like to hear if they improved braking and solved your shimmy issue. Best of luck!

Anthony Crisp
1999 Acura 3.2TL

 

OK Anthony, I am going to have the brakes checked out and see if the rotors are my problem. If they are I might as well upgrade the rotors now so they will last as long as I have the car. If there is not a problem I am not going to waist the money because I do not really race the car or ever break really hard that I need more stoping power, these cars are not all that fast ya know, well your wife might think so!! But anyway I will post my results once I have them checed out I am also going to have my tires balanced and see how the ride is! I bought my car certified used and it is still under that warrantee is any of this covered under the warrantee????

 

hmmm... now that you mention it, when I'm doing 110-120 and upwards, and I brake, not hard though, it pulses really hard... That doesn't happen on regular braking though, so I dont know what the hell is going on!

 

Well Comet, when you feel that pulse, its your ABS kicking in. I am so glad that I am not the only one feeling that pull when I am braking. I always knew of the warped rotors, which I now have again about 10K miles later. I thought that it may be because I have aftermarket rims on the car that those were somehow making it pull. I am due now for my 30k mile service and am going to get the rotors resurfaced. I noticed that last time I had them done, they replaced my front pads and charged me for it! I kinda think I might need rear pads because my car does not lock still like it did before when I put on my emergency brake. I will pay for rear pads, but I will be damned if I am going to pay for another set of front pads after only about 10k miles!