Long story short, I own a 2010 TSX. Went in for my third service at 21,900 miles and was told my rear brake pads were at 2mm, and required replacement. I thought that was a little early, since I drive like an old guy, considering I started driving in 1965. My TSX is not covered by the class action suit on the rear pads, so I was on my own. I called Acura corporate, and, after several phone calls, agreed to pay half, with Acura picking up the other half. The total amount was $216 at Barber Acura in Bakersfield, with my part being $108, for new rear pads and machining the rotors. That was last weekend. Fast forward to today. I took a friend's 2010 TSX to Sierra Acura in Alhambra, CA, for its second service, at 15001 miles. I was waiting for the service to be completed when the service writer called me and said the rear brakes were worn to 3mm and required replacement. The amount quoted to replace the pads and machine the rotors was $335! I told the service writer that I had the same exact service performed in Bakersfield for $216, less the Acura share. His explanation was "there must be a different tax rate in Bakersfield!" Needless to say, the brakes were not replaced today. Sounds like Acura corporate will be getting another phone call about premature rear brake wear, since this TSX is not covered by the class action law suit, either. What did Acura do to the brakes as a result of the class action suit? Did they change the pad material or the calibration of the electronic brake force distribution or brake assist? Doesn't sound like they did anything!

 

Hello,

I can't be certain if I had my rears replaced before 10k miles, but I do remember it being way too soon seeing I didn't hot rod the car either, *born* in 67, LOL.

I did my own pad replacement with the superceded part numbers below.



This is what my pads looked like when they were squealing.
Notice the inboard pad (the most worn one)



I can see from the pic that the composition appears to be the same, I remember thinking they looked like compressed Frito's corn chips, strange friction material.

Here's the diagram supplied with the superceeded pad set.







There are two primary remedies in this revision (or maybe three if the friction material is updated.)

1) The affected vehicles had an assembly error or specification error in the pin placement. See the sheet above and inspect your calipers to ensure they were flipped as directed. One of them has...the term escapes me at the moment...chamfered sides. Two 'sides' are round, the other, flat. The diagram does a good job showing the corrected placement. If the tech ignored the tech bulletin, or if you got an old set before the supercession, there wouldn't have been any info like this for them to change.

2) There is a spring that's installed on the top of the backing plates to keep them spread apart after releasing the brake pedal. It looks like a combination of the incorrect pin placement and lack of a spreader spring contributed to the inside pad dragging and wearing out prematurely. See the spreader spring below.



Here's the pins original location, and the revised location.





The pic above shows the corrosion on the pins in their original location. There could have been an assembly oversight of lack of pin lubrication to cause this kind of corrosion with so few miles.

I don't know if you want to check this out yourself or take it back to the dealer. I would, at minimum, verify the part numbers on your first replacement to insure they used the new pads and not old ones. Also, you can look at the caliper assembled on the vehicle in order to see if there is a spreader spring installed. It's visible through the reveal in the caliper body.

Hope this helps, if you have any other questions, feel free to PM me.

HD

 

You know, looking at these pictures, one might be able to verify pin location by looking at the heads on the pins. I don't remember noticing them looking different while doing it, but looking at these pics, it kinda looks like the chamfered pin has clear, sharp edges to the hex, where the round pin has kind of a radius to the edges of the hex on the top of the bolt.

So, anyone might be able to check the rear calipers by looking at the bolt head and looking for the spring through the caliper window.

 

Hi- newbie here.

I bought a new 2010 TSX and don't drive much. Just took it in for my second A-1 maintenance at 20,023 miles. I am a "granny" style driver since I just cart my kids around from home to school and around town. Got the same news- rear pads are at 3MM and fronts are at 7MM. I am not mechanical at all- how can I communicate with the service guy and/or corporate about this without sounding like an idiot and get some sort of action. The A-1 service was $90 and the rear brake job was quoted at $230. Any helpful advice is appreciated.

 

I am burning 1/32 every month. I'll have worn out pads every 18k miles. The dealer and corp pretty much said that's normal. It really pisses me off too since i drive a lot of highway.

At this rate i'll have to repalce pads every 9 months.

 

may as well invest in aftermarkets at this point. i only got like 11-12K off my first, and they told me it was covered under the lawsuit, until i found out it wasnt! just got the fronts replaced for the first time a month or two ago. how can they tell me its normal for the rears to last 12-15K when my fronts were nearly 30K? dont the fronts do more too since its FWD?

 

go aftermarket. on my last car, my front brakes wore out at 25k, replaced them with hawks hps pads and they lasted me well over 50k. i plan to get hawks or something when my pads wear out.

 

^^this

from my understanding, accords/tsx's....the rear brake engages first then the front when the brakes are applied to take the stress off the fronts and decrease the nose dive effect. hence the rear brakes wearing faster than the fronts. this was according to a SA at my dealer who had worked for a honda dealer for a long time before working at acura.

go aftermarket, the pads will most likely last longer than OEM.

 

Must be lucky-original brakes measured recently at 4mm for rears and 7mn fronts

 

The front brakes are NAO linings (Non-asbestos organic), which is the typical type of brake pad in U.S. . The rear linings (at least on the V6) are metallic. They are dusty, noisy, and wear at a much faster rate... but the trade off is a higher coefficient of friction (mu level) and better stopping performance.