Hey guys, my car is 4 years old and 35000 km. Canadian car with salty roads in winter. Took it to the dealership today for the safety inspection before buying out the lease. Mechanic said I needed new pads and rotors. Showed me the left front where the inner pad had a big crack but wasn’t actually worn thin. Mechanic said due to lack of brake service.

Now, I follow the MM religiously. The B9 service for brake service has never come up. I told the mechanic this and he was actually surprised saying the brakes should have been serviced at around 25000 km. Is the mechanic right? Should I be doing this with every B service even if subcode 9 doesn’t come up? Why even have a separate subcode 9 then? I read up on this online and most people clean and lube the slide pins and such when they change pads but not usually in between. Am I just unlucky that my pads decided to die early on me?

The other thing I want to understand is exactly how this happened. The mechanic said the inner pad was basically stuck to the rotor (not noticeable when driving or braking). I asked him if the caliper was seized and he said no. I was in a rush so didn’t pursue this further at the time. But if this is lack of lube for the slide pin, shouldn’t both pads be affected? A seized pin would mean the caliper can’t retract the outer pad too right? Or do you guys think the pads are getting stuck where they meet the pad retainers? Any insight would be really appreciated. I try my best to take good care of the car and I really feel like I totally failed here.

 

Since I live in the land of non-metric, you have about 22k miles on the car and 4 years, so you dont drive very much. I do around 20-22k miles a year! How do you drive? For me, 20k miles out of brakes before they really start to wear out is normal given how I drive. Most other people get a lot more. If you drive fast and brake hard that could lead to premature wear.

Stuck pads/calipers usually means poor lubrication which I would definitely think the salty Canadian roads attributed too. If you then wash the car more due to the salt, and spray the rotors and calipers, you could be striping more lubrication from them. Harsh weather conditions will definitely affect all of that.

The good news is, its just pads and rotors. Which if you can change yourself, is a pretty cheap service depending on the level of performance you want. For $200-300 USD you can get everything you need and its only a 4 beer job in terms of time.

 

Thanks Twism86. It’s a family car, so driven “normally” by me and the wife, mix of city and highway. Mostly city. We’re not racing it or anything lol.

The outer pad was in good shape though. It was the inner pad that was more worn out and cracked. I understand that for floating calipers, the inner pads do normally experience more wear compared to the outer but this seemed more than I would expect. We actually don’t wash the car often at all. Usually leave that to the rain. I did include the info about this being a Canadian car and salty roads because I certainly get that could be contributing. I guess I am just surprised that this happened even though I followed the MM. The B is just inspected various components of the car and B9 is the actual brake service as I understand it. So, should I do the brake service every time the B code shows up even if there is no 9? I am fully capable of doing this service, it’s just that I wasn’t aware it needed to be done! There wasn’t even a caveat in the manual saying okay if living with salty roads in winter do the brake service earlier (like they do for changing the cabin filter earlier if driving in dusty conditions).

 

Hey Tachyon flux, sorry to hear of your brake pad experience. I've learned the pit-falls of DIY brake service over the past 25 years, and have seen your car's problem beginning to emerge frequently. Your mechanic did not give you the real cause of the inner pad seizing. What happened was corrosion (rust) build-up in the caliper slots that hold the ends of the pads. Winter road salt is the culprit here. Even worse since liquid brine has been used in some areas Anyway, this rust build-up squeezes the pads causing them to bind. So, the service the brakes really need is just cleaning the rust off the caliper slots, unfortunately labour-intenive! I try to do this every year when I change over from winter tires to all seasons.

 

Thank you so much, I was wondering about that! It didn’t make sense for it to be the slide pin alone. I just want to make sure I understand, when you say caliper slots, you mean where the little bits of the pad top and bottom that meet the retainer clips right? I understand for the brake service, we should clean and grease those areas so that the pads can slide in and out smoothly. I suspected this might have been the issue. From now on I will do this service yearly.

 

I agree with this assessment. Rust begins to build up between the stainless clips and the caliper bracket. This causes an effect known as rust jacking, which tightens the space between the pad "ears" and the bracket.

Normally a brake pad can be easily moved with the tip of a finger. When rust jacking occurs, it often takes a screwdriver to force the pad from the bracket.

Each spring, when I switch to my summer tires, I take an extra 15 minutes (per wheel) to remove the caliper, and then the Stainless clips. I uses a wire brush to clean the rust from the bracket, and the crud from the clips. I also put a thin layer of grease on the bracket before snapping the clips back into place. Obviously this isn't to reduce friction between moving parts, but to reduce future rust buildup.

I also check that the sliding pins move easily, and only lubricate them when they feel sticky.

​​​​​​I have followed this procedure for years, and usually change front pads every 20,000km (12,500 mi) with 25% remaining pad. That is why I am amazed that I have 102,000km (63,000 mi)on my RDX and still have about 60% pad life remaining.

 

In 25+ years owning different cars I have never had so called “brake service” and never had issues. I do periodically inspect my pads from outside for wear

 

Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom!

 

I wonder whether you live in a place with better climate. Canadian winters with salty roads suck!

 

NJ, mild winters with salt

 

What is the conversion from a "4 beer job" to hours? Is that the new barter currency? I'd be happy to pay quadruple that to get them done (obviously after completion - as I want those new installed brakes to work)!

 

I got 2021 with about 25k miles and according to Acura the pads are still good. Always in the green after their inspection. I'm all about the engine breaking. One of the things I miss most about a manual. Use your paddles to engine break as much as possible. Just be mindful of people riding ur ass

 

Not a currency, as I would charge wayy more than 4 beer for a brake job! I use that as timing, about how many beers will I consume during the course of the work in my drive way. Oil change is a 1 beer job. Spark plugs, 2 beers. Inner tie rods I once did on my wife's Pontiac... leave the case, bring more beer when I start cursing and have a tow truck on standby!

 

That was the best with my 5spd Subaru. If someone was too close, drop that sucker down into 2nd and back up on them real quick with no lights!!!!