My brakes have recently starting pulsing when stopping at all speeds and have a heavy vibration at any speed as well. I am aware that is it warper rotors or deposited pad material, probably both as the rear disks have some material on them. Anyway, I can either go the route of getting the disks redone, having the disks replaced with OEM ones or going after market. This car is driver about 100 miles a day, half city half local now, so I need something that will last a bit. I am also aware that I will need some new pads if I go with any of the 3 routes above. So the question is, Should I go with NEW OEM, Recut Rotors or with After market ones, and if after market, which brand and style (slotted, cross-drilled). BTW, Its been about 3 years for the TL being made so I need to do a brake fluid change, are there any other fluid brands to consider besides the acura one?

Thanks for the help

 

I use Valvoline Synthetic Brake fluid DOT4 cost $6 per qt- thats plenty for the job

Already many threads discussing gen3 brakes
Are you brembo fronts?

The OE warps easy so why cut them or replace with same?

 

I have an AT, so no brembos. I already read all of the threads and the answers are all mixed up, getting me confused. All i can eliminate now is cutting of the rotors, as they will warp again will less rotor surface than before. Now the choice is OEM or Aftermarket. Anyone want to chime in with their experience with aftermarket rotors...

 

If you have a good mechanic that is a non-acura dealer I would ask them. Brembos are pricey and unless you want them I would check out other options. Cutting the OEMS is insane as people have pointed out. But if you get an aftermarket rotor make sure you get something that is of greater quality than the OEM. I once replaced the rotors with something that was about the same as OEM and since the car had 90K on it I decided that whatever they had would be good enough. Well they rotors made a noise and I took it back and they turned them slightly to get rid of the noise. They said they would wear in but I said that is not how any brakes that I had were when new.

 

There are a number of great aftermarket choices. ROTORA, Stoptech, Racingbrake, etc. I have found great success with ROTORA and Stoptech.

 

Aftermarkets are fine but,,, As a point of reference, factory or any rotor warping doesn't necessarily mean it will warp again after turning/cutting etc.. Sure, if you remove a bunch of material/thickness thats a different story (and should not happen if your brake repair source is worth a $hit - IE, their are manufacturer guidelines to follow when turning etc..)

Anyway, many rotors will warp early on due to stress relief. Turn them once and they are good for literally tens of thousands of miles. You have done enough research to know if saving money is part of your plan. If so, pull the front rotors off and have them turned for ~$10-15 each. Since you don't have a 6MT, factory replacement pads on the front are cheap. Overall, depending on how you drive and how much you want to spend - swapping out all the rotors in not necessary. Just start with the fronts and go from there.

Heck, ~15000 miles ago I turned the front rotors on my 5AT TL and never even changed the pads. It's been perfect ever since.

Now, if you're wanting slotted rotors as a mod and don't mind the significant additional cost for what could be a simple fix, their is no better time than now...

Good luck

 

I'm with KJSmitty ^^ on machining/re-surfacing rotors as a good option, not just "acceptable." My '88 Integra had a slight warpage and the rotors were machined within the first 4000 miles- no problems after that, and I think it was machined 1x more before being changed out for new rotors.
Every other vehicle I owned has had re-surfaced rotors at least once where new brake pads were put on, with no problems thereafter. We just had the Odyssey brake pads changed and rotors machined; no problems either (our mechanic also changed out the brake fluid with Honda OEM since it was at the 3-year mark).

The mechanics/techs are supposed to help bed the new pads/discs for you as well; I did that myself as well with a couple of cars where I changed the pads myself.