Went in for my first oil change and tire rotation today at the dealer. When finished, the service guy told me they found scoring on my rotors and recommended the rear ones be replaced for $400. does this sound like BS to you guys? my car was bought brand new 4 months ago and has about 7,200 miles on it. when i said that, he kind of was like "uhh yeah, that's a little premature for this type of thing to happen but it happens." i don't drive it that hard or anything. let me know what you guys think.

 

Yes, premature by a long shot.
Suggest you talk to Service Manager first about comp. replacement. Then up the line if necessary. Be polite and professional to get it done at as low a level as possible. Let us know what happens, good luck.

 

Way to premature.... Why dont you suggest that Acura pay for your new rotors. Especially if they can not show that you are driving the car to hard..

 

thanks for the responses guys.

question: if my rear rotors are somehow at the point they need to be replaced, shouldn't i be noticing some fading performance, noises, anything? i haven't noticed a thing. i'm really skeptical about the whole thing.

i'll probably get it checked out by another mechanic (trusted/local) to see what the real deal is. i only went to the dealer since i had a free oil change. first time there and already suspicious of them. how nice.

 

unless you are flogging the car you probably wouldnt notice anything wrong....

your front brakes will do upwards of 60% of the braking (maybe even more). so there will be very little performance difference, fading only happens once the brakes start to overheat. and you will likly feel nothing in the pedal.

listen with the windows down and the radio and air conditioning off. you might be able to hear something. but i doubt it unless there is some serious scoring on the rotors... you could also just plain ol take a look at them. look for any unusual markings, scrapes and the like.

i dont think you have an issue, i think the dealer is trying to milk a buck. but id rather be safe then sorry, have your mechanic, a trusted mechanic look at it... if he even advises repair talk to acura about replacing them. in most cases the will work with you if the car has that few mileage on it.

 

https://estore.honda.com/epc/asp/rjane007.asp

here are the prices for the replacment parts, directly from acura if worse comes to worse....

the rotors are $94.95 each side (2 required) and a pad set is $58.30

total in parts is $248.20, they are raping you on labor.... at the very most a skilled tech should need no more then 30 min per side.... probably less... so an hour tops for the whole job...

 

now you know why dealers give you free oil changes. - i have 4 of them - yet to use any of them but figure they will try to repace all kinds of stuff. Even if the dealer is giving you an accurate evaluation - you can ALWAYS get the exact same service done for 30%-50% cheaper. If my dealer wants to do any work it will have to warrenty work I suppose some computer and tech stuff might have to be done at the dealer but hopefully I will never have to deal with that. In my opinion there is no reason to have a dealer do brakes, rotors, exhaust, tires (all the common stuff) unless you like emptying you pockets and filling theirs. If i am going to be out of pocket my trusted mechanic will have the final evalution before I spend a dime.

Z

 

Same thing happened on my TL-S when I first got it. Talk to the service manager or go to a different dealer. You WILL be able to get it done under warranty.

 

The other question is why are the rear brakes gone and not the front?

 

i'm at 26,000 miles and my rotors need to be replaced, but I do push my TL. Usually your rear roters last longer then your fronts. Thats weird that something like that would happen. Try see if u can get that covered under warrenty.

 

I'd go to an independent and have them check the brakes. If they are gone, I would start at the Service Manager and then ACS for warranty replacement.

 

The rotors should not have a problem at 7200 or even 15000 unless you are beating the crap out of them. I agree with the fact that the price is out of line at 4 bills. I am sure they use a standard labor rate of about 1 hr per wheel and charge about 75 bucks an hour.

I have had a couple of cars where the rear brakes wore faster than the front. I also got 83000 miles (trade-in mileage) from my brakes on my CL S. At 75,000 miles they said that my brakes were about 1/2 worn which was probably from using the SS a lot. Yet there were two trannies involved.. ahem..

All of the acuras I have owned (3) have never had a brake replacement.

1st (traded at 67,000) 2nd (traded at 48,000) 3rd (traded 83,000)

Acura was known for shorter stopping distances... maybe things have changed...

If you have to pay the dealer 4 bills to put the same crap back on the car, then I would go to a private shop and have something better installed.

 

What the hell, I never owned a car that required the rotors to be replaced so soon, pads yes. somi2002 are you locking up the brakes at each light???¿¿¿??? As for AT1, I would see if Acura will replace under warranty. Seems like something malfunctioned to have gone through a rotor in 7200 miles, especially the rear rotor. Crap, that would make the car to expensive to own, $400 every 7-8000k miles. Good thing I find these things out now so I can sell my car before I go broke.

 

You can get the rotors for $75.96 and the pads for $46.64 here. But at least the rotors should be covered under warranty. The pads are considered wear items and are usually not covered, but if the rotors caused the pads to go bad, they will cover them also.

 

Ron, are all the pics (most) you post coming from the Service Manual?

Good stuff!!
How much was that?

 

Imagine having to replace brakes and tires each year... 1600 a year to own the car.... !!!

 

In this case, the picture is the same one as you will see if you click on the link, which is the dealer, but most of the pictures I post are from the service manual, which is about $76 with shipping and handling from www.helminc.com. More info about the service manual in the back of the owner's manual.

 

I would never tell a customer they need to replace their rotors at 7000 miles, and would counsel my employee heavily if he did so. I'd guess they don't even need replacing unless you have a symptom, but I can't day for sure without looking at them.

I'd speak with the service manager & see what he thinks.

 

Same thing happened to me with my 03 TL-S. They fixed it for free under warranty @ 12,000 miles.

 

Arent brakes under warranty until 12,000 miles. In fact, I know this for sure!

 

There is no mention of any time period in the Warranties booklet for brakes. It does say that the replacement of maintenance items, such as spark plugs, filters, wiper blades, or brake pads/linings, are not covered unless they are defective in material or workmanship (page 11).

They would also be covered if something else caused them to wear out, like a defective rotor, wheel bearing, caliper, or other defective part which affected the brakes.

 

If a rotor goes bad before 24000 miles IMHO it is defective!!! You should get at least 50K out of them... If you are racing the car that is one thing, but normal driving and even spirited driving... Considering the problems, Acura should warranty the rotors to at least 30K .. maybe not the pads....

 

I agree with everybody else. That is way too early. I'd pressure them to cover it under warranty.....If they are indeed bad.

 

granted this is a different comparison, but i thought it funny either way. i have read a few places (motor trend, car and driver, road and track) that the enzo ferrarri was real hard on its brakes. if they werent bedded properly they wouldnt last long. or if you raced the car hard core (which is what ferrarri's are built for right?) that the brakes seldom last over 5000 miles. granted these are under extreme conditions..... their owners had to shell out 15,000 dollars for new ceramic rotors and pads!!!!! then again this is the same company that charges like $30 per quart of oil and it needs like 12 quarts.... any other oil then theirs and the engine warrenty is void!!!! talk about stiff warrenty requirements

 

Yes I have seen and heard stories about cars that go through rotors and brakes 2-3 times a year... And the manufacturers voiding the warranty if you do not use their oil, etc...

I can't tell people here how many times I have talked to people who under ordinary circumstanses drive a 25k car and after the high tech explosion of the late 90s bought 70,000 cars (some even more expensive) only to discover that the oil at Kmart for 1.25 is rebranded as 12.00 oil ... lanor rates in the triple digits and well going to a particular dealership because this guy gary is a genius.

As one person put it he wishes he got as good a treatment when he went to the doctors...

That's it... I will start an HMO for cars. You pay your monthly fee and a co pay when you come in.

 

They replaced my '02 rotors under warranty at 24k - and also changed the pads as a Goodwill too.

 

all of these replies are really helpful. thanks guys.

i looked at the rotors today (it was dark last night when this whole thing happened) and i can't believe it, but the rear rotors are in fact scored, both of them. i ran my finger along it too and it's noticeable.

well, apparently this is very weird from what you are all saying, especially for both rear rotors and this early. i don't know what the hell happened, but whatever is, when i get it fixed, it better not happen again this soon.

fyi, the front rotors are perfect.

*shakes head* any comments?

 

Could you post a pics?
My at 9K+ looks like new.

 

Possible parking brake issue?

Hard to say without "seeing" the damage.
As mentioned - at most, 60/40 percentage split between front and rear "proportional" braking. Rear pads/rotor(s) life should exceed fronts near 3 to 1.

 

(to answer a recent question, i rarely use the parking brakes)

 

Just seeing squares w/red X here, try again please.

Sounds like a defect, when are you going to talk to the service manager?

 

I didn't see any red X here, try again please.



Thanks to ImageShack for Free Image Hosting

 

thanks for the imageshack link. i guess webshots couldn't handle it.