usmarinedelta

iTrader: (1)

Well it's come time to change brakes and I already have the highly raved CMAX golds for the front and new rotors and thinking about changing the rear too, now if I can not spend $55 for the rears and get away with something cheap then I wouldn't mind but I don't think the rears make that much of a difference in stopping any thoughts? Thanks.

Hi speed

iTrader: (3)

Are the rear pads worn down? Mine are like new at 90k. I think it's never a good idea to cheap out on brakes, but the backs do a lot less of the braking.

07TL-S

How do you like the CMAX gold's on the front?

ez12a

I have CMAXes on my brembos and they're perfectly suited for daily driving. Less initial bite than the OEM brembo pads but free lifetime replacements cant be beat on a DD car.

94eg!

I've installed Cmax on my mother-in-laws 03 and she killed them in 2 years (mostly freeway driving). Upon removal, I noticed the rotors were pretty chewed with many ridges and uneven wear. I also noticed each pad had a much different amount of wear and wear angle on it which kept the squeal-sensor from hitting the rotor even though the pad material was gone on the other corner of the same pad. I checked the calipers and all slide pins as well as the piston were in perfect operating condition. Autozone did let us exchange them even though they were NOT supposed to. They say it voids the warranty if you wear through the pad down to the backing plate. So even though I managed a free new set of pads, she was forced to purchase $70 in rotors.

On my wife's 04, I replaced the original OEM front pads at 97k miles with new OEM pads. The original rotors were still perfectly smooth, and the still plenty thick (had them measured at O'Rielly's. That meant there wasn't even cause to have them machined. The original rear pads are still going now with about 1/4" material left and their almost to 101k miles. Needless to say, I will only be using the OEM (Akebono) brake pad man from here on out with this car. For only $42, you can't go wrong. Plus they include all shims and Molykote77 for the pads & sliders.

What good is a lifetime warranty if you have to watch the pads like a hawk, and buy new rotors with every change?

Either way you go, you still have to buy the pad retainers. The C-max say they include all hardware, but they really only provide you with a couple replacment bolts. You still have to buy the $20 hardware kit from Autozone. I went with the $8 hardware kit from O'Reilly's and the $40 pads from Honda. I'm set for another 90k+ miles.

94eg!

Aw CRAP! Disregard the previous post. I thought I was still in the Honda Pilot forums... DOH!

maharajamd

iTrader: (1)

Lol.

To the OP, no offense, but if $55 for pads isn't cheap to you then I don't know what is. :/

flyromeo3

its amazing how people want "cheap" pads without realizing how important brake pads really are.

I associate cheap with lesser quality.
Perhaps OP meant inexpensive?

usmarinedelta

iTrader: (1)

Well there's people that use good pads up front like hawk pads and use different pads for the rear, I don't mind the $55 but there's a few other sets to choose from, and not wanting to jump to the best I can get if I don't need them, like would you jump to the best you can if you didn't need them like tires, hawk pads and such?

kibbles906

iTrader: (14)

i'd just go with the oem acura pads. theyre like 58 bucks.
cant go wrong with oem..i personally hate duracrap brakes!

maharajamd

iTrader: (1)

The rear brakes only get what, 20%? 30%? of the brake load? Personally I'd just match them with whatever is up front. But still, I think I paid like $70 for ET500s.... rears are cheap. I doubt you'd find anything under $50 that's worth a damn.

Bearcat94

I thought C-Max were cheap. Cost-wise, I mean.

94eg!

I would use the same pad compound front & rear so I didn't upset the original brake-bias of the car. On a car with ABS/VSA, the computer is pre-calibrated to a specific setup. Drastic changes in balance to the system can cause it's response time to slow down. This is why lots of big-brake kits actually result in longer stopping distances than stock.

Problem I have is that my 6MT comes with different pads compounds front & rear. I imagine this means using anything other than stock can/will upset the initial ABS/VSA calculations.

usmarinedelta

iTrader: (1)

Ok guys I just bought the CMAX's. As for them being cheap, their the best you can buy without having to wait and ordering online, since I'm doing the brake jobs front and rear tomorrow I needed them today. My point was if I didn't need something that good for the rear, why do it? But then again it's only like $55 so I shouldn't have even brought it up. There were ones from $18, $30, $38 and $54.99, I just didn't think the rear mattered that much to go for the top. I still have lots of pad life left on my rears but since I'm changing out the rotors I didn't want to use the used pads.

94eg!

Why are you changing out the rear rotors if the pads are still good?

usmarinedelta

iTrader: (1)

I've got highway vibrations when braking, meaning warped rotors. Since I'm replacing the front I might as well replace the rear.

MAS

iTrader: (3)

Huh?

usmarinedelta

iTrader: (1)

^^^ When driving on the highway and you brake, the steering wheel shakes, this usually means warped rotors, so i'm replacing the fronts, but while I'm at it I'm going to replace the rears as well.

TLDude876

iTrader: (7)

I dont see how the rear would contribute to the shaking

SpiderX1016

Why not?

ez12a

shaking through the steering wheel would be caused by front brakes (assuming brakes were the problem).

I think the OP is just doing it just to get all of them done, but really, he could probably leave them alone and be fine either way. This isnt like a timing belt job where you do the water pump too just cause you're in there. The rear brakes are completely separate.

usmarinedelta

iTrader: (1)

I"m doing them too because to me it just gives me peace of mind, knowing that all my brakes are new and don't have to worry about them for a very long time. From what I've searched online, it turns out that you can get vibrations from rear as well too.

Random. For those who say that braking only causes vibrations are caused by rotors, I have a second view on that. Lets say the owner before you over tighen the lugs causing the rotor to warp over time with the added heat. However one nut might be tighter than lets say the rest, meaning with heat the rotor where that tight nut is can warp it inward compared to the rest of the surface causing it to throw off it's rotation therefore creating a vibration. This is just theory, we'll have to see once I do the install.

I hate cars

You don't get vibrations in the steering wheel from the rear rotors. You can get vibrations from them, just not in the steering wheel.

A rotor is just a chunk of metal. There's absolutely no point in replacing a rotor just to have a new one. It's a complete waste of money. That's what I don't get, complaining about $55 pads and then replacing the rotors for no reason.

Rear pads should go 200,000 miles easily. I had to replace mine with a higher temp rating and when I pulled them off you could not see a difference between the new ones and old ones. That was at 90,000 miles.
If your brakes are fine when cold but you get vibration when hot, it's usually pad deposits. The stock pads are terrible about leaving deposits behind.