wstncups

I have a 2008 Acura TL Type S with 42,000 miles on it. I need to replace the brembo pads again and probably the rotors as they feel thin. These $150 pads do a nice job, except all the freaking dust they create, but I am tired of needing brakes every 20,000 miles.
I need some feedback on what some have you have or are having good experiences with. I think I would like slotted front rotor but it's not the most important. What is important is a quality safe product that is quiet. I hate the sound of squeaky brakes, it's like nails on the chalkboard to me!

Thanks in advance for your quality input, I really appreciate it. I have been reading, reviewing, searching for several days, my head is spinning.

07tl-s6spd

iTrader: (1)

you went through oem pads in 20,000 miles?..

wstncups

Why does that surprise you? Do you also have brembo brakes? That's about average unless you do mostly highway driving, which I don't.

Elegant TYPE S

iTrader: (2)

Time to invest in some Duralast Cmax Golds so that you can just keep getting new pads for free when they wear down from Autozone.

SilverJ

The Brembo brakes for everyday driving suck. They dust up like crazy and you have to replace them in 20,000 miles or less. I bought my car with 25,000 miles on it with new brembos--I now have 38,000 miles and need new brakes. I do NOT drive my car hard at all. I will be switching to the cmax gold brakes ASAP.
Now if your taking your car to the track or are interested in being in your own private version of the fast and furious, then Brembos may be for you. For the other 98% of us there are cheaper, better alternatives.

Excelerate

iTrader: (1)

I'd recommend STOPTECH Performance Pads and STOPTECH/Powerslot slotted rotors. We've had a lot of experience with a number of different manufacturers and this stuff hands down the best bang for the buck: great durability, higher quality alloy compounds, good performance, good price.

Check out our website for pricing or call/email/PM us for pricing or links.

murph145

i am running some ebay ceramic type pads and they work fine.... my brembo pads went out around 25K miles too and hit my rotor and messed it up...

my new pads have 70K miles on them and still have over 50% life on them lol.... also no brake dust so my VS-XX's stay happy!!!

YeuEmMaiMai

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that you change your driving habits and learn to look a little farther up the road so you can anticipate stopping better. Letting your car coast a little before applying the brakes does WONDERS for helping your brakes last.

<- drives an 02 CL type S with supposidly even crappier brakes and replaced first set of brake pads at 81,000 miles and I do a 60/40 split on city highway......

Also rides a yamaha vino 125 and while most people replace their pads at 5-6K mile intervals, I changed mine once in 23K miles......and those have about 4 square inches of surface area total......

If you are hard on your brakes, then by all means get something better.... If you do not like replacing pads and rotors every 20K change how you drive your car.....and get some better pads that do not wear down as quickly

07tl-s6spd

iTrader: (1)

well i guess since im 6mt and use the gears to slow down a lot..the pads last a lot longer

wstncups

Amazing! Sometimes peoples comments just kill me. "look a little farther up the road so you can anticipate stopping better". Obviously dude you have never dealt with Brembo Brakes and have no idea what you are talking about. I dont mean to be rude, just be thoroughly educated on the topic before you respond on here!

Bearcat94

I think there is more to it. I have the '02 TL-S and our pads lasted a long time too, about 65,000 or 70,000 miles iirc; almost 7 years.

I also have the '07 TL-S and went through 2 sets of Brembo pads in ~50,000 miles (47,xxx, I think). They definetly wear faster than non-Brembo brakes. Some of the MT guys get more out of them and driving style does matter to some extent, but that'll get you from. say, 20k miles to 25k or 30k miles.

habeebster123

I have 07 Type-S. I originally replaced my pads with factory/dealer ones which cost $170 which only lasted around 25k. I switched to ceramics (i think it was around 40-50$). Works just as good and last longer. DONT NEED THE BREMBOS!!!!!!

94eg!

I like I've got about 46k on my brembos and they are still going. Probably getting thin now as the pedal feel isn't what it used to be. I will probably go with Stoptechs pads & Centric premium rotors next time around to save some $$. Those pads are about half the price and almost as good. Centric also has an OE compound for these brakes as well. Costs a little more than Stoptech, but a lot less than Brembo.

Centric formula similar to Brembo:


Stoptech:

pohljm

Feeling lots better about not having Brembo's. 78K and still on original pads FTW

PSURob12

I'm in the same boat. Dealer said I was close to needing brake work and quoted me $1300 for:

New front pads & Rotors
New rear pads & Resurfaced rear rotors

No thanks. I'm taking it to a local guy Friday to have them look at it and give me an estimate. Sorry, stealership, but NO THANKS.

PSURob12

I still don't get how this works. How do they make money? Are the pads any good?

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

What he's saying is maybe your driving style affected your pad life. He just stated that in his experience Brembo's last longer than that, which is different than your experience...so technically you should and could do a little more research before opening your mouth too.

I personally had my brembo's last about 35K. I went with Cmax golds from autozone and am on my 2nd set at 76k miles now. They don't ask ANY questions when you take them the original box/pads back. They just hand you a new set. They make money because most people either don't keep their cars or don't remember to go back and get new pads. NOT ME!

With a slight knowledge of how to turn a wrench anyone can easily change the pads and remove rotors to get them resurfaced OR replaced with some decently priced rotors. The main thing that makes our cars stop well is the huge quad piston (both sides of disc) caliper. Overally, I'd say the "bite" is a little reduced from the brembo's but at a one time charge of fifty bucks to replace and about 2 weeks before you get the dusting you'd get in 2 days with the oem pads...I'll take em.

94eg!

They make money because it's a cheap pad compound that they sell at a premium price. Plus most people don't hold on to their cars very long either.

Additionally, this compound eats rotors pretty quickly. Therefore you will have to buy new rotors too. They probably make a lot more money on rotors because they charge a premium price for low-end rotors too.

Plus they always upsell the little 3 cent packets of caliper grease for $1.

Also, be aware that if you wear through to the backing plate, you void the warranty (lord knows why). I had this happen on my mother-in-laws Pilot. Pads wore unevenly and hit the backing plate before the squealer tab which was on the other end. Pads only lasted 2 years of 80% highway driving as well.

I would rather buy real pads again and again, but that's just me.

Bearcat94

That poster doesn't have Brembos. His brakes are basically the same as 3G base TL fronts.

He was comparing apples and oranges, which I pointed out at the time.

PSURob12

this sounds horrible. I'll pass.

mY sLOW UA6

I was planning on sticking with the Brembos, but the little brake dust with the ceramic pads does sound good.

94eg!

Try Stoptech. Still a street-performance compound, but a lot less dust. Still roughly $70 shipped for the set though.

mY sLOW UA6

How is the stopping distance compared to the Brembos?

94eg!

I couldn't really say. I'm running these pads on my Civic, and not the TL. They are supposed to have slightly less initial bite, but much higher heat capacity. I can say it's definitely a high quality pad, and the price is very reasonable.

Stopping distance is more a function of your tires though. Of course having slightly less friction up front should actually allow the rear tires to do more work, BUT....the TL has an electronic brake distribution system, that varies front & rear bias anyways.

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

Try the 8th Gen accords...I've YET to get more than 17K on the rear pads on my fiancee's. MUCH worse than Brembos and I promise it doesn't stop as well either.

mY sLOW UA6

Thanks for the advice, if i do them myself then i'll try these pads.

YeuEmMaiMai

lol I have never ever in my life have to replace brake pads like that on a car. If you think for a minute that your driving style has nothing to do with how long your brakes last.....well let's just say I'm not surprised that you are eating pads like that

other cars I have owned

'94 accord replaced front brakes at 134K for the FIRST time
'98 accord NEVER replaced front brakes and I sold that car at 100K
'89 sable with 10.x" rotors replaced brakes for the first time at 102K
'92 sable with larger 11.x" rotors never replaced front brakes car was totalled at 143K

You see, letting dat dere foot off of the gas pedal and letting the car coast down before applying the brakes = LESS energy required to stop the car and voilla longer lasting brakes.....but gee I guess I should get more edumacted how dem dere brakes work.......lawl.....

btw I have seen how the VAST majority of people drive I have been witnessing it for the last 27+ years

1. right up on the dude's rear in front of them
2. stopping hard
3. Brake acellerate brake accellerate..etc

YeuEmMaiMai

well you gotta admit that getting an extra 4-9K out of those pads is an improvement compared to 21K, right

BTW, a lot of dudes complain that they only get 25-35K out of the front brakes on the CL-S- come to find out in other threads the drive the dang thing like a race car.......

I'm not saying that the only thing to make his brakes last longer is to change his driving style but it sure does go a long way towards making them last longer....

94eg!

I got over 90k miles out of my OEM 03 Honda Element 5MT brake pads before we sold the thing.

Our 05 Pilot still has the original rear pads at 104k. Front pads were changed at 94k.

My wife & I also get much better than average MPGs, so I would also say it's more about driving habits.

PSURob12

took my car in to a local shop for a 2nd opinion on my need for brakes....

they told me I have 35% left up front, 40% in back. I had it at the dealer about a month ago for B1 and they told me I would need brakes soon and asked if I wanted to do it then, and quoted me 1300 for new front rotors, new front pads, resurfaced rear rotors, and new rear pads.

I'm half tempted to call the dealership and tell them to %&^& off and I'll be back.....NEVER.

Bearcat94

$1300 is highway robbery.

They told me something like $960 and I thought they were nuts.

habeebster123

I've used brembo pads and much much less expensive ceramic pads.
Trust me YOU DO NOT NEED BREMBO PADDDSS!!!!! JUST GET THE CHEAPER CERAMIC ONES FROM ANY STORE. Also, they are very very easy to replace yourself!!!!!

GarfieldTheCat

I have an 07 TL-S and down to 1mm left on my front pads. Rotors need to be replaced as they are now too thin to resurface. The quote from the dealer is $700 for new brembo pads and rotors. I found a place with a good reputation and they're gonna do it for $575 using oem. Is this still too much to pay?

Bearcat94

Considering you can DIY with basic tools in an hour or two, yeah, imho that's too much to pay.

I'd rather buy the parts after-market and pocket the ~$200 dollar difference.

Regarding their "using oem" parts. Actual OE rotors and pads from Acura at wholesale are:

Pads: ~$160 = ~$160
Rotors: 2 x ~$100 = ~$200

Total ~$360 for OEM parts.

<strike>So either they're getting parts somewhere else (which may be just fine, a Brembo blank is a Brembo blank) or you're getting a really good deal on Labor.</strike>

Fixed price as per below.

NTP66

I can't speak to replacing the rotors on a TL-S, as I've never had to do that myself (yet), but for about $200 in parts, you could do the entire job yourself in a few hours with basic tools.

I just replaced the Brembo pads on my 07 TL-S with StopTechs yesterday, and spent more time taking off the damn wheels than I did swapping pads - and this was with using air tools to get the lugs off/on. It's ridiculous how easy it is to swap front pads on the TL-S. Here's a video of a guy swapping the pads on his STi, which also has Brembos (same exact install, minus the cotter pin): .

94eg!

You only need one set of pads.

Bearcat94

I'm such a dumbass. Good math skills though.


I'll fix my original post.

Bearcat94

Nice vid.

One thing I really didn't like was using a screw driver directly on the piston to compress them. If you damage a piston boot, you're going to have problems.
While the old pad is in place, you can use it to fully compress the pistons. Basically exactly what they did with the old pad, but keep going until the piston is completely compressed.

The other thing they did not do (or didn't mention) was greasing the pads/shims to minimize noise. Brembo provides a particular grease for this if you buy OE pads.


There are additional DIY's for the brakes (Front & Rear; Brembo & base) as well as rotors on this page of DIY/FAQ threads: https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-2004-2008-93/3g-tl-garage-faq-3g-tl-newbies-553554/

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

That's a great video, and if you see that video you should be able to do this. It's SO simple. I agree about pressing against the pad too...AND, use I actually use a chisel that offers more leverage to push back.

PS, the rears, a little 4" c clamp works fine on...same deal, press on the old pads to compress.

sparky57

I have an '04 6MT with Brembos at 101,000 miles. Just replaced front pads for the second time and rears for the first. Pricey, but I think they're worth it. Don't want to sound negative, but perhaps you are a bit harder on them than the norm.