KeithL

OK my pads came today and all set, will get them installed next weekend. Can't wait. I noticed the rounds shims as well, not a brake expert, but they note that comes with them say they are to keep the brakes quiet, I have to believe they had some experience that led them to design those that way. I have not done brakes myself since drume brakes were standard ;-) I may attempt it otherwise Acura wants $178 to do all 4 corners, which does not seem bad to not break a sweat or get dirty.

Majofo

That's not terrible Keith
Just have to be patient while they do the swap for you
And don't fall for their upsells

Majofo

Swapping pads are real easy, but without the right tools, compressing the pistons can be tough.

BEAR-AvHistory

Big C clamp. The Acura Brembos were real fast IIRC pull two pins & pull the pads out. Compress the pistons slide in the pads & replace the pins. You did not even have to dismount the caliper.

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

^^^he's right, you know

kuzdu

KeithL

Well then I may ask then to reuse the stick shims then. Next Saturday they go in, can;t wait. Car is all coated with GTechniq's Crystal Serum, tinted and just needs the brakes. Took a decent round of phots that I will post later today and really digging the car. Jury still out on the stock tires, will likley ride them for a while, but was really spoiled by my DWS06s on my 15 TLX and A6. The issue is Acura picking 19 inch wheels. 19 inch tires are more expensive than even 20s. I learned that with my Audi, that when I sapped out the stock 19 wheels I went to 20s are the tires were cheaper and 20 looked better anyway.

kuzdu

Cool let us know how it goes, I'll be heading up to Canada for the weekend so i will let everyone know how the 8 hr drive is with the brakes, gonna put some layers of wax on the front of the car so the bugs will be easier to wash off. Stock tires are not to bad, on my 15 i had changed to sumitumo and they were way better.

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

can someone post a pic of the round shims please? i'm having a hard time picturing what they look like and how they are intended to be installed, especially when it is supposed to be replacing oem hardware.

KeithL

Majofo

Don't reuse the OE shims, use the piston shims.

TacoBello

kuzdu

Majofo

You barely have 1 mm of clearance. All brake kit manufacturers suggest at minimum 2 mm clearance. Brembo says 3 mm.
The pads you bought clearly state to not use the OE shims because it can cause overthickness.
It also states the provided shims will negate any squeals or brake related noise.



You even have what appears to be wheel rub on your caliper.



I suggest you do the same regardless of what your neighbor says.

BEAR-AvHistory

Agree with Majofo. All pads are not alike. Go with what the manufacture tells you. Same with their bedding instructions if any are included. If no instructions check their web site.

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

Neighbor is an aircraft mechanic, so he knows. ASSE certified.

Majofo

Well you're EASS certified
That counts for something

TacoBello

Yep, and if something goes horrendously wrong, you can't blame the pad manufacturer since you didn't follow the proper installation instructions in the first place.

BEAR-AvHistory

Agree. I fly upside down in 70 year old planes, but never screw around with brakes or steering. MFG instructions are Gospel for those items.

KeithL

OK EBC Redstuff at all four corners installed today $170 at dealership. Need to pamper them first 200 miles and will let you know. They feel immediately grippier, but the website says that is the bed in coating.

KeithL

@kudz was wondering if you followed the bedding instructions in the brakes? It says first 100 mile brake lightly then more aggressive second 100 miles then do 5 60 to 20 aggressive braking runs to fully bed brakes?

Also so far after a few days an about 60 miles loving these brakes, far better positive brake control. The stock pads just feel soft and these feel very engaged. Can't wait to not have to baby them any more. Well worth the investment. Dealer charged $170 to put them in and I had them use the piston shims that came with the pads. I have the original pads and shims for possible future use. We will see how well the rotors hold up as my 15 they were warped to hell.

kuzdu

Hey sorry just got back from Canada, the braking power is awesome with these pads. Drove to Canada and back racked up about 1200 miles on the pads and it worked great. I didn't do the bed in process, just was easy on it for the first 100 miles, they really bite once broken in on the highway coming from 100 to 60 is great. So far my rotors are good if they do warp later on i will change them to a better rotor. I'm thinking about getting performance tires the stock ones are ok but after that long drive i think i need something a bit more sporty with a firm feel

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

Why didn't you bed them in? That's normally very important to remove any old material and to deglaze

TacoBello

If the pads came with specific bed in instructions and you didn't follow them, you could very likely compromise them and your safety.

KeithL

KeithL

Quick update. Just over 200 miles on the new pads. Followed the full bedding process and I have to say there is a noticeable improvement over the stock pads. The brakes during early bedding were very grippy and you could feel that initial bite, almost a bit sudden. Now that they have settled in that initial bit is more smooth and linear. You can feel that theses pads have better stopping power. The stock pads always felt a bit spongy to me. You do feel the initial pad engagement and then as the car comes to a final stop you fell them bite in with a very slight hint of abruptness. I have not really jammed the pedal yet (other than the 5 60-20 bedding stops). Hard to tell on the dusting yet as they warn you the initial coating will be dusty. If were not leasing I likely would have done pads and rotors, but the pads alone upgrade was well worth it, much more confident stopping with less effort than the stock pads. My only regret is not doing this on my 15 TLX while I had it. The real test will be how the rotors hold up as my 15 they were warped like crazy likely due to all the excessive brake force needed to stop the stock pads under heavy braking.

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

I'm assuming OP is dead because he didn't bed them in properly...

kuzdu

Nope just busy with life, 1500 miles running strong no issues or vibration or warped rotors.

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

just braking your balls.
glad you're alive.
you should still bed the pads in. at this point, they probably have over time anyway.

kuzdu

yeahhhhh i know, so far so good the drive to Canada and back should have been good to the rotors and pads. So far smooth firm strong braking, glad i did this.

KeithL

kuzdu

Yup, mine died down a lot but still loving the pads

KeithL

Yeah I am assuming these are still bedding a bit, I believe the docs say 500-1000 miles, but I love them especially since I did all 4 corners, Funny when I did the 5 quick 60>20 stops for final bedding you could feel them fade, but I assume that si the crappy rotors heating up. If I owned this car I would have done rotors as well. I can't believe how much I enjoy this car even with the crappy ZF9, this car would have been amazing with the new 10AT or a DCT. I hope if they do a Type-S they put in a 7 or 8 speed DCT.

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

Higher dusting than stock would be a no go for me...unless it's a track car it wouldn't be worth the added frustration.
I'm about to go ceramic on my V for this reason

KeithL

Ont he APSEC you can't see the dust due to the dark wheels. I went Ceramic on my A6 since German pads are horrible with the dusting. I did notice slight reduction in grip, but the Akebono ceramics were dust free.

KeithL

Thought I would post a quick update on the EBC Redstuff pads. I have just over 1000 miles on them and all I can say is these are awesome pads. Very noticeable difference in brake feel and stopping power. The bite nice initially and provides confidence in the way the car comes to a stop. A very linear feel. They do tend to have a last second tad of abruptness as you come to a very slow crawl stop, but noting obnoxious. I did all four corners and while they say this are "low dust" there is noticeable dust. On the ASPECwheels it is not really noticeable, but I would not be very keen on these with silver wheels. All 4 wheels have brake dust with the fronts a tad more than the back. It reminds me more of my wife's various RDXs as they always had more brake dust than any of my TLXs or TLs. I do think the Brembos in my old Type-S probably created more dust. I am curious to see how long these will last, but well worth the investment. As for noise, they are perfectly quiet. The dealer installed them using the supplied piston shims and they have never made any noise. I can't recommend these pads enough as I never liked the factory TLX brakes and always felt they were soft and lacking in grip. All in with dealer install was $370 and I would do it again in a heart beat.

Christopher.

RE Udate: Thank you for the update! Good information - based on your opinion I think I'll go with those pads, but, for me I'll just wait until I need new pads anyway.

Could you tell us the actual part # of the pads you used?I was in for my 2nd oil change at the dealer the other day, he told me my tires and break pads are both almost "like new" still. Surprising with almost 10,000 miles on the car considering I like to have fun with it almost every time I drive. I assume? the tires aren't that much better at wear resistance than the Michelin Primacy that my Toyota Sienna had? I replaced the tires on that minivan at 25,000 miles and the dealer was trying to tell me I'd even need new rotors soon! My TLX is 3,600 lbs and my Sienna ('15 SE) was 4,500 lbs - seems like there must be even more than the weight difference that caused extra wear on the van, but I'm not sure.
When I first got the car and had driven it for a few days my thoughts were: Isn't your (Acura) slogan "Precision Performance" - where is the performance??? I felt that the car was well built, quality construction, comfortable, excellent ride, so so pleasantly quiet considering our other car (when we had the Sienna) was a Toyota Scion xD where sound deadening was practically non-existent. The car seemed "nice", but too nice, like when a girl tells a boy: "you're too nice" - sure it was fast, but it was far too smooth at acceleration, like they didn't want you to feel it.

I wanted something more visceral, more thrilling. Well, I guess I've gotten about 1/2 way to what I'd want by running with the traction control off all the time learning how to use the paddle shifters, and I should mention I do have a Sprint Booster installed and I just leave it on the "red" mode. The Sprint Booster does not exactly do what I would want it to do, but I'm not going to bother uninstalling it. I'm very appreciative that a forum member was nice enough to give me his old V2 when he upgraded to the V3 as I would not spend $300 of my own money to buy one. Some people dream of Bugatti, Ferraris, Lamborghini, etc. - I think my "dream car" is the BMW M2. I haven't driven one, so I'm not certain, but I am certain that I would at least really really like it Perhaps someday I'll be able to buy a used car which meets these conditions: wide "torque band" giving it a "peppy" feel even at low RPMs, high power to weight ratio giving you that go kart like driving experience, good sporty suspension giving you confidence in the turns and not much body roll, and last but not least: rear wheel drive.

But, since I've got a couple kids the TLX is actually a better "daily driver" for us, and it is quite a nice car with just enough "fun", 5 star safety, long road trip comfort and quiet, and more than ample style & class (I think it's a beautiful car - particularly in my Silver color, or in the blue or white A-Spec package - not that any of the colors are ugly). I do often miss the mini van though - considering overall quality of life improvement from my car, (mostly because of having kids) I think the mini van was a little better.

Majofo

I'm surprised you haven't totally shredded the tires and have any brake pads at all. Crazy!!!

jhb31

Do you not use the service indicator for oil changes or was the oil showing really black? I drive enthusiastically and didn't hit the first change till around 9k miles. I know people used to change oil every 3 to 5k miles but today's newer engines don't require it. I was actually told a few years back from a long time service adviser that there was no real benefit to it and the downside was that the maintenance indicator was not set off to show what service the car needs. Then being reset so when other items like trans fluid drain and refill were needed you would miss them since you are basically taking the cars own maintenance monitoring tech out of the picture. I see both sides though and more frequent oil changes give peace of mind even if they are not really needed.

As for the pads more dust buildup is something I would try to avoid. I used the Hawk HPS on my other Acura and they had nice grip and dust was less than the stop brembo set up from the factory. I don't think I will keep the car long enough to wear out the stock pads though and for me the car needs more acceleration action before I would ever consider changing pad before they were due.

Christopher.

I just do oil changes when the car "tells" me to do them, after hitting the 15% oil life left warning. I do feel like that happens sooner than it should, for synthetic oil. I guess they just use a "blend" though, not full Synthetic? I go do the dealer and they use the OEM specified "Acura brand" oil. I did read that the oil filters are actually quite good, better than the orange Fram oil filters commonly bought at auto supply stores.

I want to [but do not] squeal my tires each time I leave a stop sign/red light, however, I don't know how much I could do that without wearing my tires fast, and, I don't want to draw attention from local police as being that guy to watch for. I'm not sure if they'd give a ticket the first time they heard me or not? Does it vary from state to state? One time the car in front of me did [peel out], so I did also, just a little harder than he did and his passenger gave me the bull's horns hand wave.

While that was slightly fun getting a response from another driver, it's not so much wanting to draw attention to myself (I don't want bad attention, like police, or angry mothers thinking I'm gonna run over their children) as it is simply wanting to have fun with my car. I have been in a serious car accident and I have had my car hit by another driver in "fender benders" multiple times, but those incidents have never been the slightest bit related to me trying to have fun with my car. In fact, when I'm "driving hard" I'm less likely to have an accident because I'm so mentally engaged in the activity and I'm certainly not speeding down 25 MPH urban residential side streets where some kid is gonna run out after his ball without looking. I am wary of areas with restricted view, cyclists, children playing near the edge of the road, other drivers on their cell phones, etc.

My mom witnessed a guy in a Porsche flooring the gas when a light turned green and running over a grandma lady causing a broken hip and weeks in the hospital and I'm not that guy - I recently had a cyclist run a red light in front of me when I was about 1/2 across the intersection after my light turned green, I was both surprised and thankful that I was able to stop several feet short of hitting him. Even though I had done nothing wrong, there was still a moment of questioning myself, wondering wait did I fuck up somehow? Having to calm down, think about what happened and realize that no, I reacted superbly to a person/incident who momentarily did something very stupid and would have gotten killed or seriously injured had the driver been somebody else less alert, or looking at a text message etc.

While I am saying that I like to "drive hard" and "have fun" I don't actually enjoy driving dangerously, but I do like to accelerate fast, and, I do have to admit that I feel like speed limits around here are often absurdly low if considering them in the context of my quality car road/weather/tire conditions and my driving ability... I don't want to fly down city streets at 100MPH, I rather, want to feel pulled back into my seat when I go from 0 - 30 MPH, I want to take turns hard and feel the Gs pulling me sideways on exit ramps, etc. IE I want to have fun, without being a danger to others.

I have not done a lot of "drifting", and I don't think this is the right car for that, but I don't know? I do wish I could have a car that feels safe to drive that way (intentional drifting around corners, "controlled" sliding for fun, etc.)