2011 Honda CR-V - why do brakes and rotors need replacement every year?

Ironically, the thread title uses the correct word.

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I wonder if the shop is even considering whether or not the calipers are sticking on the sliders and if they are even cleaning and servicing them during a brake job?
Or whether or not the caliper seals have hardened a bit with age not allowing the caliper pistons to retract easily.

Unless someone is driving with a foot on the brake pedal I tend to think the shop may be just dismissing the caliper piston\slider factor and just doing a rotor/pad slap to get it out the door quickly.
The OP says they do not want to answer questions and just want to do the job and kick him out of the shop…
Wonder if this is one of those quicky brake clinic type of businesses?

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Even that shouldn’t wear them out in just 10k miles. Unless OP is taking a shortcut via a race track on the way to work, there’s something else going on here.

Personally I start getting suspicious when a shop wants to keep redoing the work and charging me for it without giving me an explanation as to why whatever they’re working on keeps dying. That tells me that at minimum the shop’s staff is rude, and also possibly not fixing the real problem either because they’re incompetent or they think it’s a way to keep me coming back for more of the same.

Either way, that’s my cue to find a better mechanic.

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Maybe yes, maybe no, depending on the design of the vehicle.
Back in the '70s, GM’s corporate quadruplet Chevy Monza, Pontiac Sunbird, Olds Starfire, and Buick Skyhawk models typically needed brake service every 10-12k miles.

Is the CRV as badly-designed as those GM models?
Probably not, but it isn’t totally unprecedented for brakes to wear out that quickly.

I’m gonna go out on a limb and say the CRV is a little higher quality than a 1970’s Sunbird. :wink:

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I’ve seen cars in junkyards that were still higher quality than those little '70s GM cars were when they were fairly new.
:smirk:

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My neighbor had a Sunbird when I was a kid. Neat looking car, but it seemed like every time I saw him, he was under the car working on another problem. Even my dad’s ancient '69 Corolla with more than 100,000 on the clock was more reliable than that.

That was also the model that required disconnecting the motor mounts and lifting the engine in order to replace one of the spark plugs on the optional V-8.

After a couple of years of ever-mounting expenses for other repairs on those awful cars, most owners decided to not replace that plug, with the result that the engines ran really badly, and put out a lot more pollutants than they should have. Few of them remained on the road after 7 or 8 years.

I wonder if the OP owned the car from new; and how long the original brakes lasted.
That would tell a lot about the quality of the replacement parts and mechanic.

I had a friend’s brother with a 1981 Accord, bought new ( I later bought one used in 1984).
He had a shop replace the water pump in the late '80s and subsequently had to replace again every year a couple times.
Later I replaced it for him with one from the dealer, and that one lasted for many more years.

I had a ‘70s Cavalier sedan with the 2L and 5-speed manual transmission. It was a very nice little car.

I was referring to other models-- not the Cavalier, which may well have been a better car.
For sure the Cavalier never offered the V-8 option that was available on those other faux sport models.

The V8 was in the Monza which was basically a reskinned Vega.

I want to buy a CRV. any opinions on this car? should I buy it or look for a german car instead?

Yes, now that you mention it, the Monza, Sunbird, Starfire, and Skyhawk were RWD models, unlike the newer-design FWD Cavalier.

My opinion is that you should start your own NEW thread, rather than tagging onto an essentially unrelated thread about brake problems with someone’s 10 year old CRV.

When you begin your own thread, be sure to specify whether you are looking at new vehicles or at used ones, how much you want to spend, how long you plan to keep it, the climate in which you will be driving, and in what type of service you plan to use your new or used vehicle.

A new thread should be started for the Pontiac Sunbird and those 8 posts above can be moved to the new thread.

Good trick since the Cavalier was introduced in 1981 as a 1982 model.

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I don’t remember when I bought it. I just remember that it was a good car for me. It had to be early 1980s because of the circumstances under which I bought the car. I looked it up and the 2L was first sold in MY 1983. Mine had to be 83 or 84 because I left the job I bought it for in 1988.

My dad had a 2007 CRV that only needed normal wear items for the 12+yrs he owned it, traded up to a new 2019 CRV which is more comfortable to him and gets better mileage than the '07 on his regular loop. A VW Tiguan or similar would more than likely need more expensive repairs. Even with a trusted German independent shop on tap.

Unlike the OP’s CRV the 2007 dad had went 35,000mi or more without needing a brake job. The regular 10mi loop was split between 40-50mph back roads and stop and go city traffic.