How often should one have brakes inspected, cleaned, and adjusted?
The mechanic I saw today (appears reputable) says every 7,500 miles to maintain the front brakes.
Inspections, check your owners manual and see what Honda recommends.
No need to clean anything. Any cleaning or lubing would be done when pads are changed.
There is no adjusting disc brakes, they are self adjusting.
You would have to be one torturing driver to manage requiring that level of care for brakes. Unless you’re riding them mercilessly …abusively, every other year is about the soonest you should need preemptive service.
One Honda Dealer I worked at had us remove pads at certain intervals and clean the pads. Honda pads come out in minutes and the Service Manager said it was a Honda reccommended service, I never found out for sure.
Clean and adjust rears on drum brake cars was a service sold quite often.
Rear brakes are not disc on an 04 Civic; front are discs
I agree that the brakes should be inspected but not every 7500 miles. If a vehicle has rear drum brakes then they should be inspected and adjusted on a regular basis, maybe every other oil change. Properly adjusted/operating rear drum brakes will prolong the life of the front brake pads.
Disc brakes are self adjusting but there can be a problem with them. Many times the caliper hardware and slides can rust, this will cause things to seize up and malfunction. So a periodic inspection of the caliper hardware and slides isn’t bad idea, it could lengthen the life of the front disc brake pads.
My '75 Civic rear drums needed periodic adjustment.
My '81, '85 and '88 Accords had self adjusting rear drums.
All had front disks that needed no adjustment.
Japanese car service schedules I’ve seen recommend brake inspection every 5000-7500 miles.
I think that covers the most aggressive drivers and severe service.
I take a quick look at the brakes at each tire rotation.
If you drive in a lot of road salt you might want to get the caliper sliders lubricated each spring.