I’m replacing front brakes on 2007 honda civic every 10,000 miles or less. Les Schwab people find this AMAZING - they’re not going to sell me any more brakes once this 25,000 miles is up! Honda service folk all say it’s just my heavy foot - many people only get 10-15k they say. I don’t know what/who to believe. Schwab says rear brakes are like new which is a clue - maybe rear brakes aren’t kicking in like they should. Brake wear is supposedly even on front brakes. Both Schwab and Honda brakes wear out within 10K.
1) Who is right? Is this wear normal or like one Schwab person says - “only honda using brakes up this fast I’ve seen in 16 years.”
2) Is there anything I can do? Either to fix problem or get money back for all the brake jobs - past and/or future?
Signed - broke from brakes!
I take it Les Schwab is a auto parts retailer and you bought brake pads with a “lifetime warranty” and they don’t like you are using the warranty so much?
Buy your next set from another place with the same “lifetime deal” Tell Schwab they lost your business.
Yes you are going through pads quick,maybe a pad made of different material is for you. How are you doing with your rotors? Longer lasting pads are going to be harder on your rotors.
I have an 2003 Honda Civic EX, 5 spd manual. It is an older generation than yours, but I don’t think Civic brakes in your model year have been significantly different from previous years as far as pad wear is concerned.
I needed new front brakes to pass inspection at 70K miles. The rears are still OK, drum rears on my car and disk rears on yours I believe. I have the opposite of a heavy brake foot. I coast up to red lights, rarely have to push hard on the brakes, and never rest my foot on the brake petal with driving along.
If you live in the mountains, brake hard frequently, and there is nothing you can adjust in your driving style you can buy pads of different materials that claim to last longer. Remember harder pads, mean more wear and possible warping problems for the rotors.
Your brake wear seems very high, but if you are hard on the brakes that can make all the difference. One of the biggest factors in brake wear is the driver and his/r braking habits. Other factors include where you are driving (lots of braking going down hills), percentage of highway driving vs in town stop and go, and the vehicle itelf (weight and design).
Since the rear brakes are not wearing, that may indicate a problem with the balance of front vs rear brake force distribution. Honda service is probably the best place to go to check this out. 80% of your stopping power is generated by the front brakes so it is normal for them to wear out faster.
You may want to consider trading the Civic in for a hybrid, such as a Prius. Then your braking is regenerating power and recharging your battery. The Prius still has standard brakes too, but the pads wear much longer since much of the braking is regenerating power. You win by using less gas and replacing your pads less often.
Les Schwab is a tire dealer who also specialize in installing brakes. They guarentee installed brakes for 25,000. They promised when I use up this 25,000 they will not sell me any more - they decided to lose my business. However, good point, I can go to another dealer who warrentees their work - like firestone.
My rotors lasted the full 39,000, but the harder schwab brake pads created burn spots on rotors and they were replaced this time. So now schwab will warrentee these rotors also.
My friend has a 07 civic with 85k, he drives mostly highway but has some city in there, his brakes are only halfway worn. My 04 civic made it 95k on the original front brakes, the rears still looked almost like new. On cars with Disc/drum brakes the fronts do 70-80% of the work.
I am sorry but It sounds like your driving habits are the problem, are you one of those people that speed from red light to red light? Try coasting to red lights. Try coasting a bit on highway off ramps,Your mileage will increase as well.
When I was a Tech we had a lady in a 2001 Grand am that was getting 8-10k out of brakes, we went for a ride with her and she either had the gas on or the brake on, she would keep on the accelerator until it was time to stop.
You don’t drive with 2 feet if its an automatic do you? Or ride the brakes? If you do ALOT of stop and go city driving you might only get 10k out of brakes, but I would still think more should be possible.
You are responding the way the Honda techs do - but not the Les Schwab techs do!
I DO mainly drive around town - with lots of stop signs, but my driving habits are pretty normal. This is our 7th Honda and the other six (one of which I STILL drive) don’t do this, so it’s hard to believe it’s me! I’m TRYING to drive OK. Even tho I drive a bit hurried, I try to not use the brakes. And I have a ticket for not coming to complete stop at stop sign to prove it! I plan on having someone drive with me and critique my style in any case. Of course, I have more sense after all this than to be using two feet. I am TRYING to drive right - have been studying my driving habits for 29,000 miles now and adjusting. I believe this honda is disk/drum - and rears don’t seem to be doing enough. Thanks for your comments.
Offhand, it does sound like driving habits and conditions to me. The front brakes do about 70% of the stopping and a lot of city driving and “creeping” in traffic could do it.
I agree with your suggestion about getting someone to ride with you and critique your style. Maybe something will be noticeable to them that might not otherwise be so clear to you.
If there was a problem in the braking system (something in the master cylinder maintaining residual pressure on the brakes) then the rears should be showing some wear also.
We used to have a rural mail carrier (Subaru) who used to go through a set of front pads every 3 weeks while never touching the rear drums. He would come in and buy genuine Subaru pads 3 sets at a time and after wearing out the 3rd set would replace the rotors. (new rotors roughly every 2 months)
He had about 550 stops a day on the route if I remember correctly not counting his personal driving so you can see how the fronts would disappear quickly on this car.
Thanks, that’s helpful. I DO have a LOT of stop signs here in my neighborhood. I guess there’s nothing that will help - except learning to change my own brakes would save a lot of money!
Appreciate your retelling the incident. I can view myself sort of like a mail carrier now!
hi i have 2003 honda civic and i have 50000 on it no brakes yet i live in pennsylvania …the breaks are still the originals and i live on hills not steep hills but hills none the less
So tell us how you drive?? Sounds to me like it’s your driving style that’s causing the problem. Do you accelerate hard and brake hard??? Drive 20-30mph OVER the speed limit??? Ride the brakes??? All these can be factors in how long the brakes will last.
I’m trying to be careful - I’ve been living with this problem for a while now! I have proof of trying to minimize wear in form of a ticket for incomplete stop at a stop sign.
- Lots of stop signs but I try to be careful
- Not much long-distance travel to make it seem like brakes aren’t being used quickly.
- Right-foot only use of brakes
- A little fast & hard but not much - balanced by trying to be careful.
Point is - other car and ALL my past Hondas (5 at least) are NOT having this problem. I did notice this car does NOT seem to slow down at all if I take foot off accelerator, so they may have changed transmission so that all slowing requires brakes. I’m going to try using “d3” instead of d.
Still, all in all, I’m not the WORST driver and Les Schwab pretty much says I’m the worst case they’ve encountered.
I guess I just have a lemon but all the honda people say it’s perfectly normal to use up brakes in 15k or so! Unlike above wich says 50K is normal.