I missed a portion of this weeks show but a friend said that he thought my topic may have been covered,at the risk of a repeat I ask. Has anyone heard of brand new, never driven, ceramic brakes collapsing to the point of not having any pedal? On a 96 chevy full size pickup we replaced the pads and rotors with ceramics and had no pedal. After much system checking we determined that the problem was with-in the front calipers and could actually see the pads collapse. We changed back to the semi-metallics and all was normal. What gives beside the ceramic pads?
I wish I had heard the show. I have an acura MDX on which I had the pads replaced with ceramic. I too had no pedal, and the garage replaced them with “upgraded” ceramic pads, same brand. They told me they went bad and were warrantied out.
I still don’t like my brakes, although I took them to a mechanic an hr away and he told me they did an ok job - although he found one wire they forgot to connect to the master cylinder, and they weren’t “upgraded” pads. They also told me just about any pad on the market today has at least some ceramic - ? They also drove it around for me a bit, and did some hard stops to help seat them. I still had to apply my emergency brake backing out of my drive on this second set of pads - and although it’s a slope down, it’s by no means a hill. I’m getting ready to call the brake pad manufacturer to ensure these are the right pads for my car.
well, I called Bendix and they told me (although the woman I spoke to seemed a bit out of it - she told me to have a good weekend -?) that they don’t make the IQ brake pad for my car - and this is the pad the (non-trusted mechanic) put on my car.
So, my saga continues. I called and talked to the garage I trust, who checked the job over for me. The mechanic who looked it over wasn’t there - he’s going to call me back. Although the first garage who put the bendix pads on offered to put acura pads on the front for just the cost of the pad - when I was concerned and complained, before I even test drove it on the second set of pads - I really don’t want to deal with them any longer. Advice anyone?
“we determined that the problem was with-in the front calipers and could actually see the pads collapse”
This is bizarre - you actually saw the pad material decrease in thickness?
I too am having a hard time with the statement that the pads are collapsing with pressure. But, since the problem was solved I’ll accept this as one of those things that “you had to be there”. Whatever we can imagine, reality will create a scenerio that goes beyond those boundries.
Like this past weekend when some poor couple’s house in Massachusetts was badly damaged by the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile…I saw it on the news.
Yes, the pads actually collapsed. They were purchased through Auto Zone and they were very good about the problem. They returned the pads to the manufacturer with details of my problem and I am awaiting a reply from them. I’ll post my results if and when I here back from them. Thanks for your interest.