Brake pads and rotors

[eg8r]

My wife has a 2004 Accord and ever since day 1 it has had brake issues. We were told by the dealer that the shake we felt was just the ABS but it never felt right to me. Well after about 20k miles the pads were completely worn out and I was able to get the dealer to replace under warranty since they should not have worn out that quick. We are now at 100k miles on the car and the car shakes the second the brake pedal is touched. The shake is pretty violent compared to what it should be.

After a quick search on the net I have seen this is a common problem with the car but have not found much info on fixing the problem. I was wondering if you think a different mfg might be better than OEM. Say brembo rotors, would they hold up to the heat better than factory? Should I get something slightly larger? Should I worry about cross drilled or slotted? We are not into racing the vehicle at all and my wife is just a normal non-aggresive almost too passive driver. I just want brakes that will not shake the car when you think about hitting the pedal.

eg8r

[LWW]

Your issue is almost certainly the pads and not the rotors.

Contrary to common belief, even the most extreme braking forces will not generate enough heat to warp the steel rotors.

What is actually happening is brake pad material cooking to the rotor and creating an uneven surface, which causes the vibration eventually. The rotor can be resurfaced once, maybe twice, to remove the pad material ... but the rotor itself I assure you is not warped.

Soft pads, often used by mfrs because they don't give a super hard pedal feel, tend to be the worst for this problem. Lots of city driving ... or lots of towing ... or lots of very high speed hard stops are also possible causes.

In a nutshell, here's what happens. You are trolling through traffic ... up to 45 and back to zero, over and over and over again. Eventually the metal gets very hot, as does the pad. Then, you come to a stop and hold your foot on the brake ... and the heat cooks a small amount of pad to the rotor. Pad wear is ordinarily shed as brake dust ... but under high heat conditions it will actually bake to the pad.

A simple change in driving habit will likely fix it in the future. When you come to a stop, kick the car into neutral and release the brakes so that the hot pad is not left in contact with the hot rotor.

A second possible cause is some mfrs use inferior metal which after thousands of heat cycles begins to flake apart. I doubt that with Honda.

[eg8r]

This car has had this issue since we test drove it with only 3 miles on it. It has just gotten progressively worse and now it is horrible.

eg8r

[LWW]

Are the original rotors still in place? If so, have they been resurfaced?

Is this a Japanese Accord or an Ohio Accord?

[eg8r]

Original rotors, no work done to them. No idea where teh car was made.