Accord Brake Pad Repair

[Sclass]

I just changed rear brake pads on our nearly new accord. The originals wore down about 75% at 26k.

I thought I'd mention it here because it was so darn easy even a caveman (or cave woman) could do it. Honda has done such a good job designing the car (or Nissin Brake) that you just need a simple 12mm wrench to take off the caliper. The pads, available for $25, just slip in with your hands.

Instead of compressing the pistons with a big c clamp like old school brakes, you just screw the piston in with a flat piece of metal..like a file, a door hinge, a quarter etc.

There were a bunch of videos on YouTube. Easy peezy. I'm a gear head but seriously, its harder to change a bike chain than swap some of these pads. The stealership charges $200 labor and $100 parts for this job (ripoff SF bay area).

A simple way to put $275 back in your pocket. I'm gonna hit the pizza parlor and get a pitcher!

[Riggerjack]

I hate using the c clamp for compressing the cylinder. It's great when things that wear get designed for maintenance, rather than simply assembly!

[El Duderino]

I can understand why people wouldn't want to work on cars.

1. Fear that you'll mess something up and it will be dangerous. Especially when dealing with chemicals like oil or critical systems like brakes.
2. Ignorance of the correct procedure. This isn't assembling IKEA furniture and the instructions don't come with the car.
3. Lack of tools or knowledge how to use them. Novices get flustered by mentioning things like torque wrenches and tightening specs. Foot/pounds and newton/meters? What's that all about?
4. It's often messy and can be physically challenging work.

Education fixes most of these and tools can be borrowed pretty easily. #4 is actually a positive, IMO. Learning how to turn wrenches through reading, on-line forums and trial & error ranks it among the most rewarding skills I've learned in life.

Mike and Lauren had a good video on YouTube recently demonstrating how easy this sort of thing can be. I think they sort of cheated by using a lift, which is a huge luxury for any shade-tree mechanic. Most wouldn't have access to that kind of equipment, but it's not a huge inconvenience.

[Sclass]

Hey I just had an interesting experience today while replacing the brakes on my old car.

I usually use the cheapest AutoZone pads. Recently I'd read that the pads have a lifetime warranty. It sounded ridiculous because they are a wear part, but apparently the policy is the customer brings in the worn out AZ pads and is given a new set free. I never gave it much thought for my various cars and bought their cheap pads over and over. They always asked for my phone number and filed away the warranty info. I thought this was for recalls.

Anyhow I swapped a set out this morning up front. And I decided to try the exchange policy out. I recall buying the set at an AutoZone awhile back. It felt pretty ridiculous bringing back worn out pads to exchange for new ones. Almost like bringing a bald tire back for a free replacement.

So I go in, give my phone number which has luckily been unchanged for awhile. This huge list of brake pads I purchased for all kinds of cars I've owned since the 1990s came up. We went to the bottom of the list and she found my current Mercedes front pads bought two years ago. There was a purchase four years ago of the same set.

"Sir," she says, "these are lifetime brake pads, you were only supposed to buy them once." Whatever I thought. Only $20. I'm also a shareholder. No sweat. She comes out from behind the counter and gives me a new set free. Then she hands me $20 refund for the extra pair I bought two years ago. WTH? I paid twice she said and told me to have a good day.

Like a good frugal guy I ran out the door before they changed their minds. sadly I've bought many unnecessary replacements from them or from Checkers that I didn't need to. They are so cheap I never thought to look into the free replacement story.

The swap went really fast with this tool. It beats the heck out of a c clamp for those who use those. Really speeds the job up on a Mercedes. Compressing the pistons is fiddly.



Only $11 from eBay china and it 10x'd the speed of compressing the pistons on my old Mercedes. Much cheaper than the snapon or KD versions.

Recalled my old post here and thought I'd follow up.

Reminds me of the insulting comments about cheapness post. I think my cheapest friend (makes me look like Santa Claus) told me about AutoZone lifetime free brake pads. I hate that cheap bastard.

[enigmaT120]

They have those warranties because they expect you to sell the car before the brake pads wear out. My brake pads last forever it seems, so for me they probably do.

[jacob]

Same with tires. Such a program also creates an implicit loyalty program. If your 50k tires have worn out at 40k, you're only getting the 20% discount on the new set if you go back to the same dealer/chain. It also wouldn't surprise me much if there's no physical difference between 30k, 50k, and 70k tires, say, and the only difference is that "warranty".

[Sclass]

They have those warranties because they expect you to sell the car before the brake pads wear out. My brake pads last forever it seems, so for me they probably do.

You know, that makes a ton of sense. I looked back over four years and I've used two sets of pads. These pads are cheap. $20. So it costs AutoZone very little money to do this.

Worse, I forgot about the policy and never got my free pads for my other cars. I saw all the purchase info on their terminal. Those cars are long gone. So who actually goes back for their free pads? If your Indy installs AZ pads I'm sure they don't enroll you in the warranty system. It's not worth their time since they get to bill you for parts. My gut feel is participation is low. But then there's always some cheapskate out there like me and my friend.

My pads used to last a long time. I learned this hypermilers trick a time back to coast to intersections when I saw a red light ahead. It saves tires, brakes and gas supposedly. Recently I moved to a neighborhood on a hill and regularly drive 1000' vertical to get to town. It has eaten a half dead transmission, brake pads and tires.

I bought an Autolite Gold alternator there for a car that was notorious for blowing up alternators. It was a lifetime guarantee and cost me thirty dollars more than the cheapest option. Never blew it up and sold the car.

The tire warranty is trickier. Read the fine print on the agreement. The tire shop leaves a lot of wiggle room to decline replacement. I had to recently sign my warranty away because the Tech noticed my car had aftermarket wheels installed by the prior owner. Tire shops will also cry alignment - and then verify your alignment at your cost before they honor a wear warranty.

Edit- on treadwear ratings the physical difference is the stickiness of the rubber compound. You can see the inverse correlation between traction rating and treadwear rating. This is the conundrum with motorcycle tires. I love grippy gumball tires but I hate paying for them and replacing them all the time.

[melonhead]

Only $11 from eBay china and it 10x'd the speed of compressing the pistons on my old Mercedes. Much cheaper than the snapon or KD versions.

FYI, Autozone rents this tool out. At least they had a similar looking tool that has a bunch of different fittings (for different piston configurations) that I rented out to do the disc brakes on my Fusion. You pay $60 for the tool, then they give you the $60 back when you return it. Here's a link: http://www.autozone.com/loan-a-tools/di ... liper-tool.

[Sclass]

Yes, that's a good tool. Good for a modern Accord too.

Old Mercedes use ATE calipers that don't need to come off the car to change pads. So the tool is a little different. On my "inverse C-clamp" tool you don't have to get the rotor out of the way to place the tool between the two pistons. So the job is basically

1) lift car,
2) push pads back off the rotor with the tool,
3) push out the two retaining pins with a punch or nail.
4) push pistons back with tool.
5) drop in new pads with some anti squeal cement.
6) reinstall retaining pins.



It's a great old design for easy maintenance. You can see the two little pencil diameter rods holding the pads in place. I notice modern calipers have moved away from this type of mechanism. Perhaps cost, safety or braking performance made designs move on.

Rent a tool is good program. Man, I just checked the price of AZO stock. Ouch!