[0dyfamily]

2002 Ody EX (wife's). Brakes starting to squeal, so I got a set of OEM pads from Bernardi.

The local AutoZone had a set of front & rear discs in stock, but decided to measure the OEM set before deciding on buying those. As it turned out, the OEM discs were fine.

I removed each disc, sanded off the transfer layer of brake material from each disc with 100-grit sandpaper. Discs had no runout, and had the required thickness (and inside diameter for the rear parking brake drum).

Bedded the pads on a short road trip (used a dozen consecutive hard stops from 60+mph, and it took eight to get a "green fade"). No juddering or vibration. After they cooled, I tried a stop from freeway speed, and man, did they grab well, smoothly all the way to a near full-stop.

I think manualman has over 160,000 miles on his original discs. We'll see if I can get there with these.

OF

 

[dvpatel]

You mean OEM rotors (disks) and not pads in the title. Right OF?

 

[0dyfamily]

Believe it or not, the pads and rotors. The complete set of brakes on that 2002 EX were all-original OEM from when we picked up the car new at the dealer. The rotors (discs) are still "day one" originals, and the pads are now new OEM. I did an abbreviated bedding procedure on this car after we bought it, and I think it helped.

I know for certain that doing a proper brake pad bedding on my Dodge 4x4 truck made a huge difference in longevity.

I'm at about 108,000 miles on original pads for my 2003 EX. The previous owner of that Ody only had about 55,000 miles, all highway (frequent long distance interstate family road trips) before I purchased it. My primarily in-town miles are understandably a little tougher on the brakes, but I'm as careful as anybody, maybe more so, when it comes to stopping on a day-to-day basis. I also went through an abbreviated pad bedding procedure after I purchased this used Ody, and I think that may have helped the longevity, too.

Removing the old "transfer layer" of pad material from the rotors and setting in place a new layer on the rotors by bedding is the only thing I've done differently in my last 10 years or so of car ownership, and it's helped a lot.

I've changed lots of brake pads over the last 29 years or so (since when I started driving), and I used to never bed-in new pads with multiple repeated consecutive stops from freeway speed. Between advances in brake pad materials and doing this procedure, I'm getting more miles out of them than I've ever seen before.

Here's the article I used to "re-blue" myself on how to do it, since I haven't changed pads in so long (didn't need to...they lasted a long time):

Bedding In Brakes

OF

 

[sinbad]

That "transfer layer" thing is so happening!

 

[dvpatel]

Man. 102K on the original pads is insane. My 2007 only has 28K and I feel vibration if I have to stomp on the brakes at freeway speeds. I will change pads and rotors when the time comes as I don't believe in resurfacing rotors but there is no way in hell mine are gonna last 60K let alone 102K.

 

[0dyfamily]

I was lucky to get one year out of a set of brakes on my P.O.S. Dodge 4x4 truck. I cannot remember for the life of me how many times I replaced rotors on that sorry-a55ed Chrysler product masquerading as a motor vehicle during my first couple years of ownership.

I actually replaced a set of rotors on the side of the road during an Arizona summer. It was hot, hot, hot...and I was thinking, "There's no reason I should be carrying this many tools just to make sure this piece of Dodge garbage keeps operating". Once up and running again, I decided to try bedding the pads into the new rotors during a long run down some mountains while going west. Unbelieveably, all the brake pulsing and juddering that I came to accept as a supper annoying consequence of owning a Dodge piece of trash did not recur. Then again, I never again bought Mopar brake parts, having purchased Dura-Last rotors from AutoZone for that roadside repair.

Got to over 90,000 miles and many years of driving on those Dura-Last rotors, in all conditions, on and off road, plus towing my boat, among other things. Sold it with plenty of pad thickness remaining on both sides.

One certain moral to this story: friends don't let friends buy newer Chrysler products.

Another possible moral: bedding brake pads onto a fresh rotor surface can help.

I'm all about that "transfer layer" now! :joy:

OF

 

[jbqwik]

Thanks for the link, OF. Although I have used a similar technique, never understood the reason. Until I read the article. Excellent.

 

[0dyfamily]

jb, thanks for the kinds words...better people than me steered me into the correct direction on this. When I did the brake pad bedding on my Dodge truck, I truly had no idea what it would do, but I did it mostly out of desperation...I was getting tired of poorly acting brakes! Somebody here at Odyclub (cannot recall his forum name to properly give thanks) provided that web address for Stop-Tech. This new knowledge, and being able to apply it properly, has made me a happy camper. Can't wait to try it on my 2003 EX when the time comes.

I just read a recent post by manualman...I think he is up to around 180,000 miles on his original OEM rotors. Amazing.

OF

 

[manualman]

Fun update: the 03 has 196,000 miles on all the OEM rotors. Still butter smooth up until 2 month ago too. Then I blew it. The 03 sat in the driveway for a month unused. Sure enough, I've got a rough rusty patch on each rotor at the perimeter of each pad. Gonna try to sand it off and rebed the rotors this weekend. Hope I can still save them: I dread trying to get the rotor retainer screw off after all these years!

 

[sinbad]

Manualman, buy an inexpensive 3/8th drive impact screwdriver. I used one and my screws came right out.

Kroil penetrating oil is the mouse milk you will need if they are stuck.

Google Deal

 

[pkrface]

Cool! My 06 has 145K on her. The original brake pads were replaced at 30K under a TSB and the rotors were turned, so now the replacement pads have 115K and rotors 145K. Put new tires on in January at 135K and tire guys said there is still 60% pad remaining.

 

[0dyfamily]

Amazing stuff. I just replaced the OEM pads on our 2003 EX at about 120,000 miles, and again re-used the rotors via the simple sanding technique. I still had a decent amount left on the front pads, and the rear pads had plenty, but since I had it apart, I just changed them. I actually thought about taking that wear indicator (the metal thingy that rubs on the rotor when the pads wear down) and bending it out of the way a little bit to get some more life out of them. One can get decent life out of these OEM brakes, but it sure depends on driving conditions. I'd probably have gotten more miles out of them if I didn't tow a boat or spend most of my miles in-town vs. on the highway.

Kroil...man, I wonder what's in that stuff. Seems to me that every pro mechanic that wrenches on big stuff (like farm equipment mechs) has a can of this stuff.

OF

 

[Dirkdaddy]

I think my van had the original pads and after driving them up north through blue ridge mountains I was ready to change them out. They had horrible bite and faded fast, made grinding noises, dusted up. Rotors had warped from the crappy pads. Good to hear you hare having luck with yours but put ceramic pads and decent rotors on mine, stainless lines just for kicks and now it brakes like a sports sedan with a high hard pedal and plenty of stopping power no matter what is in the van.

 

[0dyfamily]

Stainless lines? Day-umn, I remember installing those on my 1969 Corvette StingRay roadster, and they did make a noticeable difference in pedal feel, even with a boosted system. Where did you get the brake lines from? Mine are in top shape, but......

OF

 

[0dyfamily]

Well, our pair of Gen 2 Odysseys are still humming along. Just did brake work on both of them.

2003 EX has 191,000 miles, and I'm doing maintenance to get it ready for sale. Pads had 70,000 miles on them, so I decided to check them. The front pads had about 1/3 of their material left (compared to a brand new Honda OEM pad I had on hand), and the rear pads had over half of the material remaining. Went ahead and replaced them so the new owner would not have to.

2002 EX got new pads front and rear, Honda OEM. That van has over 205,000 miles, which means we ran 103,000 miles on this second set of Honda pads (the fronts were just starting to make that noise from the wear indicator, the rear pads had over 1/3 of their material still remaining....I almost felt silly replacing them).

So, each van has had its brake pads replaced twice. They are still on their original rotors they came with from the factory, and still delivering smooth, judder-free braking.

I think this is the last brake pad change these faithful vans will see.

OF

 

[mwe2121]

That's really good odyfamily, the most I have gotten out my front pads is 70K miles and the best I have gotten out of the rear is only 90K.

 

[manualman]

Those second gen vans sure were built right, especially if you won the transmission lottery. My 03 brake rotors outlasted my 2012 Ody ENGINE.
Not your father's Honda...

 

[0dyfamily]

That's really good odyfamily, the most I have gotten out my front pads is 70K miles and the best I have gotten out of the rear is only 90K.

That is still better than a lot of other vehicles out on the roads.

... My 03 brake rotors outlasted my 2012 Ody ENGINE.
Not your father's Honda...

OF

 

[John Clark]

You can do pad slaps and make rotors last a long time if the rotors are not grooved up and don't pulsate. It's safe. I've done it on my own vehicles. However, I don't do it anymore, even on my own vehicles. In my experience, you can get brake noise after some time and miles. On my 98 Nissan I did a pad slap some years ago. Rotors were fine. The car is small and doesn't weigh much. Everything was great for the first year but then the brakes started making some noise. It wasn't bad and I didn't think too much of it. After some more time, the noise got worse and worse until it sounded like the pads were down to the metal. If someone was out on the sidewalk near a stop sign and I was stopping I'd see heads turn. This wasn't a squeal due to not enough lubrication. This was a metal on metal grinding sound.

Upon inspection I found brake pads that still looked virtually new. After some research to determine the reason I learned that your pad material is embedded in the rotor and that when you replace pads, usually with a slightly different pad than the previous pad, the materials mix and can cause this type of noise. Ever since then, I do not reuse rotors. I let those brakes on the Nissan go for a while until I just got sick of the noise and replaced pads and rotors. Brakes have been quiet ever since.

So, will this happen every time? No. I'd done pad slaps before. However, now that I do brake jobs for other people I would never even consider doing that on someone else's vehicle, and no longer even do it on mine. Rotors should be machined or replaced. The problem is that nobody around here will machine rotors anymore. The last time I had it done it was $35 each and took a full day for me to get them back. I can usually buy new ones for not much more and have a brake job done in 1-2 hours tops.

Even if you do a pad slap, which I don't recommend for the above reason, be sure and remove the caliper bracket, clean the rust out of it, and replace your hardware. A full and complete brake job will give you many miles of trouble-free service.

As someone posted in another thread last night, the stingy man always pays more.

 

[xrhondabob]

Original owner of a 2005 Odyssey. After we bought it, I remember reading on a forum that someone with 23k miles had worn out their front brake pads. So, I purchased a new OEM set ~2009 year. I do a visual check during tire rotation. Well, after 121,000 miles I haven't changed nearer the front nor rear pads. I figure the rotors will need replacement at the same time when they become due.
I had the timing belt replaced at 101k. It broke at 120k. Bent 22 valves. The group that did both the timing belt changes, told me they threw away the recent old replacement parts, so I'm not able to say whether it was the replacement OEM belt or tensioner that failed. Never going back to them. The van been rather reliable beside the occasional sliding door issue.