DIY Car Maintenance

[FrancisK]

The thing is it squeaked before I did any work and still squeaks now. Finding the uneven wear lead me to believe the squeak was caused by one caliper sticking, but after replacing all rear components plus the flex hose on the offending wheel the squeak is still present and I'm not so sure. I've lived with the squeak for two years or so at this point so I suppose I'll monitor the pads and see if they continue to wear unevenly.



I've generally had good luck with mass market parts on my jap cars. I'll buy from the dealer for certain stuff, engine internals, certain gaskets, Honda's special tranny fluid because it's not the same as ATF, etc. But brakes I'm comfortable buying mass market. I bought the car at six years old so I'm not sure if what was on there was OEM, but the noise started about four years into my ownership and the uneven wear is only apparent now.

From here I'm just going to run it, see if I get uneven wear and go from there. There's a guy at my church who works for Honda training dealer technicians, I may pick his brain too if I can get a moment with him tomorrow. Thanks for all the insight, gentlemen!

Silly question but have you consulted with the Honda forums? Usually with late model Japanese cars every little thing has been experienced and well documented at this point. For my Landcruiser the corresponding forums are pretty much an endless encyclopedia for every single thing and inch of the car possible.

 

[mountainaire]

Brake quiet. It's a rubber paste that you apply to the back of the pads, and it's supposed to cut down on noise by damping vibrations.

Minor high pitched squeaks are pretty common with disk brakes. I've learned to live with the minor squeaks, as long as everything is working correctly. You can always go with organic pads for quieter brakes. They don't last as long as semi metallic or ceramic pads but they are supposed to be quieter. Also make sure the caliper pins and bolts are torqued correctly. I've seen some where if they're overtorqued they can bind up, preventing the caliper from sliding and releasing properly.

 

[FrancisK]

Brake quiet. It's a rubber paste that you apply to the back of the pads, and it's supposed to cut down on noise by damping vibrations.

Minor high pitched squeaks are pretty common with disk brakes. I've learned to live with the minor squeaks, as long as everything is working correctly. You can always go with organic pads for quieter brakes. They don't last as long as semi metallic or ceramic pads but they are supposed to be quieter. Also make sure the caliper pins and bolts are torqued correctly. I've seen some where if they're overtorqued they can bind up, preventing the caliper from sliding and releasing properly.

Yea @Callixtus is it livable as in not that bad and just something because you want to get it right?

Haha you should hear the squeal that carbon ceramics make, everyone turns their heads when i stop at a light.

 

[mountainaire]

If you ever redo your car headliner, don't make the mistake I did of not scraping the old foam off the backing, and not using enough glue. I had to redo mine again, because it started sagging after only a few months. This time, I prepped everything properly scraped the foam off, and used a TON of contact adhesive, like 100 dollars worth. Decided to lose the solid color and go with a pattern to liven things up a bit.

 

[Kiwi]

Brake quiet. It's a rubber paste that you apply to the back of the pads, and it's supposed to cut down on noise by damping vibrations.

Minor high pitched squeaks are pretty common with disk brakes. I've learned to live with the minor squeaks, as long as everything is working correctly. You can always go with organic pads for quieter brakes. They don't last as long as semi metallic or ceramic pads but they are supposed to be quieter. Also make sure the caliper pins and bolts are torqued correctly. I've seen some where if they're overtorqued they can bind up, preventing the caliper from sliding and releasing properly.

Just to add: There's quite a bit of variety in disc brake performance. Especially Ceramic / performance brakes (made for high temp)

If you have sport type triple calliper brakes (three pistons) each side brake noise comes down to temperature.
BMW even released a video on their YouTube to advise M Sport owners on typical brake noise because it was normal behaviour. Basically, it's performance brakes - you need to use them, and get them hot!


A squeak is actually a good thing in a way. Tesla's will have common brake noise because they barely use their brakes if at all, due to regen tech. But for everyone else, it's the edge of the brake pad not making even contact with the disc (a lip on the disc) and/or the disc not getting hot enough to burn the pad.

Bottom line: use your brakes - be aware of temperature - and if they still make a noise check for a lip on your disc vs the pad thickness/glazing on the pad.

 

[SkiPro]

I've changed pads often on my bikes but never on a car because I figured they are more complicated somehow. Probably they aren't. Must put that on my list of things to do with the new truck

 

[Thomas More]

I've changed pads often on my bikes but never on a car because I figured they are more complicated somehow. Probably they aren't. Must put that on my list of things to do with the new truck

Replacing brakes was the first auto repair I did myself. I watched a shop do it on my work truck and thought, "That's easy!", so I did it in my own car. Before long I had the repair manual on my car and was rebuilding the motor.

 

[SkiPro]

This is my favourite car channel on yt. I've learnt a lot from this.

 

[ed plrbs unm]

I've changed pads often on my bikes but never on a car because I figured they are more complicated somehow. Probably they aren't. Must put that on my list of things to do with the new truck

When you realize that changing the rotors (brake disks) simply requires removing 4 bolts, you'll wonder why you never did it sooner...

It took me a long time to get over the fear of "brakes=safety ergo leave it to the professionals", now I do it for all my vehicles.

 

[Gazeebo]

When you realize that changing the rotors (brake disks) simply requires removing 4 bolts, you'll wonder why you never did it sooner...

It took me a long time to get over the fear of "brakes=safety ergo leave it to the professionals", now I do it for all my vehicles.

Agreed. Make sure you spray off those brand new rotors with brake cleaner. Helps the break in period for new pads and machined or new rotors.

And also make sure you pump brake pedal a few times before moving car.

 

[mountainaire]

I learned the hard way not to bother with cheap reman'd power steering pumps from part stores. The first one lasted 2 months before the pulley bearing failed. The second one replaced under warranty lasted 1 day. The original factory pump lasted 30 years with basically no maintenance whatsoever.

So I ordered a NEW (not reman) Edelmann pump. Hoping that will be better than the typical parts store junk. Your vehicle is only as good as the quality of the replacement parts you put on it. There's a LOT of junk floating around out there these days. The money you save is not worth the hassle, aggravation, and time wasted of having to do the job over again multiple times.

 

[Gazeebo]

I learned the hard way not to bother with cheap reman'd power steering pumps from part stores. The first one lasted 2 months before the pulley bearing failed. The second one replaced under warranty lasted 1 day. The original factory pump lasted 30 years with basically no maintenance whatsoever.

So I ordered a NEW (not reman) Edelmann pump. Hoping that will be better than the typical parts store junk. Your vehicle is only as good as the quality of the replacement parts you put on it. There's a LOT of junk floating around out there these days. The money you save is not worth the hassle, aggravation, and time wasted of having to do the job over again multiple times.

I feel you man. I have an Honda Odyssey Van I got for a good price around 100k did alot of work on it include t belt plugs basic oil services and check everything and I kid you not around 110k front struts and the drive belt tensioner started going bad so I got low squeak under heavy load now. Even with my employee cost OEM struts and tensioner are 1.5k usd. I could roll dice on ebay for less than one strut would cost but the experience for me is its a large danger.

One experience my father tells is a ebay tbelt set costs about 400 oem, this set a customer bought cost 150 ebay claiming OEM. My dad tested the belts with his arm strength in front of customer and was shocked to find the belt flexed under very little load. A death sentence for an engine just to save $300 over 100k miles?

I've never understood the logic to save a little for a gamble on non factory parts knowing if OEM parts fail you can claim it and get new parts or whole motors and transmissions from manufacturer.

 

[mountainaire]

I feel you man. I have an Honda Odyssey Van I got for a good price around 100k did alot of work on it include t belt plugs basic oil services and check everything and I kid you not around 110k front struts and the drive belt tensioner started going bad so I got low squeak under heavy load now. Even with my employee cost OEM struts and tensioner are 1.5k usd. I could roll dice on ebay for less than one strut would cost but the experience for me is its a large danger.

One experience my father tells is a ebay tbelt set costs about 400 oem, this set a customer bought cost 150 ebay claiming OEM. My dad tested the belts with his arm strength in front of customer and was shocked to find the belt flexed under very little load. A death sentence for an engine just to save $300 over 100k miles?

I've never understood the logic to save a little for a gamble on non factory parts knowing if OEM parts fail you can claim it and get new parts or whole motors and transmissions from manufacturer.

Yeah, sadly the genuine Mopar parts dried up a while ago for my old Jeep. Can't find em anywhere. I'm forced to use aftermarket parts suppliers.

So far I've had the worst luck with parts chain house brands. "Duralast", "Masterpro", etc. No name Amazon junk is also to be avoided. Rock Auto is the saving grace. Their name brand stuff has been decent in my experience. AC Delco, Gates, Continental, Bosch, Denso, Beck/Arnley...

 

[Gazeebo]

Yeah, sadly the genuine Mopar parts dried up a while ago for my old Jeep. Can't find em anywhere. I'm forced to use aftermarket parts suppliers.

So far I've had the worst luck with parts chain house brands. "Duralast", "Masterpro", etc. No name Amazon junk is also to be avoided. Rock Auto is the saving grace. Their name brand stuff has been decent in my experience. AC Delco, Gates, Continental, Bosch, Denso, Beck/Arnley...

Do you have a pull apart close to you and have you tried that?