What do you think about the Honda Civic's braking issue?

Thank you for your reply on the Honda Civic 2009, but I have since come across many complaints about the brakes and some people are only getting 10,000 kilometres before replacing. When the problem was reported to Honda, it did not want to know and blamed bad driving habits. There were far too many irate customers for this to be the reason. Yours comments would be appreciated.

Eamonn

Eamonn Connolly (Naas)

Jun 2013 Filed under: brakes

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Expert answer

Hi again Eamonn,

You're right. There does seem to be a recurring issue out there in Civic-land with customers complaining about premature pad and disc wear.

Now, early brake wear is a very hard thing to analyse as we all drive differently. Someone who brakes late, rides the middle pedal constantly and generally displays a lack of mechanical sympathy is clearly going to wear the brakes and pads out faster. Look at F1 history for the perfect comparison. Back in 1988, McLaren engineers working with (super fast) Ayrton Senna and (super smooth) Alain Prost would have to remove and chuck away Senna's brakes after every race whereas Prost's could almost be re-used - if re-using things was something F1 teams ever did.

We have heard about the possibility that this early brake wear issue mostly affects low mileage Civics, as the brakes are simply not used enough to clear corrosion from the discs on a regular basis. Not sure about that one but it sounds just about plausible.

All we can suggest is to either take a competent mechanic along to help you thoroughly inspect any potential purchase (and we mean THOROUGHLY - wheels off and everything) or get the AA to inspect and report on the car prior to purchase. An honest vendor should also tell you whether they've noticed any early-onset brake wear when asked.

Let us know how you get on

Neil Briscoe - Complete Car Adviser
@neilmbriscoe