Servicing Brakes --- please advise

[visionguru]

It's time to service the brakes on my car, because it's been 10 years since the last time I did any brake maintenance except changing front brake pads. Today, I checked the brakes on the 4 wheels, the following are the current conditions:

Brake lines: No cracks or deterioration, only slightly rust on the mounting bolts.
Rear brakes Pads are still thick (it's been 10 years!), all the brake component are in very good condition.
Front brakes

• Brake Pads (2 years old): on both sides, the outer brake pad is 2mm thinner than the inner brake pad. but it still has at least 6mm pad material.
• Brake pad shims: all 4 are gone.
• Rotor: The rotor surface are very good on the inner side, but has obvious wear on the outer side. It has very slight grooves on the outer side surface. The total thickness is 17.9mm, it's about 1.1mm thinner than new rotors (19mm), 0.9mm thicker than the 17mm service limit specified by Honda.

Here are my questions:

• Brake fluid: The brake fluid is 10 years old. I plan to replace all the fluid in the system. The tool I have is a vacuum pump. I plan to suck out the brake fluids according to the bleeding sequence. Any problem with this solution?
• Brake shims: What's the use of them anyway? I've been without the shims for 2 years, and there seems to be no difference at all.
• Any other suggestions?

Thanks a bunch!

[AZmike]

Shims are just for noise reduction.

The fluid is long overdue for replacement. My vacuum pump worked well for the bleeder screws that still sealed well around the threads. The other screws allowed the pump to pull mostly air rather than fluid. If you can get the help I'd recommend doing the standard two person bleed.

Brembo rotors seem to be the preference here. A search should turn up some good threads on pads. Make sure that your caliper sliders are lubricated. They may be the cause for your uneven pad wear.

[Busted_Blue]

aem pads are good choice..roughly same price as OEM honda pads.. roughly 50 a pair front ones.


Brembo is a good replacement...


www.importrp.com has good prices for the rotors.

[86AccordLxi]

Nopi also usually has good prices for brembo blanks.

Alex

[visionguru]

Shims are just for noise reduction.
The fluid is long overdue for replacement. My vacuum pump worked well for the bleeder screws that still sealed well around the threads. The other screws allowed the pump to pull mostly air rather than fluid. If you can get the help I'd recommend doing the standard two person bleed.
Brembo rotors seem to be the preference here. A search should turn up some good threads on pads. Make sure that your caliper sliders are lubricated. They may be the cause for your uneven pad wear.

Thanks for the hints. I tried to bleed the brake fluid using the vacuum pump. Just as you said, it didn't work as I expected. I was only able to suck out fluid from one bleeder screws (right rear), for all the rest 3, I could only get bubbles.

One question: what are the standard sealant used on the bleeder screws? I plan to screw them all out and re-apply sealant in my next try.

[visionguru]

The old brake fluid is like dark brown jelly. Not much air bubbles though. I felt immediate brake power increase right after this was done.

[Oldblueaccord]

Thanks for the hints. I tried to bleed the brake fluid using the vacuum pump. Just as you said, it didn't work as I expected. I was only able to suck out fluid from one bleeder screws (right rear), for all the rest 3, I could only get bubbles.

One question: what are the standard sealant used on the bleeder screws? I plan to screw them all out and re-apply sealant in my next try.

dont use sealant on the bleeders. there probably rusted you can buy new ones cheap. If you remove them you will have to re bleed the system.

Use a turkey baster and suck up the old fluid outta the mastercylinder and replaced it with new every week for a month. That would help. I use the castrol gtlma fluid.


wp