Rear brake pad not making full contact. 2007 Civic

[Etienne Rossouw]

Thanks for all the video’s Eric! My friend catches me watching you almost every night and thinks I’m insane.

My problem is minor. There is no pulling or noise or anything I can detect through normal driving. The driver side rear brake is evidently not making full contact with the rotor. The other side looks correct. Take a look at the pics and help me out with some input pls. I used silicone grease on the pins and boots, I cleaned the brake guides well and used Moly for the metal-to-metal contact areas.

This is my 2nd rotor and brake change on this vehicle and last time the same thing happened on this wheel but was even slightly worse – this time it seems to be making at least some contact on the outer side of the rotor.

Thanks all and stay dirty!

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[Noureddine Marigh]

The edges of the rotor look normal, surface looks as if the pads are not making good friction contact.
Air could be trapped somewhere towards that wheel if the lines were opened before, otherwise I would start looking at the caliper piston; does it move in and out?

[Etienne Rossouw]

Thanks for your reply RochNoure. I did bleed the brakes on this 2nd brake job but I did not on the 1st and the same problem presented itself. There is no sponginess in the brake pedal so I’m fairly confident the bleed went well. I should also mention that brake wear from the last set of pads was even on the inner and outer brake pads for both rear tires which also leads me to think the pistons are moving well.

The rust ring on the outer edge is not present on the other rotor – the entire rotor surface is shiny. Both rear pistons compressed with the same amount of force applied so I assumed they are good but don’t have the experience to know for sure.

[Noureddine Marigh]

You’ve probably done this but, did you wash the coating off the rotor before installing it? It would not hurt to spray brake cleaner just to make sure grease or something is not making contact with the rotor.

Any smell when you brake?

[Etienne Rossouw]

Yeah, I cleaned the coating off the rotors. The pads have been given time to bed and there was only once a little smell which I associate with resins burning off a new pad which came from the front.

[Noureddine Marigh]

Check the lines, make sure they are not kinked. I keep going back to the piston, which may not be moving far enough for full friction. I would inspect it again and make sure there is no crud stuck in there. Also, I would bleed that wheel again, just to make sure, and while you’re there, compare and swap rotors & pads.
Did you scrape off the brackets of build-up and dirt? The surface has to be clean and “smooth” before you place any lubricant on there. A couple of more things, clean the hub well before placing the rotor on and torque the wheel to specs

I worked on a friend’s civic before, same problem but both front rotors. We ended up replacing the calipers. The pistons were Ok when we inspected them but the they were not pressing the pads fully. Maybe the caliper in your car is fine, just do the above to make sure everything else works as should, and post back.

[Ryan]

It may have happened this last time if you had to compress the caliper again. Make sure all your contact points are lubed (slides, ears on pad.) After you swing the caliper up, try compressing the caliper directly in the center in case it had been cocked to one side from your previous compression with the pads caliper in its correct home.

Just one idiots opinion….

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[Etienne Rossouw]

The recesses in the caliper bracket and the brake guides were well cleaned. I am starting to lean toward the piston as well. Every surface was cleaned to shiny level including the hub and the wheel. It’s getting cold around here, may take me a while to get to this but I will post results once I have them. Thanks again for this help!

Skunk, thanks for this input but these rear pistons are the screw in type so I cannot just push in the center.

[EricTheCarGuy]

Honestly what I see in the pic looks normal. Honda rear disc brakes often have the problems you describe, it’s not your fault. If you’ve lubricated everything they way you say you have, you should be fine. One other thing I sometimes do when the pads stick in the caliper is to grind off some of the ears of the brake pads so they move in the brackets easier. You can’t go too far or it will cause a noise during brake application. That often cures sticking brake pads which is quite common. It happens because of rust buildup under the shims in the caliper. To me it’s just easier to remove material from the brake pads when I install them. Just for good measure and for someone else reading this thread, I’m going to post this video here.

I’ll also like this article I wrote.

http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/solving-brake-problems

Let us know if any other issues come up.

[Etienne Rossouw]

Thanks for weighing in Eric! I definitely cleaned all the surfaces mentioned and lubricated things well. The pads both move easily on the brake guides. The reason I’m not satisfied with my outcome here is because the other side is making much better contact, see the pic. This really is a minor problem considering there is no negative effect that I can feel but I am determined to try and figure out why this happens.

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[EricTheCarGuy]

As I said, Honda rear calipers were never all that great to begin with. I’d recommend servicing them at least every 30K to make sure they’re working properly.

[Etienne Rossouw]

Understood! I’m very grateful to be able to draw on everyone’s experience and I’ll post updates once I have them.

[Etienne Rossouw]

Update to this story : A few months have passed and the ring is gone. The pads have made contact and cleaned the rotor. This bears out Eric’s take that is a caliper in need of service.

[Frank Heiser]

Calipers like to be annoying in different ways, they don’t always just seize up solid. I’ve seen that before where the caliper piston will compress just fine but there is a point where it stops dead coming out and won’t go any further. I think there’s usually some sort of groove in the piston’s cylinder or even a tough gooey buildup that it gets hung up on and doesn’t want to push past.

Sometime in your driving you probably gave it a good enough jam on the brakes that it forced it past that point to free it up.

[Author]

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