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bill.guest

My 2013 Honda Euro Civic has done 32,400 kms. It went to the dealer for servicing and WoF. I was not really surprised that the front pads needed replacement, and although I might have got a bit more out of the rear pads, I elected to replace them also. Then I was told that the front rotors needed machining. Then I was told that they were below minimum, and needed replacement. I protested that for 32,400 kms, this was ridiculous. I was rather brushed off with remark "well, it is the European spec, the discs are quite soft". The total cost of the brakes work was $696.50 (inc GST). That amounts to almost 2.5 c/km for the distance run. The car is only driven my my wife and me, both in our late 60s, and most driving is around Wellington and Hutt Valley. I like driving the Civic very much, and it has been very reliable. But this seems to be to be a design or material selection flaw. I would appreciate some advice.

Anon

Hi there,
I've not heard of the Civic having this problem. However it is not an unheard of problem.
It can be that a hard brake pad compound is used with a softer disc, causing both to wear fairly fast. Generally you would need two front pad changes for every one set of rears.
If the disc surface was quite scored, it would require machine to bed the new pads. And this could possibly put it under the min thickness, but a bit rare to have them under min thickness first time round.