Honda Civic Brake (?) Noise

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Sun 31 Dec 2000 21:28
Honda Civic Brake (?) Noise - peter boonham
My Honda Civic 1.5i Sport was purchased new in March 2000. At about 3 months old, with 1500 miles recorded, it started to make quite loud groaning and sometimes squealing noises when reversing out of my garage and driveway. I reported this to my local Honda dealer who had the car in for a check. Work was carried out to the rear disc brakes which I believe involved removal of the brake pads for dressing and chamfering of the edges. The remedial work lasted about 10 days before the noise returned. I understood the dealer to say that there had been a directive from Honda on this problem.
In addition to the very loud noises when reversing there is now noise when moving forward, at any speed from 5 mph upwards, difficult to describe, but a sort of whining, ringing, echoing noise, not particularly loud but annoying.
I wrote to Honda Customer Satisfaction Dept. explaining the problem. It took Honda over a month to reply with a very brief letter saying that ?They are aware that a noise can be experienced from certain vehicles due to oxidisation build up on the brake discs which is self rectifying following a journey of a reasonable length, and regretting that Honda (UK) is unable to recommend any further modifications to overcome this occurrence.?
My local journeys are usually 5 to 10 miles with very occasional motorway runs of 50 to 100 miles. The tyres are Pirelli P4000 on alloy rims, supplied as standard.
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Mon 1 Jan 2001 15:12
RE: Honda Civic Brake (?) Noise - honestjohn
Dear Peter,

Your answer is to find a safe place and brake hard. This instantly cleans the rust off your disc brakes, but because rear brakes do very little work you have to brake hard to be sure of cleaning them. It's not a problem exclusive to Honda. It applies to all rear disc braked cars, particularly those which are lightly used and especially if they are garaged while wet.

HJ
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