Honda Fit brake change

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2 weird things with my little Honda Fit: 1) This car bolts the brake fluid hose to the car. 2) This car also seems to wear the inside brake pads a lot more then the outside pads (left side is the inside pad, the last picture is the outside pad). Usually I thought that the pads should wear evenly?

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New pads after 25,000, not very good. I must not drive very well?

22 Replies to “Honda Fit brake change”

  1. All cars have the brake line fixed to the chassis, yours is only unusual that the hose itself has a fitting midway for that purpose. It looks like it’s to hold the hose away from the steering and suspension but is to be unbolted for easier service.

    Most cars wear the inside pad faster since half of the caliper slides back-and-forth to allow one pad to work. The friction keeps one pad touching the rotor and wears it faster.

    25,000 miles isn’t good, but it’s not extremely bad. Some pads just don’t last as long as others. Ford used a phenolic (plastic) piston which would expand with heat and would cause the pads to wear really fast. I drove a company van that would chew through pads every 15,000 miles until I replaced the calipers with new ones that had stainless steel pistons, and after that I drove 100,000 miles on one set before they sold the van. If this is the case with yours, you can rebuild the calipers with better pistons, or replace them.

  2. I have used bendix titanium metallic pads with excellent results. They stop a shorter distance vs oem. I also have had poor results with ceramic pads. they stopped poorly when cold, and were very unimpressive overall, at 3x the price of others.

  3. 25,000 miles…that surprises me. Car and Driver had a 2007 Fit Sport in their longterm test fleet and said brake wear was negligible after 40,000 miles.

    I bought my wife an ’07 Fit Sport and she loves it!

  4. Like the pictures at the top of the page the inside pads wear much faster than the outside. at 12000 miles i had to replace the pads the inside were may be a 1mm above the wear marker. were as the outside pads still had at least 50% remaining.

  5. I bought my 08′ fit in 2008. The pads were replaced at 13,900. Now I have reached 33,000 and the brake pads are worn again. The first time the rotors were worped. The dealer replaced the pads and turned the rotors. The last time I felt a grinding and a soft pedal. This time I paid for the pad replacement and the rotors were also turned again, now I have less the 3mm of wear for the rotors remaining. Is this a driver problem or a design flaw?

  6. I just replaced mine on our ’08 base fit just shy of 70,000 miles. They looked exactly like that though. Ours, the outside half of the caliper was siezed up. I was able to free it and I am hoping that will resolve the problem (or at least give us another 70k) The wear wasn’t as uneven on the driver’s side, but is still half of what it should be.

  7. I’ve owned a 2007 FIT Sport since new. I drive 95% flat freeway in So. Cal. At 30K miles I had to replace both front rotors. They were worn down below minimum but were not damaged by the pads. Also, I had to replace the original pads. I replaced using ceremic pads. At 50K miles I noticed a noise in the right front, pulsing when braking and a grinding sound when applying the brakes when backing up. Inspection found right inter pad completely worn into the drum. Turned both rotors (fortunately, not scored below minimum) and replaced with Kragen ceramic again. Now @ 72K miles, hearing the noise again. So, something is must be wrong with Honda’s braking system, either in the ABS, soft rotors or defective design of the calipers and sliding mechanism. Also, I unsure about the durability of the pads. I recommend that if you have ~30K miles on your FIT, have the brakes inspected. BTW, rear brakes (shoes) are still at 4MM with 72K miles, never replaced.

  8. Bought a new 2007 Fit base model. Fan for AC blower in car stopped working for 15 minutes, then back to normal. That is all that has gone wrong with this car. Wow. Now at 22,600 miles I hear a brake noise. Dealer says it is time to replace them. I used to be a mechanic for 10 years. I bought new pads from dealer and dismantled the front brakes. The inner pads are worn out but the outer pads still have 50% life left. Rotors are not damaged. Taking them now to get them machined. Dealer kit of front brake pads include a small pouch of moly lubricant. Never saw that before as a mechanic. I left the business in 1987. Is this something new? Is this for the brake pad to slide easily back and forth in the caliper? Am I just a lousy mechanic? I am 50 years old and I’ll tell ya, Honda Fits rock. I liked the 2007 Fit so much I went and bought the 2009 Fit Sport with Navigation. And to think they made that car out of sand, iron ore, and oil. I sure enjoy flying down the freeway at 80 mph in that thing. Try doing that with iron ore, oil and sand. You can’t do it. Thanks Honda. Please don’t make me look at the rear brakes.

    1. The high temp grease (moly, silicone both used) is intended to reduce brake squeal. Apply a light coating to the back of the pads where they contact the caliper or piston. I also apply a light coat along the slide interfaces where the ends of the pad frame meet the caliper frame. I also clean off the slide pins and regrease them whenever I change the pads. Stuck/corroded slide pins are one of the common causes of uneven and/or excessive brake pad wear.

      The OEM brake pads on my 2009 Honda Fit Sport lasted about 60K miles. As others have experienced, the inner and outer front brake pads wear at slightly different rates, which has not been my experience on other cars except when some part of the linkage was frozen. This differential wear would not be an issue except that the wear indicators are located on the pads that wear more slowly. As a result, the first wear indication that you get is a metal-on-metal grind as the worn-out brake pad scores the rotor. If you are on a long trip when this happens (as I was), then you might as well kiss those rotors goodbye.

    2. I meant regrease, but spell check “fixed” it for me.

      “I also clean off the slide pins and regrease them whenever I change the pads”

      Stuck/corroded slide pins are one of the common causes of uneven and/or excessive brake pad wear.

  9. Well, got the rotors back from the machine shop. Didn’t have to replace them, they machined up real nice. Got the car all back together. Now I can’t figure out how to adjust the rear brakes. I must suck as a mechanic. I’ll let the dealer adjust the rear brakes. I’ll have to take out a second mortgage on the house first, that’s if I had a house. Long live Honda Fits.

  10. I have had a 2007 Honda Fit Sport since new. 97,000 miles later, just starting to feel the brakes going out, but haven’t had any problems until now! Just thought I would give another opinion to compare against the ~20k mile problems.

  11. just thought i should leave my two cents
    bought a used 2007 with 48k miles last week
    this morning the brakes started grinding

    went to a guy who was HIGHLY recommended and a certifiied honda guy
    turns out the outers were almost full and the inners were worn to the nub
    the guy told me if the calipers werent lubed
    then it would cause this problem
    however it seems that this might be a general caliper issue

    will recheck in 10k miles
    see if theres any uneven wear

  12. Please, verify ofen the two bolts covered with robber who have big function in wear of the brake pad. Sometime this two bolts can be blocked inside. Gresse these bolts and verify that are sliding easily.

  13. I have over 45K on my 2008 Sport, and I was just told I need new pads “soon.” I have the feeling I am going to be doing this myself as the shop wants about $120 for the job.

    Thankfully my father made us work on his truck when we were kids!

  14. Just replaced the brakes on my ’08 Fit Sport for the first time… 75,000 miles. Now, I saw the same thing you did, the outer pads still had some meat on them but the inner pads were pretty much gone (not down to the metal but close). I suspect that this is because the cylinder in the caliper which pushes against the pads is on the inside. Maybe the caliper itself is not riding on the bolt the way it should. Either way, there’s probably more pressure on the inside than the outside, which is basically pulling the outer pad against the rotor. Mechanically speaking, the cylinder pushes against the inner pad, and only when that makes contact does the caliper “pull” the outer pad in. So it stands to reason that the inner pads wear out first. That’s my theory, anyway.

  15. 2008 sport 58,000 miles decided to change brake pad because i have never gotten that many miles on a brake change.
    Pads still had about half the backing plate width left. (yes the inner was worn a little more* don’t forget to grease the caliper bolts) Rotors warped at about 20,000 miles but I keep riding them. Eventually the pedal quit pulsing. I change the rotors and pads to bendix. I think the way i drive 58,000 miles on a set of pads is very good.

  16. I have a Honda fit sports 2007. Most recent service from dealer says the front break pads are between 2 to 3mm and need to be replaced. Is that true? This dealer is really not good and I don’t trust them.

  17. My girlfriend’s 09 Fit Sport is a rolling piece of plastic garbage. Reason 1.) Cannot jack up from the front as the entire front undercarriage is plastic, 2.) The tires are hard as f#*k to find, 3.) NO TORQUE, i can accelerate uphill faster on my bicycle, 4.) I just tried to change the front brake pads for the first time, and within 3 turns of a wrench the caliper bolt is completely stripped out, and yes, i sprayed the area with lubricating spray first. No auto parts stores around here have these bolts in stock without specially ordering, so i have to drive an hour to that Jap-Shack they call a Honda dealer. Thank you so much for using your quality Japanese hardware on your vehicles Honda, you really made my day.

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