[Kalidragon]

Hi

Not sure how to go about this. My car has about 50k and I am thinking of replacing the brake pads and the shocks.

I am not sure if they are any aftermarket parts that are better then the oem kinda like tires. If anyone can help or point out a website. I know auto zone has break pads but the shocks don't make any sense. Thanks.

 

[Madtiger11]

Your shocks are dead at 50k??? What have you been doing with your RL??!

 

[GreginJaxFL]

Unless you see fluid coming out of your shocks at 50k, they should still be good.

If I were doing my own brake job, I would order the OEM pads to replace.

 

[Solo]

From personal experience, I will only use O.E. brake pads.

It's highly doubtful you need shocks.

 

[Michael Donovan]

Traded my 07 with 150,000 shocks or struts were still like new!

 

[smufguy]

Aside from feel, I am not sure how you diagnosed the shocks to be faulty.

Rather than changing the pads alone, replace the pads and rotors as a set. Centric and EBC make good rotors and matching pads. RockAuto has some decent pricing, but I would cross shop between Amazon, @carid , AutoAnything.com, etc.

 

[Kalidragon]

thank you guys. I don't see any oil but lately its been kinda bumpy so i thought maybe the shocks were out. But i guess not. As for the breaks I am having to press the pedal down all the way and I am still not stopping in time.

Almost rear ended two different cars within the last few days. Honestly I am not doing jack I don't tow or off road. I just go to work, school, gym and groceries. But I will get oem parts for the break.

 

[ReefHound]

thank you guys. I don't see any oil but lately its been kinda bumpy so i thought maybe the shocks were out. But i guess not. As for the breaks I am having to press the pedal down all the way and I am still not stopping in time.

Almost rear ended two different cars within the last few days. Honestly I am not doing jack I don't tow or off road. I just go to work, school, gym and groceries. But I will get oem parts for the break.

With all due respect, you don't sound like a mechanic and brakes are critical to safety so I'd suggest taking it to a qualified repair shop or dealer.

 

[Madtiger11]

thank you guys. I don't see any oil but lately its been kinda bumpy so i thought maybe the shocks were out. But i guess not. As for the breaks I am having to press the pedal down all the way and I am still not stopping in time.

Almost rear ended two different cars within the last few days. Honestly I am not doing jack I don't tow or off road. I just go to work, school, gym and groceries. But I will get oem parts for the break.

Something is wrong. Brakes worn should not be that bad. Something leaking?

 

[Kalidragon]

With all due respect, you don't sound like a mechanic and brakes are critical to safety so I'd suggest taking it to a qualified repair shop or dealer.

That a very fair point I have no idea what I am doing. But I am done with finals and have watched a few youtube videos so I thought why not try. Plus I changed my own oil so I think it might not be that hard. If I don't get it I will call a mechanic. We have a few good mobile mechanics around here. But yeah I am not very handy with tools.

 

[Kalidragon]

Something is wrong. Brakes worn should not be that bad. Something leaking?

I don't think so everything under the hood is dry. I can even take a pic and share it.

 

[gti16vman]

A brake fluid flush might not be a bad place to start. With only 50k miles, I am sure there is plenty of pad/rotor life left. If you are dead set on replacing the brakes, I recently went with a Powerstop Z23 pad/rotor kit and I am really happy with it. I wanted less brake dust and smoother braking, which I got both with the Powerstop kit.

 

[smufguy]

Factory brake fluid goes bad around 55K miles of driving, so at 50K miles, it is worth changing when you change the rotors and pads. I had never had much luck with factory rotors and pads in my G5 Odyssey or in my G1 Ridgeline. Changing those to aftermarket units helped solve the issue, along with changing the fluid to a high temp one.

 

[Kalidragon]

got it thanks honestly i am not too keen into changing anything but i also don't want to get into an accident thanks !!

 

[Solo]

Re-reading your posts, I think you should find a competent mechanic to look at it & go for a road test. If you're rear ending cars, I can think of only two things that are going on. Either an issue with the vehicle, or...
Have it looked at IMO.

 

[Kalidragon]

Re-reading your posts, I think you should find a competent mechanic to look at it & go for a road test. If you're rear ending cars, I can think of only two things that are going on. Either an issue with the vehicle, or...
Have it looked at IMO.

I haven't rear-ended anyone yet. but the car just takes longer than before to stop

 

[gti16vman]

I think you should do brake fluid flush first and check the pads/rotors for thickness. If they have life left, fluid is the obvious choice for bringing the system back up to original level. And if there is an issue with the fluid, replacing pads/rotors is not going to change much.

 

[Even Further]

I got 140K out of my factory shocks on my RDX. I got to 70 or 80K before I had to mess with the brake pads/rotors. You seem to be jumping the gun, unless it's been inspected by a pro. Akebono makes excellent brake pads and Centric premium level rotors are awesome. That's a solid choice for non OEM brake pads/rotors. I've done probably 150+ brake jobs, and I don't buy crap parts.

 

[gti16vman]

Akebono makes excellent brake pads

Agree with this, put some on my old Frontier and they were great.

 

[ChiGuy]

Flushing the brake fluid is not going to correct having to press the pedal down all the way and still not stopping in time.
The most common cause of this is caliper slides that are "frozen" or hanging up. Next most common is a caliper piston being frozen but that usually has other symptoms like brake pads burning up. The less likely possibility is a brake booster having a vacuum leak, which when depressing the brake pedal, you hear a hissing sound.