Soft brakes?

[Cdnpilotfan]

I notice that my brakes have a softer feel to the pedal when braking. If I release and then brake again right away, then brakes seem to engage earlier than on the first push.

Not sue if I am making any sense....the brakes seem softer than other Hondas I have owned. Just wondering if any one else finds the same thing?...the brakes work fine, it's just the feel of the pedal.

2012 Touring with 4 wheel disc brakes.

Thanks

[94eg!]

On a brand new car it's hard to say. Usually when the brake master cylinder's internal seals start to fail, you will get a pedal that starts to drop when holding a constant pressure. Releasing the pedal and re applying will bring back the stiffness, but the pedal will continue to slowly dorp. When this happens you will find you need to pump the brakes to keep the pedal from going all the way to the floor. This usually doesn't happen for 100's of thousands of miles to wear out a master cylinder. And this problem usually rears it's head when outside temps start to rise and seals expand.

The only other thing I can think of is called pad knock-back. This happens when there is play in the wheel bearings. This play causes the rotors to push the pads back towards the caliper ever so slightly which results in soft brake pedal while the piston takes up that initial slack. After that it's gone until you make more hard turns. I've only heard of this when racing though.

You may want to have a talk with the mechanics at the dealer. You could always request they bleed the brakes for you.

[MFS]

Hi, Any feed back regarding the soft brakes?

I'm have a similar problem with the brakes, I think. I knew going in that the Pilot brakes have less than avarage stopping force, but wasn't expecting the brake pedal to go down almost 3 inches (feels Like) for the car to start stoping, pumping it a second time will make it firm (just like with any braking system.)

I've had the car for 12 days and it was ok at the beginning, but now the issue is causing excessive braking or sometimes sudden braking due to lack of feedback from pedal.

So far, I put 400 miles on it and not sure if this has anything to do with Break-in period.
Its 2012 EX.

I might be taking it to the dealership tomorrow if issue persist and report back. It just feels that system needs to be bled.

Any information would be appreciated- Thank you

[Wisconsin]

Anyone have any luck getting their brakes fixed, what did the dealer say?

I just got a 2012 Pilot last week and I'm experiencing exactly the same thing as cdnpilotfan (soft feel, long travel of pedal before brakes grab).

I had a 2010 Pilot, the brakes on that felt nothing like this. Actually the brakes on that one felt like the 2012's do after you pump them once (short travel, and firm response).
Which is the way they should feel on the first push in my opinion.

I only have about 350 miles on it now, I figure I'll give it another couple hundred before I take it in to eliminate any kind of "break-in" that it might need.

[upnorthpilot]

In Motor Trend they said the 2012 brakes were improved a lot... shorter stopping distance. I have a 2012 on Touring on order and hope it is fixed by then.

[GoHerd]

After reading this I tried something today. If I lightly push the brakes, let up, and then push again, the brakes grab pretty darned well and are much more responsive like my previous CR-V. Much more spry and agile.

What gives? How can I get it to respond like that all the time? It feels like you would expect.


Sent from my Autoguide iPhone app

[rocky]

You pumped the brakes. That's experience would be matched in almost any car.
Gues ut would be interesting to compare an 11 v12 to see what changes took place under the hood.

[Kjoe89]

Any response on this from anyone at the dealer level? I also have same problem. Poor brakes on 1st pump and normal response on second. When I discussed with local dealer the service writer actually asked me if I had "driven a pilot before". Really? I should accept marginal brakes on a new car because I might not know better? Discussion ended pretty quickly when I mentioned I was replacing a totaled 2011 with < 10K miles and perfect brakes compaired to current 2012 with 600 miles. He really got quiet when I mentioned 20+ years of wrenching both as a profession and a hobby.

So has anyone gotten a staight answer from a dealer or Honda on these cars? I can and will tear into this but shame on Honda for this even being a conversation much less what looks like a developing issue.

[Wisconsin]

Had the dealer look at my brakes, they drove it and said they agreed with me that they felt "soft" and you had to push the pedal down quite a ways to get them to take.

They bled the brakes and said a tiny bit of air came out.
It feels better now than before, but still not like my 2010 Pilot did.

The dealer said they drove a few other Pilots they had on there lot and the brakes all felt the same as mine, so they are calling it normal for the 2012's.

The brakes do grab pretty good you just have to push the pedal down a little farther than I'd like to, so unless Honda comes out with a TSB or someone figures out how to make them better I'll just go with it.

[karlpenney]

Same thing on the 2012 Pilots I test drove. Mine is not here yet, but I know I'm not going to be happy with that much pedal travel. Hopefully there is some adjustment that can be made.