Our new 2008 Honda Accord just required rear brake pad replacement and resurfacing of the rotors with only 18,059 miles on the vehicle.

Yesterday morning, we noticed a slight squealing sound that quickly worsened without even applying any pressure to the brake pedal. When we took the car to our dealership this morning, we were informed that Honda was reducing the overall weight of the vehicle by reducing the size of the brakes among other changes. Needless to say, we knew this was not a viable explanation for the premature wearing of the brakes. We also requested to have our sun roof checked due to a rattling sound. This issue was unresolved.

After spending $425.90 and doing some research, we have learned that Honda is well aware of the brake problem. Some complaints from others indicate that the rear calipers appear to have a design flaw as the pressure is not being distributed evenly. In any case, there should be a recall and reimbursement to those that have spent money on this repair.

The expense alone of replacing brakes every 12, 000 – 20,000 miles is unrealistic. More importantly, this is a major safety concern and cannot be allowed to continue.

We have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and would like to engage the support of others that have documented the same issue on www.carcomplaints.com to file a suit against Honda for this dangerous technical flaw in a once reliable vehicle.

We have sent a letter to the VP, of Sales & Service at Honda with a copy to the Better Business Bureau. We believe Honda should pay for this repair and recall the 2008 vehicles.

I too own a 2008 Accord EXL and went in for regular oil change and found out that my rear brakes were gone!!!! Cost to replace was $210 by a dealer. I thought this was fishy and checked the internet and behold! I saw lots of complaints here and other sites. Well, I am about to voice my complaint with Honda America. I will probably never buy another Honda when our other car needs to be replaced. I should have gone with Toyota. This was my first Japanese car. I am going to take my car to my local reliable mechanic who services our other car. His cost is $110- half the price. Question to all, does my extended warranty cover this???

Thanks and good luck to all..

I am another who was just informed that my rear breaks on my 2008 Honda Accord need to be replaced at 18,000 miles. Service Manager tells me this a frequent problem on this model and he is "working with Honda to recognize the problem" and to adjust the repair cost accordingly. This is clearly a class action defect and I am surprised that Honda has not taken corrective action. This is my third Honda in seven years and it may well be my last if this defect is any indication of their quality deterioration. Please report similar problems if you experience them so that Honda owners will get some relief on these unnecessary costly expenditures.

I noticed pulsating brakes and noise around 15,000 miles and had to replace the rear brakes at 20,000 along with having the front rotors turned due to warp issues which cost $225 out of my pocket. Today I have 32,000 miles, and I am facing the same problem all over again. The rear pads need to be replaced, and the rotors need to be turned again. I filed a complaint with Honda, and they refuse to acknowledge a problem. The dealer has stated that this is normal wear and tear. Never in my life have I had to have two break jobs within 32,000 miles.

This is a serious problem, and I have put the car up for sale. The worst part is that the majority of the 32,000 miles on the vehicle are highway miles. I would love to be part of a class-action suit if anyone knows how we can get one initiated. Somehow this problem needs to be exposed more publicly, and hopefully that will force Honda to acknowledge the problem. I believe that this will be my first and last Honda vehicle. What a travesty!

This seems to be a common theme with this car. It's a brand new car with 24,600 miles and the rear brakes are worn out already. The dealership is nice about it, and they admit that this is common with this car. They seem well rehearsed in this response while they charge me $220 to replace the brakes. They also admit that none of the other models have this problem. I logged a complaint with Honda of America, and they were nice, but didn't do anything about it and they say there is no recall in the works. This is the 4th Honda that I have owned.

I considered the Camry but stayed loyal to Honda because of the great history I have experienced over the years. Unfortunately I can not recommend this car to friends, knowing the brakes fail in such a short amount of time. This is a great car if Honda makes this right. I'm very disappointed.

UMMMMM this car is barely 1 year old and under 20,000 miles. I cannot believe that this issue has even come up. I had a 2001 Honda and never had any problems with it. I'm so angry if in fact this is because of "design". NO I don't have my foot on the brake and it's obvious to so many of us,that it's the car!!! I love, love, love my car but this is such a let down for me. Folks, file a complaint to 800-999-1009 and maybe if enough people do this, something can get done. I too am filing a complaint with the BBB. GOOD LUCK!

All of this is now making sense to me. My 2008 Honda Accord was not getting near the gas mileage it should have been getting on the highway. I drive 130 miles a day to and from work and was getting about 26 mpg on the highway. Then the problem with the brakes got worse and worse. Husband took tire off and discovered brake pads are down to the metal, but gas mileage is great now at about 32 mpg, better than the sales sticker indicated. Seems like the caliper is sticking, causing the premature brake wear. Furthermore, I had a 2007 Civic, which seemed to always get "rocks stuck in the calipers" or that's what the dealer kept telling me. However, they could not produce a "rock" when I asked to see it. When it did it a second time on the Civic, husband looked in the caliper and found NO ROCKS, but the dealership service department removed yet another "ROCK" from the caliper. Seems like they had the same problems with the 07 Civics too and would make up the rock story. I sure smell CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT don't you?

Just found out my rear brakes are 100% worn while my front brakes are just 10% worn at 26,000 miles. I am meeting with Honda dealership manager tomorrow. I intend to seek a satisfactory solution. Perhaps this falls under the Lemon Law since it doesn't seem like a one time fix and while brakes do wear out it shouldn't be every 20,000 miles or so. I did my research before I bought this car including Consumer Reports which rated this car better than average. WAKE UP CONSUMER REPORTS! YOU'RE ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL!!!

I had the 2008 Accord in last week at 13,500 for an oil change and to check out the brake rotors for warping, as there is a bit of pedal vibration at higher speed braking. There is also squeaking when braking at low speeds. They showed me the rear brake pads. They were completely worn out. I was shocked that they were worn out at this mileage. They could see that I was knowledgeable about expected brake pad life and said that they would replace them as a goodwill gesture once only.

I went home and did some research and found that I'm not the only one with this problem. I have also forwarded the subject to The Truth About Cars site to the editor, Robert Farago. This is something that I, nor many others, I bet, are aware of when they buy their new Honda. This is definitely a design problem for Honda to sort out - not something that the customer should be paying for every year, particularly REAR brake pads.

I have had numerous Honda's and now the 2008 Accord as well as a 2008 Acura MDX. They are both very good cars, and previous Honda cars I have owned have been super reliable. Everything so far about the 2008 Accord has been fine until this. This is definitely a Honda defect and I am shocked they seem to be ignoring it. I don't know if it is a design problem or material defect yet, but you can bet I will analyze it quickly.

Disc brakes are a relatively simple system and finding the source of the fault should not be too difficult. Like most of the complaints here, my initial hint was the dreaded squeaking/grinding noise, most likely a rock stuck behind the rotor or pad wear indicators scraping on the rotor. It was a good time to replace my winter tires with the summer version so I took the opportunity to see the source of the racket up close and personal. Indeed, like so many others here have noted, the rear pads are shot, and there is significantly more wear on the inner pad, but both of course require replacement.

Actually uneven pad wear is a good indicator there is a big problem someplace in the caliper (the assembly that squeezes the pads against the rotor) design or construction. The fact that the rear brakes need attention before the front can only best be described as bizarre. The front brakes take the VAST majority of braking forces, the rear brakes are really only along for the ride---comparatively they do very little work. I have had cars that got their first new rear brakes with the 3rd set of front pads. I will be contacting Honda next week but I don't expect a much better response than the responders to this site have already noted.

Incidentally, this is an excellent site and a true asset to car owners, shoppers and enthusiasts......in fact it is superb---in a class by itself really. Thanks so much CARCOMPLAINTS.COM. I am impressed with the responders to your site as well......a lot of people really care about such matters and none of us like to get s%#^^$&d...........woops, taken advantage of. You can bet I will come to CARCOMPLAINTS.COM and do some research before my next car purchase---it will definitely be time well spent.

I will definitely fix this problem immediately, but it can only be a temporary fix to keep the car safe and prolong the life of the rotors. I hate to do this kind of ''fix'' because something else is very wrong to cause an end result such as this...it is like putting a band-aid on a 3" gash. To add insult to injury, this band-aid costs for $300 to $500 depending on the state of the rotors (kinda like health care). Honda really needs to come to the party, acknowledge their problem, and make it right.

I took my 2008 4 door Accord in for "routine" 20,000 service. The dealer called me back to say that my rear brakes were down to 10% life while the front brakes were still 75%.

I had to have the rear brake pads replaced and have the rotors resurfaced which cost $251.

I am extremely dissatisfied with this. The Dealer offered no help to contact Honda or to assist from a monetary standpoint. They know there is a problem with the brakes but Honda claims it is normal wear & tear. I have purchased 3 new Acuras & 5 new Honda's since 1993 and this is the first problem with quality. I also called Honda Motor Co. this week at the request of the dealer. They logged the complaint but offered no help. They state that if they get enough complaints, they will have engineers look into the problem and issue a service bulletin if it is warranted.

Update from May 20, 2009: I recently wrote a letter to Honda outlining my dissatisfaction with the rear brake wear. I received a call back today from Chris with Honda simply acknowledging the letter. He claims it is normal wear and tear. He stated that with the new 2008 redesign, the emphasis was put on rear brakes so that the car would not nose dive in the front end with the previous models. This would result in brake wear and replacement in the 30,000 mile range compared to 40,000 range with the previous models.

It is what it is!!! I will definately rethink Honda on my next purchase.

It's unbelievable that brakes need replacing this soon. The rear brake pad is half the size of the front. What idiot at Honda came up with this design? It must have been the sales group in a attempt to increase revenue after the sale. It's too bad the designers that design the rest of the car to be reliable didn't design the brakes. I'm extremely disappointed in Honda for designing the rear brake system for what is obviously an attempt to increase its revenue after the sale of the car. What's next for Honda, replace the brakes with each oil change?

I have been driving Honda Products since 1992. We have had new accords and suvs from Honda, every other year and at least one in the house. All together we have had 13 Hondas. I have never before seen such crappy mechanics as on this 2008 Accord. In all of the years, the last problem I would have ever thought of would be the rear brakes. I have NEVER before replaced rears in under 50 thousand miles. I called the dealer, who says it is normal and I called Honda Motor and they all are unwilling to correct the problem. What kind of customer service and loyalty to a long time customer is that? This is a serious problem with the new Accords and Honda needs to fix it!

My new Honda Accord started squeaking both when I was braking and driving around so when to the dealer. My car has only 16,0000 miles on it and I was told today that my rear brakes must be replaced. The dealer told me that this is something that is not covered by a warranty and due to the design of the braking system will be a replacement issue for me about every 15,000 miles!! Never should a new car, which I do not drive hard, which my dealer insinuated too, should need this work done!

I just called, thanks to others who posted the Honda Customer Service number: 800-999-1009 --- Please call and file a case complaint on this!!!

I filed and got a case number and demanded that Honda issue a recall on this car. I plan to also registre my complaint with the Better Business Bureau and Honda of America.

I am so disappointed with Honda. I had an Infiniti before and NEVER had any problems like I have had with my new Honda. My friend, who owned 4 previous Accords convinced me that I should buy one too. All my car research gave me the impression to buy the 08 Accord but now I regret this decision and see it as a hugh waste of money I have ever made!!

DO NOT BUY this car! Please file a complaint and hope we get a recall. I have a feeling that this problem must be really bad since Honda knows about it and will not do anything to fix it. Shame on Honda for risking their good reputation for high quality engineering and customer care by ignoring this brake problem that they created!!!!!!!!

I am so thankful to everyone who has posted on this site. I was able tell the dealer that NO WAY was this brake ware due to my hard braking and my 16,000 miles of city driving!!

DO NOT LET UP with the pressure to get Honda to issue a recall.