Average time is about 30 Thousand miles.  This figure depends on the driver’s use of brakes and how often they are applied due to driving conditions.  We find because of factory settings some vehicle’s rear brakes wear sooner than the fronts but usually the fronts wear a bit faster than the rears.

• A high pitched screeching noise is the noise of your brake wear indicators telling you that it’s time to replace your brake pads.
• Brake noise that is off and on and not consistent comes from uneven wear or rotor polishing. As the braking system heats up, harmonic noise can occur from rotors whose surface has become glass-like. Some brake pads are made from materials that heat up faster and make the pad wear uneven and noisy.
• *Reid uses ceramic brake pads. Ceramic pads are the best and coolest material available for your braking system. Reid’s pads come with a lifetime guarantee (your car’s life). After replacing a pad set, all following pad set parts are free.

Disc brakes are a system comprised of pads and rotors. A set of pads grab the rotor to brake. The repetitive motion of braking polishes the surface of the rotor making it glassy. Excessive braking or one panic stop can warp or bend the rotor surface. Machining the rotors, called resurfacing or turning, is done to restore an even, matte finish, which in turn provides a surface with better stopping power and less chance of unwanted brake noise.

At Reid’s, we believe so whole heartedly that your rotors should be turned with every front brake job that we cover this under our brake warranty program.  We will provide your vehicle with resurfaced front rotors for your car’s life, only charging you the labor for replacing your used rotors with ones that we have previously turned that are sitting there waiting for the job to expedite the process.  The warranty can be voided by allowing your pads to go metal to metal with the rotors thereby damaging both.

Rear rotors are designed too thin to turn by the factory.  So it is very important not to allow your rear pads to go metal to metal.  This will result in needing your rotors to be replaced with new ones. This could add $200 to $240 to your rear brake job.

If this happens when you drive, not when you brake, your tires could be out of balance, uneven, or out of round. If this happens when you brake your brake rotors could be warped or bent. Excessive braking or consecutive braking, such as coming down out of the mountains or one panic stop can cause the brake pads to damage the rotors. To cure this problem the rotors need to be resurfaced or replaced.

All Turbo charged models and most cars 2014 and younger call for full synthetic oil.  We use all of Honda’s fluids. All we carry are Honda’s synthetic blends 5w20 or 10w30, or Honda’s full synthetic 0w-20.  Your vehicles oil cap is imprinted with what type of oil you should use. Always remember that oils will mix, synthetic or crude.  We recommend using the correct oils but if you’re in an emergency where you need oil in your engine, any oil is better than no oil!

All 4 cylinder Hondas are now Turbo Charged.  Honda has taken a smaller engine in the need to have vehicles get a higher MPG (miles per gallon) rating. This smaller engine is then Turbo Charged to give it the same power as it’s bigger, older cousins.  When an engine is turbo charged it runs hotter and harder than a regular gasoline engine does. This hotter running engine reduces the oil’s viscosity (thickness/lubrication value). We find any more than 5 thousand miles the oil looks black and watery.  If oil is not changed religiously every 5 Thousand Miles, your Turbo Honda will not last as long as your old Honda. We used to say that a Honda had an average life expectancy of 300 thousand miles. Today’s Honda turbo we are estimating won’t last half that unless oil is changed every 5 thousand at first and even every 3 thousand as the car gets older.  Only time will tell how long these vehicles will last and what it will take to keep them on the road.

Changing your engine oil every 5 Thousand miles and your Transmissions oil every 15 thousand for most automatic transmissions, every 20 thousand for CVT (constant velocity transmission), and every 30 thousand for your push button transmissions. This is tried and true! Coming to see Reid’s for your Honda or Acura needs every 5 thousand miles is a wise car care package. We are vested in making sure your vehicle reaches its full mileage potential.

A check engine light is the engines computer sensing a malfunction or a malfunctioning sensor. It’s generally an emissions code, and in certain vehicles it could be a transmission code, a Vtech code, or even a misfire code. Although usually benign to your vehicles function, you must get the code/codes read to be sure. We read, diagnose, give repair costs, advice and reset your engine light.

This means your car thinks it’s time for an oil change and its basically an Oil Change timer – Your vehicles timer will allow you to drive generally 7500 – 10,000 miles on a cycle.  It does not know if your oil is dirty, clean, full or in need of oil, it only knows when it was last reset! If you’ve just changed your oil someone has forgotten to reset your timer. Your  vehicle’s owner’s manual has the info as to how to reset your M.R.L. If you had us change your oil and your light has come on, please come on back, it’ll only take us 5 minutes to reset it.

A Radiator is flushed and fluid is replaced at the 100,000 mile service.  For a 6 cylinder it’s when the Timing-belt Job is due. For a 4 cylinder it’s when the Drive-belt Job is due.  Since 1990 all Honda radiators are made of plastic. Plastic dries and cracks as it degrades. This degrading process is magnified by living in a hot/dry climate and the 190 degrees of hot water that circulates through it to cool your engine.  Because of these factors we have recommended replacing your vehicle’s cooling system heart (the radiator) every 10 years or 200,000 miles – whatever comes first.