How to service your brakes if you live in an area with snow

This series is divided into five sections:
Introduction: Getting started
Part 1 covers tearing things apart and seeing what needs to be done, which for me is usually a lot
Part 2 covers putting it all back together again, clean, lubed and freed-up
Part 3 shows anything specific to the rear brakes that could not be covered in Part 1
Part 4 wraps it up by showing some ancillary checks you might as well do while you're down there getting dirty.
Part 5 More details on cleaning up severely rusted pins, and dealing with shim/rotor contact. (Addendum to Part 2.)
Part 6 What the corresponding parts look like on a 2003 Accord.
Note: All pictures can be clicked on for LARGER versions!

PART 6: Another view of Honda brakes, using a 2003 Accord as the guinea pig

This is Vince McGowan's 2003 Accord. His Accord, like him, resides in New York City. Snow and salt (and rust) are part of its life. This car, however, has not been in existence long enough, or been driven enough, to make rust the sort of overwhelming influence that it is for, say, my car.

Accord brakes are designed and built basically the same as any other floating-caliper Honda brakes, with a few slight differences from the Integra ones that have served as the stars of the previous Parts of this section. This page shows those differences.

The only other major difference you'll find on Honda brakes (besides ABS), is that of the Passport and other select vehicles, which have their parking brake as a small drum brake inside the rotor's "top hat".

McGowan's front brakes, as found under the road wheel. Two years of NYC salt has done about what I would expect. Not too bad yet, but wait another few years, and great alarm and expense can be expected absent timely servicing.

Note that the pads in this application must be reinstalled differently from mine: These pads must be re-inserted from the side, bottom first, then top pivoted in place. This may be why the pads have their leading and trailing corners beveled off (so you don't plow assembly grease on to the rotor).

A front view of the caliper, still in place. You can see the rubber bellows protecting the mount pins from the elements. Unlike on my Integra, these two pins are different from each other. The gold-colored one goes on the bottom. You must put them back in the correct location. The 12mm retaining bolts are identical, however, and can go on whichever way.

The pins (and their boots) are in the center, the retaining bolts beneath them, and the slide shims at the extreme left and right.

Note that the yellow pin has a rubber insert in its end. Do not lose this!

Pins cleaned off. At this early stage in the car's life, a simple wipe will do. You still have to make sure there's no rust on the slide shims and the mount bracket surfaces.

This is the rear caliper, unbolted, and all hardware removed. Much of the factory coating is still apparent on the parts.

Note how the construction is virtually identical to the Integra's.

A closeup of the rear lower pad mount bracket surface. This surface is essentially brand-new. Compare it with the super-rusty ones on my car. In time these particular ones will get very rusty too, clamping their pads between them, just like mine.

Notice the complete lack of any sort of anti-seize or lubrication of any kind, and also note that rust is beginning to intrude from the inboard side. Honda does not apply anti-seize at the factory, probably because of concern about contamination of the pad friction surfaces.

The rear caliper's parts. Vince has wire-brushed the slide shims, something many people do, but a practice I'm not sure I like. Those shims ought to be shiny silver, with no trace of black at all.

I find wire brushes tend to smooth and polish rust and crud, making it seem as though it's gone when it's actually not. To me, files and 50 or 80-grit emery cloth are the only sure ways of removing rust.