Hey guys. New to the forums. Just had a quick brake question for you all. We have an '08 Fit Sport. Just turned 25k miles. Front pads have about 20% left. Anyway, time to start gather some parts for a brake refresh. My other car has 4 wheel disc brakes, so I know that I just buy pads all the way around, and have the rotors turned. However, on this Fit, only the front has disc's. So, I know that I need pads and turned rotors in the front, but what exactly do I do in the rear? Not to familiar with drums.

Also, where do you guys get your OEM pads from? In the past, I've order from Majestic Honda, however, I can't seem to find a listing for the front pads. It shows them in the diagram, but they're not listed in the parts list.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks guys!

 

1. Don't worry about turning the rotors or drums, not really needed.

2. At 25k miles your shoes are probably fine, inspect them, but I doubt they're worn much (or they shouldn't be)

3. You can buy OEM pads here if you insist on factory parts
Honda Front Brake Pads (Fit) - Bernardi Honda Parts and Accessories

 

Rear drum brakes, generally speaking, last nearly forever when compared with the front discs. I put about 130K miles on my previous car (a Chevy Prizm) which had a similar brake setup, and I'm not sure I ever had to replace the rear brake shoes, despite taking care of the fronts a few times as would be expected.

 

Thanks for the info, guys! Guess I'll just look at doing front pads for now.

 

Out of curiosity...why do the rear shoes not wear out?

 

They wear out. Just at a slower rate than the front. There is allot less braking force required to lock up the rear wheels so the shoes last longer.

 

Just to expand on this a little bit: the front wheels bear a larger portion of the weight of the car than the rear wheels (certainly for cars like the Fit), often around twice as much, so the tires have twice as much traction on the pavement. Also, when you're braking, the momentum of the car is shifting the forces more toward the front than they are already. This means you can put a lot more braking force on the front wheels than the back ones.

Drum brake shoes also tend to have a larger area than equivalent disc brake pads, which of course helps the brake material last longer.

 

Good info there. Thanks for the tip.