Centric Posi Quiet pad delamination on both sides. (Pic included)

[Gasbuggy]

My mother phoned tonight saying she was having brake trouble with her CR-V. What she described sounded like either a worn through pad or maybe a stone stuck in the caliper. I rotated her tires recently and thought everything looked passable. I picked up a set of Car Quest Gold pads and drove over. To my surprise both sides on the rear had a delaminated pad. This CRV is garaged and doesn't see much action in bad weather, my mom is pushing 70.

I put coated Centric rotors and centric Posi Quiet pads (the nice ones with the red coating) all the way around a little under 4 years ago. I would guess they have 40000 mostly rural and highway miles on them. The rotors look great... these pads though did not hold up.

Oddly enough I put the same premium Centric rotors and Akebono pads on my dad's Accord and the rotors were out of round. Some needed 4 passes on the lathe.

I read recently about Centric lying regarding their Chinese made pads not being completely assembled so they could avoid tariffs. I will likely strive to avoid them going forward. I've done alot of brakes and never had pads come apart. And Ive never had new rotors need cut.

 

[CharBaby]

I won't use Centric products anymore since I had two not so good experiences in a row with them. I just don't like'em that much. The rotors warp too soon and the pads don't have the bite that I like. And Centric's warranty is only 90 days.

This may sound strange but, I've been having very good success with DURAGO rotors on 3 different applications and I am back to Wagner & Raybestos pads. Me and my vehicles seem to like them for my driving style. This is looking at my history/account on RockAuto.

 

[Rand]

I usually start with raybestos element 3 line. And move on if availability issues/not made for that car.

I used centric parts on the 2010 accent but it had some issues. every year I had to disassemble and grease it or they would freeze up and heat up like clockwork. Parts were so cheap I usually just put new on every year.. talking less than 60$ for front rotors + pads.

 

[JohnnyG]

Wow! Thanks for the post. I'll be staying away from those too. It's bad enough when a fully bonded pad material comes off of the backing plate, but three little dots of "glue" absolutely doesn't work for me!
When that road salt/urea gets in that space, you know something bad is bound to happen.

 

[lbhsbz]

I am back to Wagner & Raybestos pads. Me and my vehicles seem to like them for my driving style. This is looking at my history/account on RockAuto.

First Brands (owner of Raybestos) owns Centric as of January 2021....most of the parts come out of the same plant, just different boxes at this point.

 

[lbhsbz]

I read recently about Centric lying regarding their Chinese made pads not being completely assembled so they could avoid tariffs. I will likely strive to avoid them going forward. I've done alot of brakes and never had pads come apart. And Ive never had new rotors need cut.

I worked for Centric for many years...In the beginning, we'd import our pads without shims or hardware, and "assemble" those components to the pads in house with our own hardware/shims so we could better control the quality of those components. We never imported friction pucks separate of the backing plate....as that's sort of impossible unless we're dealing with riveted pads which went away 40 years ago for the most part.

I would venture to guess that the lathe you were using was the source of the runout. In all my years in this industry, I've never seen a rotor, even from the worst sources, that had anywhere near the type of runout you describe. Measure runout while the rotor is installed on the vehicle hub....mark the high spot and low spot on the rotor with a sharpie, then re-clock the rotor on the hub and check it again....if your marks line up, then all the runout is in the rotor. If they move, then the runout is in the hub. Throw it on the lathe and check it again....if it changes, the runout is in the lathe.

 

[Gasbuggy]

The braking with those new Akebono pads/rotors felt wonky from the getgo, like rotors with material build up. The rotor lathe has been in my friends shop for 40 years and he's cut, I would guess, thousands of rotors with it. The way the rotor clamps down, I don't think it's possible to make a mistake. They feel perfect now. Here's a pic of one of the fronts, you can see how a large area wasn't even contacting. That rotor is held on with a giant reverse thread hub. Now, since he was controlling how many thousandths came off on each pass, perhaps that's variable, he did rough cuts removing 4 thousandths and a fine cut at the end taking off 2. He was also very surprised though.

Also, https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/p...llegations-failing-pay-united-states-millions

I worked for Centric for many years...In the beginning, we'd import our pads without shims or hardware, and "assemble" those components to the pads in house with our own hardware/shims so we could better control the quality of those components. We never imported friction pucks separate of the backing plate....as that's sort of impossible unless we're dealing with riveted pads which went away 40 years ago for the most part.

I would venture to guess that the lathe you were using was the source of the runout. In all my years in this industry, I've never seen a rotor, even from the worst sources, that had anywhere near the type of runout you describe. Measure runout while the rotor is installed on the vehicle hub....mark the high spot and low spot on the rotor with a sharpie, then re-clock the rotor on the hub and check it again....if your marks line up, then all the runout is in the rotor. If they move, then the runout is in the hub. Throw it on the lathe and check it again....if it changes, the runout is in the lathe.

 

[benjy]

better pads like NRS have the pad material "hooked" to their galvanized backs, i believe EBC might do the same. quality is hard to find today + its always more $$$. if its your free labor its not a biggie BUT paying an installer $$$$ makes buying better quality worth it IMO

 

[lbhsbz]

The braking with those new Akebono pads/rotors felt wonky from the getgo, like rotors with material build up. The rotor lathe has been in my friends shop for 40 years and he's cut, I would guess, thousands of rotors with it. The way the rotor clamps down, I don't think it's possible to make a mistake. They feel perfect now. Here's a pic of one of the fronts, you can see how a large area wasn't even contacting. That rotor is held on with a giant reverse thread hub. Now, since he was controlling how many thousandths came off on each pass, perhaps that's variable, he did rough cuts removing 4 thousandths and a fine cut at the end taking off 2. He was also very surprised though.

Also, https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/p...llegations-failing-pay-united-states-millions

I'm very familiar with that....and I believe it was simply an oversight and then a "hope nobody notices". There is really no such thing as an "unmounted" brake pad....but someone had classified things wrong at some point and it stayed that way for a long time.

They were bringing in semi-complete pads, which where classified as incomplete on the customs docs, instead of complete. There was some grey area in the definitions.

Tell your buddy to install that inboard adapter on his lathe with a bunch of spacer and a nut....then face off the adapter.

Take an old scrap rotor and machine it on the adapter as it sits now and then reinstall it on the faced off adapter and check runout...I bet he'll see a bunch.

 

[Gasbuggy]

Shot some pictures to Centric, curious how their customer service was. Didn't ask for anything from them but got a response that corporate wasnt interested because the pads were worn and also because I purchased from Rock Auto, an unauthorized vendor. So word to the wise about R/A. Second time I heard that from a company. The other being KYB over known defective front struts bought for this same CR-V

 

[nthach]

I always thought Centric was one of the better pads compared to MAT-sourced but made in India/China pads from a box parts store like AZ/OR/Advance. Looks like I won’t be installing anymore Centric when I do brakes but doesn’t First Brands(Fram/Trico) now own Centric and BPI(Raybestos) now?

I’ll stick to OEM, Akebono, Bosch or Wagner now.

 

[Gasbuggy]

I always thought Centric was one of the better pads compared to MAT-sourced but made in India/China pads from a box parts store like AZ/OR/Advance. Looks like I won’t be installing anymore Centric when I do brakes but doesn’t First Brands(Fram/Trico) now own Centric and BPI(Raybestos) now?

I’ll stick to OEM, Akebono, Bosch or Wagner now.

First Brands Group is who you email for tech support.

 

[lbhsbz]

First Brands Group is who you email for tech support.

I was the tech support guy for Centric for 18 years....when First Brands bought us, they went to some stupid call center software and looped in a training guy from Raybestos (when they bought Raybestos a 6 months earlier, they fired the 2 tech guys and one of the training guys, then made the last training guy the tech guy), and a couple of guys from Fram/Trico (one of which came from being a service writer). I called a few times after I was let go to get some cataloging clarification and it was like I was talking to my dog. All the customer service is run out of a call center in Mexico now...calling for assistance is absolutely pointless in my experience.

If you're interested in a quality aftermarket pad, like Centric used to be, check out DFC (Dynamic Friction Company). It's run by the guy who started Centric. Centric is just raybestos in a different box now.

 

[Gasbuggy]

I was the tech support guy for Centric for 18 years....when First Brands bought us, they went to some stupid call center software and looped in a training guy from Raybestos (when they bought Raybestos a 6 months earlier, they fired the 2 tech guys and one of the training guys, then made the last training guy the tech guy), and a couple of guys from Fram/Trico (one of which came from being a service writer). I called a few times after I was let go to get some cataloging clarification and it was like I was talking to my dog. All the customer service is run out of a call center in Mexico now...calling for assistance is absolutely pointless in my experience.

If you're interested in a quality aftermarket pad, like Centric used to be, check out DFC (Dynamic Friction Company). It's run by the guy who started Centric. Centric is just raybestos in a different box now.

Good to know.

 

[02zx9r rev2]

Well heck. I just installed centric coated rotors and posi quiet pads on my accord. I hope I have a good experience with them

 

[benjy]

as time goes on ownership + quality can vary with many products! its said most all rotors are chinese these days, some OK others NOT so much!!

 

[02zx9r rev2]

So far no problems. Only problem I had was the clips that the ears of the pads sit in, one of them were bent out a little so when I turned to the left the rotor would rub against it and I would get a squeal, guy across the street said sometimes you have to bend them. I said I cut them off.

Been working fine since no squealing.

 

[ctechbob]

Well heck. I just installed centric coated rotors and posi quiet pads on my accord. I hope I have a good experience with them

I've used Centric on everything Honda I've owned almost exclusively for the last 5 or so years. Never had any problems, and the Acura gets its brakes beat on from time to time, when I take it up to North GA and do some mountain driving.

Sometimes things break and products fail. I'll still use them.

 

[Jetronic]

My mother phoned tonight saying she was having brake trouble with her CR-V. What she described sounded like either a worn through pad or maybe a stone stuck in the caliper. I rotated her tires recently and thought everything looked passable. I picked up a set of Car Quest Gold pads and drove over. To my surprise both sides on the rear had a delaminated pad. This CRV is garaged and doesn't see much action in bad weather, my mom is pushing 70.

I put coated Centric rotors and centric Posi Quiet pads (the nice ones with the red coating) all the way around a little under 4 years ago. I would guess they have 40000 mostly rural and highway miles on them. The rotors look great... these pads though did not hold up.

Oddly enough I put the same premium Centric rotors and Akebono pads on my dad's Accord and the rotors were out of round. Some needed 4 passes on the lathe.

I read recently about Centric lying regarding their Chinese made pads not being completely assembled so they could avoid tariffs. I will likely strive to avoid them going forward. I've done alot of brakes and never had pads come apart. And Ive never had new rotors need cut.

I've had quite a lot of customers with pads delaminating or crumbling off. in all cases, the brakes had been dragging. Make sure the pads can move freely in the carrier, the sliding pins areeasy to slide and the piston retracts a bit after releasing the brakes.

 

[hrv]

When I have in the past replaced brake pads on my Hondas I just order the OEM online and it comes with grease and new shims...Never had any issues with them..