2003 HONDA HONDA — Complaint #551221
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SERVICE BRAKES, AIR:DISC:PADS filed August 24, 2005
NHTSA complaint #551221 (ODI reference 10134080) concerns a 2003 HONDA HONDA and was filed on August 24, 2005. The owner reports the failure occurred on August 24, 2005. The vehicle had 28,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to California based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as service brakes, air:disc:pads, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same HONDA HONDA cohort independently describe similar service brakes, air:disc:pads failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2003 HONDA HONDA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
THE REAR BRAKE ROTORS REQUIRED RE-GROUNDING AFTER WARPING HAD OCCURRED WHICH CAUSED A PULSATING SENSATION WHEN BRAKING. THE ROTORS WERE RE-GROUND AT 34K, BUT THE PULSATING BEHAVIOR BEGAN SOMEWHERE AROUND AN ESTIMATED 28K. THE TIRES HAD ONLY BEEN ROTATED TWICE AND BOTH TIMES WERE SECURED USING FACTORY TORQUE SPECIFICATIONS, SO INCORRECT LUG NUT SETTINGS SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN A FACTOR. NO EVIDENCE OF GLAZING FROM RIDING THE BRAKES WAS PRESENT, NOR HAS THE CAR EVER BEEN DRIVEN WITH THE EMERGENCY BRAKE DEPLOYED. THE CAR IS BELIEVED TO BE DRIVEN WITHIN NORMAL TOLERANCES SINCE WE PURCHASED NEW IN 6/03 AND HAS BEEN USED MORE FOR COMMUTING MODE RATHER THAN A LOT OF STOP AND GO USEAGE. THE FACTORY REAR BRAKE PADS WERE REPLACED AND HAD APPROXIMATELY 10% REMAINING (WEAR TAB JUST STARTED WARNING 10 MILES EARLIER), WHILE THE FRONT BRAKES HAVE NEARLY 70% ORIGINAL MATERIAL REMAINING. I HAVE INSTALLED RAYBESTOS CERAMIC PADS ON THE REAR, BUT MY CONCERN IS THAT THIS IS AN ENGINEERING FLAW AND NOT DR
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 551221 |
| ODI Number | 10134080 |
| Date Filed | August 24, 2005 |
| Failure Date | August 24, 2005 |
| VIN | 1HGCM66873A |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.