Our 2000 Insight (5spd) with Rostra cruise and 195/55-14 Dunlops (tires dropped the mpg by 3 or so) averaged 58 over the year and a half we've owned it, mostly on 15-mile (one way) commute that includes hills and gravel roads. At 60k on the odometer, a sudden drop of about 10 mpg was traced to dragging front brakes, whose pads I had just renewed using Honda parts.
I had followed the shop manual's instructions to a "T", installing all the shims in the kit & and applying brake grease on lots of surfaces as instructed. After noticing the problem (low mpg, hot rotors, sluggish performance) and checking that pucks and guide pins were free, boots were fine, no rust, etc., I finally took out the two shims behind the inner pads and threw them away. (There had been no shims there behind the old inner pads.) Problem solved. I theorize that the thin layers of metal with grease between them created a spongy system that maintained pressure on the rotor even after the piston had backed off a little. We've never had noise from the brakes, before or after installing new pads.
We're back to 57-58 mpg driving on back roads and expect to get 70 again (warm weather) on somewhat hilly interstate at 60 mph.
I had followed the shop manual's instructions to a "T", installing all the shims in the kit & and applying brake grease on lots of surfaces as instructed. After noticing the problem (low mpg, hot rotors, sluggish performance) and checking that pucks and guide pins were free, boots were fine, no rust, etc., I finally took out the two shims behind the inner pads and threw them away. (There had been no shims there behind the old inner pads.) Problem solved. I theorize that the thin layers of metal with grease between them created a spongy system that maintained pressure on the rotor even after the piston had backed off a little. We've never had noise from the brakes, before or after installing new pads.
We're back to 57-58 mpg driving on back roads and expect to get 70 again (warm weather) on somewhat hilly interstate at 60 mph.
