merlin180 - those are the pads themselves. I'm guessing you still have relatively few miles on your car. At first, I thought there was an overboost problem with the master cylinder, but as I put mileage on, it disappeared. It's bad, though - I'll agree w/ you there. No matter how softly you press the brake, that first stop is *really* grabby.
Honda changed their OEM pads between the 6th- and 7th-generations to a compound that will improve stopping distance - the tradeoff is what we experience. The '03s and '04s were experiencing rotor warpage / premature wear due to these pads, to the point where they issued a TSB on them - thankfully, they made some adjustments in time for the '05 run.
I don't remember when this grabby feeling (is that a word ?) went away in my car, but I think it was probably by 3000mi. Obviously, the more you use the brakes, the sooner it'll wear down and go away.
Ironically, I took the car to another Honda dealer for my most recent oil change...I got it back with 2 bars on the BAT meter (at least they didn't *charge* the pack, thankfully!), and they tried to be helpful and adjust my brakes. Guess what happened the first time I stepped on the brake pedal ?
Lasted a couple of days. I'm *really* starting to debate whether I should just do my own oil changes / tire rotations on this car...as an aside, my last oil analysis from my prior oil change didn't match the Mobil 1 0W-20 profile that Blackstone had on file... (and that the dealer said they used)...but it sure looked like Honda's 0W-20 formula...at least I didn't have to pay for that one, or give them oil that I bought
