Took my 04 Touring with 13.574 miles to the dealer to get the free front tire swap for the feathering problem. No problem there, replaced no charge. While there, I had them check the brakes because it had developed a squeak, which I assumed meant it was ready for new pads. (Some background on the car: I purchased in 7/04 with 5,138 miles on it, so I have only put a little over 8400 miles in 20 months, pretty low milegage. I am self-employed and drive 12 miles round trip 4 times a week to my business. As far as driving habits, I am fairly conservative, but I will on occasion enjoy a bit of "spirited driving",,,,it is a sports car right?. Anyway, I take very good care of all my vehicles and never had any brake problems with the Z until it started squeaking. I maybe drove it another 20 miles after the squeaking started and babied it even then. I then parked it and drove another vehicle until I had time to drop it off at the dealer yesterday. Long story short, dealer calls and says rotors are shot! WTF? After 13,000 miles? After a bit of back and forth, I said just fix it since the dealership is on other side of town and I was not able to go by and look. I told him I wanted to see the rotors though. He agreed and said he would have them in his office. So I picked the car up today, and he shows me the rotors. There are not gouged he says, just worn down. I said why would they wear like that when it just now started squeaking. He says that they do a lot of rotor replacements on the 350Z, because the rotors wear like that, and are not able to be turned, since they would be out of spec.
I have been taking my car there for oil chgs, and some minor warranty stuff ie, window motor, and the same guy always helps me. Always seemed to be a square shooter, but this doesn't seem right to me. Paid with credit card ($467.00), and I am thinking about complaining to Nissan.

Your thoughts?

 

Do you have a micrometer to measure the worn rotors? How thick are they?

 

I'm going to stop on the way home today and have them measured.

 

I'd have to say the guy was being straight up. Z's do tend to get poor mileage out of their rotors. my fronts were shot at 22k, but my rears were still ok to be turned. you never know how the previous owner treated your car as well, he may have taken the car to the track a bunch of times. I will say it is odd that it only just started squeaking and 13k is pretty low.

 

I had the same problem too. They just wear out sooner then most cars. It is economical to just upgrade the braking system. In the long run it probably saves you more money in the end when you figure you are only getting 10k-15k out of the rotors, and at $500.00 a pop, you do the math. You can get brake upgrades for as little as $1800.00. Plus the brake dust from the factory brake pads is horrible.

 

Does upgrading the brakes void any sort of warranty from Nissan?

 

get brembo...

 

It voids the warranty on the BRAKES... it does not void the warranty on the engine or transmission for example.....

Think about it, why would nissan fix your aftermarket parts for free?




I would definitely measure them with calipers to see if the guy was BSing you, but that is pretty cheap for pads, rotors, and labor.

 

I always thought the squeaking was from the excessive brake dust. I should probably have my stuff checked out just in case as I have 14k miles on my pads/rotors but I have not heard a squeak in long while. And this is with three auto-x's last season and some 'spirited' driving.

 

< 15,000 miles out of a rotor?? Wow that's pretty weak.

 

I have 30K miles on mine and I haven't had to do anything w/ the brakes.

 

i changed the pads on my 03 at 45k, and the pads still had life left in them. I Had my rotors turned and i was good to go...