Hi guys.

You guys are not going to believe this, but my car has 5000 miles on it and the brake pads are worn. The other problem is, that it did cut into the disc itself!!!

Now, Nissan refuse to pay for new discs and pads. It is going to cost 20,000 rand to fix! (South Africa currency, and trust me, it is way to much money!)

What is the standard benchmark on these pads?

 

I have the regular brakes and my pads were shot at 17,000 miles (27,319 km). Look on ebay for new rotors, maybe you can find a deal there.

 

I have about 4900 miles on my brembo's and they pads are still at least 1/4" thick still...just a pont of reference.

 

I have over 4000 miles on my Brembos. Drive my TRACK hard on the twisty roads. My pads are fine.

Did you Track your Car, Driving conditions will affect the rate pads wear down.

First I ever heard of pads wearing down that fast.

The pads should have been squeeking when the got low.
A warning that they need to be changed. Did you ignore this and kept on driving to the point of cutting into the rotors?

you should get many many more miles out of the pads, not sure
how many, but way more than 5000.

Did you buy the car used?

Keep us posted. Interested in the out come.

 

I've got about 20,000 miles on my OEM pads, but it's time for me to replace them. Even with nearly 20 track days, my rotors still have life left, although there are a lot of small cracks in the rotors... I highly doubt you have to replace the rotors...

 

Infinity is replacing the brake pads but it seems Nissan does not want to do the same for us 350Z owners in the Nissan portion of the family.

 

Hi guys.

I have been on the track 3 times.
I bought the car new with 6 km on the clock. (5 months old.)
No, I did not hear the “sound” you are referring to. It went from fine, to very bad…

I am thinking that maybe there is a defect of some sort with the braking system. Nissan agreed late yesterday that they will pay for the damages! This is really good news. I will check the brakes on a daily bases from now on...

 

did you also not downshift when on the track and brake in neutral sorry to hear they are gone so quick...

good to hear that they are paying for your new brakes!

should be no defect...

you may want to invest in some better pads for the track... they arent dificult to switch out when you get to the track... the NISMO R-Tune pads will give you less brake dust and much better performance on the track then the stock pads...

and a certain company is coming out with some very nice rotors for the brembo brakes very soon

http://www.performancenissanparts.co...th=153_180_369

 

They look like DBA 4000 series to me.

 

Thanks for the link. I want drilled ones. That will look cool. If I install the R-Tune pads, what will happen to the car's warrenty?

And, by the way, I am very sure that I do not brake in neutral...

 

If you're interested in doing track days I'd suggest against drilled rotors and just go with the slotted.

 

Why?

 

They won't last as long. Drilled rotors will crack more readily than the slotted ones. Some people will say that's BS but that's direct from a manufacturer who makes both.

 

HHHmmm. That is a bummer, because they really look cool. But thanks for the advice...

 

Actually, Infiniti, not Infinity (the audio brand), is replacing pads for only the non-Brembo brakes. The Brembos are not part of this effort. I have 30k miles on my G coupe, and during the 30k mile service, they told me I had at least 50% of my pads left on the front. Of course I drive like 80% highway miles and have never tracked, so take it for what it's worth. Also, my rotors are still pretty smooth.

 

Thanks for your input....

 

Sharp -

If you track the car with stock pads, all bets are off. How long other people managed to keep their pads in street driving only becomes completely meaningless in comparison to your usage. Stock pads in any car (well short of cars with ceramic composite brakes like the Enzo, GT3, GT2, Carrera GT, etc) are just not designed for track duty. You're lucky you got three track days and 5000 miles out of your pads. I get about 300 miles out of a set of rear track pads (much higher temp compound than what you have). With the stock brakes, I bet I could completely melt off the pads in less than half an hour on a track.

So, count yourself lucky that your dealer is doing you a favor by swapping your pads and rotors and get yourself a set of high-temp track pads for the track. You've just discovered that pads are the biggest wear item on track.

Enjoy the car.

 

Hi Jason

I am shocked. How is it possible that John's pads lasted that long?
And, how on earth can you burn pads away so quickly? I thought that the Brembo pads are made for heavy duty breaking; like a track. What is then the point in having brembo breakes?

My Audi TT's pads lasted up to 20,000 km before needed replacing and that was OEM as well. So this is not adding up for me.

 

Sharp, it's purely a temperature thing. The pads that you got with the car are designed to provide safe, effective stopping in everyday, street conditions. The Nissan engineers felt that it was more important for the guy in New Hampshire to be able to stop at the end of his steep driveway when he heads out to work on a February morning than for people to be able to do track miles on their Zs. Since no-one had figured out how to make a pad that works well on a cold stop in 0 degree weather as well as working properly at 700 degrees on a racetrack, you're stuck with making compromises. OEM pads are always designed for street usage, even if the car is considered a "sport" or "track" model. Imagine the lawsuits if Nissan installed pads that don't start really working until they reach 300 degrees (like a lot of track pads). THey would be sued out of existence.

But just buy some higher temp pads and you'll be fine. The rest of the brake system (brembo calipers and rotors) is perfectly up to the task of track driving. Btw, John is not using stock pads on the track, either.

 

Thanks for your explanation. I will most definitely buy "track" pads for my car. Needless to say; i have learned a very important lesson here...

I hope that everyone on the forum read this, so that they can also learn out of my experience...