i thought i read pre 2006 was 2 pistons?

 

I think it's one piston floating caliper.

 

Correct

 

There you are J! I knew you were still around!

 

You're probably thinking about this thread....

https://my350z.com/forum/brakes-and-suspension/167728-are-the-rotors-on-an-06-the-same-as-03-05-a.html

 

1 - same caliper as some Maximas iirc

A big reason why your brakes suck

 

Not sure what you mean by "the brakes suck" ... the only bad thing about having 1 piston is that it leads to uneven wear on pads and rotors, but other than that, it stops with as much force as you'd ever want. Overall bite depends on your choice of pad, but at least with axxis ultimates I can engage ABS whenever I want...

The point of getting a BBK/more pistons is not to grip harder. If you did that, you'd just lock up the wheels sooner. The point is to have even wear, and more heat dissipation.

Of course stock doesn't have as much heat capacity as a BBK rotor, but that's fine for most people in most circumstances.

 

^^^^^^ Yeah! What he said!

Seriously, check out the chart at the bottom of this page:

http://www.zeckhausen.com/testing_brakes.htm

The difference in stopping distance between the stocks brakes (Performance), Brembos (Track) and the Stoptech BBK is minimal, only a couple of percent. But notice the big difference in temperatures. That's where the BBK does you some good, but mainly for cars on the track, not the street.

 

Oh no - non-Brembo Z's are woefully underbraked. I am well aware that in a one stop situation your brakes will lock up the tires - and stop nearly as quickly as other systems - but that means little to nothing other than in panic stop situations. I'm talking about driving the car to how it was intended, how it is marketed, and what it is built for.

Remember that 15 years ago the 300ZX had 4 piston front and 2 piston rear calipers on larger thicker rotors than you have.

You have a 30+ thousand dollar sports car with nearly economy car brakes. The calipers in front are small and heat soak very rapidly while providing poor modulation. The pedal is mushy due to the compliant nature of floating calipers and the single piston design leads to uneven pad wear. Also - as the system is undersized for the car pad and rotor wear is accelerated. Hence the changes to the warranty for brakes and the change to bigger brakes finally.

In the rear the vented rotors are a good start - but they made the plate thickness so thin that under even moderately heavy use they are very crack prone. That fact alone caused a major brake company to restrict the compound offerings for that shape.

As it's a sports car I feel that the factory brakes should at least be passable with the use of better pads for some light track use and that is not the case really. The power and suspension far exceed the brake systems capabilities.

This is no sort of flame btw - I'm simply critiqiuing the design. It's almost as if Nissan did not expect anyone in a base model to drive hard other than an occasional WOT blast from a stoplight.

Even a lowly WRX has 2 piston calipers in front - and for 06 it's a 4 pot/2 pot design. Nissan 'admits' this flaw by warrenteeing the brakes for 3/36 after the fact (I could be wrong in this fact but I don' tthink so) and by a system upgrade prior to a remake of the vehicle.

That said - 06 takeoffs - or 05 G'cars takeoffs - would likely be a very good budget upgrade for the older base models. Although the park brake may make it difficult. There will be plenty of used G calipers/brackets very soon.

 

I'm an engineer - and specifically I work on brakes thus my comments.

There are several options for the base model to be upgraded but for the most part they are costly hence the giant DIY thread.

If I was designing something - I'd get the older 4 pot calipers and fab a bracket so that it could be bolted on the Z with a slightly larger rotor - perhaps 300 x 30 or so. That would be a large improvement to the car. The rear is much trickier because of the park brake unfortunately.

Anyway - thats all pipe dreams

 

VERY early in Nissan's 2002 sales brochures, twin piston front calipers were specked for non-Brembo 350Z's. Never happened. Early buyers were offered a "GIFT" to compensate. Never did get my leather CD case.......

I thought I read someplace that the '06's come with a 2 piston (both on the inside) sliding front calipers, but no mention of it is in the newest brochure I have.

 

They do - see above in the post - they put a variation of the M brakes on all G's and non-Brembo Z's in 05/06 respectively.

I assume Nissan robbed you guys a bit - likely to keep the sticker price down? Interesting though.

 

imo all Z trims except base should have brembos..
just because the car is priced in same range as sti and evo and both sti adn evo have brembos...
sure the s2000 doesnt have brembos BUT it weighs so much less and by bmi track results, stock s2k brakes are pretty awesome

 

1

 

I just went and bought brake pads at Autozone and they had two options: Pads for 2 piston brakes and pads for 4 piston brakes. I have an '03 Touring model so i went the 2 piston pads thinking the 4 piston must be Brembo's.

There was nothing about a 1 piston.

 

Someone at autozone is either an idiot, or the 2 piston were for brembo rear and the 4 piston were for brembo front.

It is 1 piston, if you do a brake pad change you will be able to tell instantly.

 

Nope...thats the way it came up on the computer at Autozone. You put in make/model and for the 350Z it had two options....2 piston and 4 piston and that was it. I was looking at the screen myself. I just got home and went to their website and thats how it is there as well...you have to choose either 2 or 4 piston.

 

why the hell would u buy pads from autozone in the first place?
buy from performance nissan or intense power...
i'd not put autozone pads on my Z... nismo pads all the way

 

For starters, they arent Autozone TM brand pads...they were just purchased at Autozone. Secondly, price, thirdly i dont autocross, drag race or anything like that so spending extra $$$ for pads are not necessary for me. If i got caught up in every Nismo part that came out it would be rediculous and there is no justification thus far for me spending on those products. If is start racing i'll consider.

 

How about response and pedal feel???
Even at the same heat capacity and similar wear rates I'd much rather have a opposing piston caliper rather than a sliding or floating caliper.

One of the main reasons I went to a BBK was for control and pedal feel. With 4 opposing pistons you foot gets to feel exactly what the pistons are doing and control the modulation between the pads and discs.
On a sliding caliper a lot of the feel is distorted from the caliper moving and flexing around.