I called the dealer to ask about brake maintenance. He said if I've let the pads wear down to nothing then I'll probably need to replace the rotors because the rotors have no tolerance to wear. I think this service guy just wants to make some money. However, is there any truth to this?

 

I have seen far to many rotors past tolerance on the Zs after first pad change ---It sucks but, true

 

Brakes pads are designed to wear.
Rotors are designed to wear. Friction stops cars. Friction wears pads and rotors.

 

got my front non-brembo pads and rotor changed underwarranty at 30K. i have a G35 Coupe, your nissan 350z prolly dont warranty brakes.

 

One of oem NOISE secrets besides soft pad friction material is to use a softer grade of cast iron to gain friction over harder long life units. They were trying to balance wear so that the pads and rotors wore out at the same time unlike past designs where the rotors lasted thru two set of pads but made more noise.

Stopping distance improvements always cause more component wear.

 

I agree --But have been building brakes for enough years to relize that softer pads/harder rotors----Harder pads /softer rotors can achieve that balance point of good stopping ability with minimum of noise.
But everyday in here there are threads with people going into crying jags about noisy brakes ---75% of the time it is poor installation.
Performance Brakes make noise and if its a toss up between noise and replacing rotors at 400.00 a pop or the Brembos at 2000.00 a pop ( I dont know weather the factory Brems have the same prob ) I will take the noise.
A lot of the rotor wear can be blamed also on poor braking habits,which no one will ever admit to but is a big factor in brakes getting trashed.
Mite add this too though---- Manufacturers are fully aware of the headaches they have to go through if the brakes make noise and in order to eliminate that, they do what good business sense dictates---Soft rotor,Harder pad,---The consumer pays for it.

 

I went to an idependent mechanic today. He has good references from friends and relatives. I told him about the rotors. He indicated that he thought the rotors looked good at first glance. He said that most brake technicians are in the habit of taking off x/1000's in one pass, and that they didn't take their time to see how much the rotor REALLY required.

When he was done, he said the rear brakes required very little machining while the fronts needed a little more, but that all of them were just fine. In the end, it was about $160 for Hawk pads (I autocross a lot), and another $160 to machine the rotors and replace the pads. That's a bit more than I thought it would be for brake maintenance, but at least I didn't need to buy new rotors.

 

Next time upgrade to a Stoptech Stage II kit!

 

And how much is this upgrade gonna cost?

 

Rosko ---Ur right --Or ur mechanic was--They like to take one pass ---Where as a good place
will take a lite pass then do the final

BTW --- Thats a little steep on the 160.00 for Machine and Pad install---I pay 28.00 to have 4 rotors turned @7.00 ea. ---132.00 to replace pads??? Mmmmm. I --quess @ 66.00 an hour for 2 hours labor ????

 

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A smart tech who is working on his own or relatives car will take the time to measure the warpage. 8 out of 10 times I can get it perfect without wasting time or material for a second pass......................but I do mine when they are only 0.003 out of spec, that lets me retrue them up to 6 times if I am extremely careful.

The budgeted time allotted doesn't consider the need for a second cut so most techs cut enough off to preclude the need. Cutting 4 rotors twice can add an hour + to the job costing the tech $25-$30.