I have 30,000 miles on my 2003 touring 350Z. I have pretty consistent, loud brake squeal when braking.

I spoke to a guy who also has a Z and said that Nissan had made some changes to his brakes when he took it in and got upset at them - and now his problem has been gone for well over 3000 miles.

I drive in LA so I am not doing a whole lot of aggressive braking, yet the dealer it telling me I have glazed rotors, and essentially that I should just put up with it - and that its normal.

I find it hard to believe that loud braking noise like mine is in any way normal.

Any insight?

J

 

First, let me say that you should feel fortunate for having gotten to 30K miles and still on factory brakes. We just started grinding (after dealership told us 10% remaining this past weekend) and the Z is parked until our new brake kit arrives later this week.

Glazing on the rotors is a highly unlikely source of your squealing. Squealing's main culprit is dust around the calipers and pads, allowing the pads to vibrate VERY rapidly (hence the high-pitched squeal) when braking.
You can tear down the rotor/pads and try cleaning them thoroughly with brake parts cleaner, then applying Disc Brake Quiet to the metal backing of the pad and reinstalling it all.

Most folks I have talked to have had squealing and brake dust complaints with their factory setups almost since day one... me included.

Good Luck!

 

"Fortunate"? I say! Changed out my OEM brakes at around 19,000 miles. Not much pad remained. Installed Hawk HPS. Better performance and very little, if any brake dust. You might consider Hawks or EBC "Greenstuff".

 

Oh, no - I am on a second set of pads and front rotors. My original set didnt squeal nearly as much

 

I'm on my second set of brake pads at 55k miles. Brake's squeel like a **** and it's not dust and been squeeling. Had the brakes resurfaced @ dealership and it didn't quite the squeel. I"m still squeeling, but also looking at going with performance pads.