onecoolee

I have been thinking aboiut upgrading hte brake system in my 03 Touring for quite some time, and I finally got a deal on some Brembo calipers and picked up a set of Stillen 2 piece front DR/SL rotors and bought a set of Brembo sport rotors for the rear, plus all new stainless lines... I got all the pieces and am trying to do the work before it snows so I can properly "bed" the brakes and get a few miles on them before winter storage...

I started the job this morning and have run into a few issues...a couple minor some major...

First off, I cannot get the drivers side rear rotor off...I made sure the park brake was off, and even adjusted it, I cut off soem of the dust guard to give me more area to try to loosen the rotor...I even got the rubber mallet out and have been banging on it for over an hour and this rotor is hanging on for life--IT WILL NOT COME OFF. Any suggestions ?? I have not tried heat due to the parking brake components under the rotor, but I am trying some WD40 now... I hope it breaks free !

My other problem is that I seem to have gotten a defective bolt (at least I think it was defective) from StopTech with my new lines. I tourqued the front 2 according to the specs on their website for brake lines and the bolt snapped in the middle... I was able to remove the broken part from the caliper. Since its Saturday and Stoptech is closed and alot of their distributors were closed too, I called Jason at Performance Nissan for help... he is overnighting me a bolt on Monday, but that does delay my repairs for a copuple days, as I was hoping to be using Monday and Tuesday as days to get a few miles on the new brakes... oh well.

Another minor issue was poor fitment of the Hawk HPS and Nismo pads into the front calipers... the rears are fine but hte fronts had to be hammered in... so I called the local Nissan dealer to make sure my part numbers were correct, and then called Performance Nissan to ask them... I ended up using a file to trim about 0.001-.002" off the edge of the metal backing to the pads... they were not going ot fit or work properly without doing this. After searching here, it looks like others had to do hte same thing, at least a few people did.

I can live with the pads being tight, and having to file the edge slightly, but not being able to remove the rear rotor has caused me alot of headaches...and the defective bolt thing is anotehr story.... I will keep hammering away on the rotor and maybe it will loosen up, but any suggestions about anyhting here are welcomed...

Thanks.

GaryM05

Regarding your defective bolt, I believe that the bolt fitting in the Brembo calipers is not as deep as the non-Brembos or the StopTechs, which would cause the longer bolt made for them to bottom out and easily break. As a result, a shorter bolt is required, which StopTech should be able to furnish.

Good luck!

onecoolee

Looks like everything is slowly working out...

I have Performance Nissan overnighting me a new brake line bolt, and I finally got the rear rotor off (it took a couple big whacks with a rubber mallet).

I had another issue though... the spring/clip kit I received for my rear calipers had one defective pin. SInce I bought them from Performance Nissan, Jason was quick to take care of the problem... thanks Jason !

By the way Performance Nissan is a great place to deal with... great communications, good stock, really good prices and they are superb to deal with... I will definitely be dealing with them in the future for any parts needs...