Yup,

Got back from the Nissan dealer because the VDC and slip lights would come on after some braking. Turns out the front pads were down to 10% material, AFTER 12k MILES???

Service guy said Nissan is having problems with brakes in some cars. 3 other 350zs were in for brakes that week with about 12k miles each. Their driver said the Armada's are warping rotors at 3-5k miles and burning pads left and right.

Damn Nissan for putting these soft pads IN A SPORTSCAR!!! Are they trying to gouge for service? The service guy said they wouldn't even put nismo pads in, let alone cover them.

So it looks like Nissan gave us an electronic pad pad indicator without even knowing it. It would have been nice to have this publicized so I wouldn't have had to spend money on labor to find out what the problem was attributed too. I can change my own pads thank you very much

 

Didn't know about the pad warning, but the VDC & SLIP lights WILL come on to warn of low brake fluid - had it happen after installing new lines & left 1 bleeder valve a little loose. Did they let you see the pads to verify what they said? I changed out to Hawk HPS pads at 5k miles - oem pads looked barely used.

 

I didn't see the pads

Yes, the service guy said the lights comes on because the VDC detects the fluid being low because the pads are thin and more brake fluid fills the lines.

 

Let me tell ya........unless you trust the service tech, I would want to see the pads myself. My lights came on due to the fluid being low because it was leaking out the loose bleeder valve after I changed brake lines (hate tightening those things hard due to past experience). From my 20+ years of car experience, I have never seen fluid go down low enough due to normal brake pad wear to make any warnings go off for fluid - not enough fluid is used even when the pads are worn to make your resevoir go down an inch. That's my take on worn pads anyway (Anyone else with this experience can comment here - please!).

I would check the pads yourself, if they are worn change them (unless you want the dust you've lived with for the past 12k miles, change to Hawk HPS or Nismo or Greenstuff); if they are not worn fill your resevoir up & check the level every few days - might be a leak somewhere. OR...if your pads ARE worn, the fluid level might have been low enough from the factory/dealer that the pad wear DID use enough fluid to set the lights off. After getting my Z and seeing what the wheel alignments were 3 days later, I wouldn't trust anything being up to spec on the car from the factory/dealer. Hopefully, it's just the second scenario & the dealer tech is correct - there are honest ones out there!

Just trying to help..........

 

Frankly, with the sports cars I've owned in the past (944 and 2 twin turbos) I found that I was lucky to get 15k out of front pads. If you use it as sports car rather than a commuter hard stops will eat pads pretty quickly.

joe

 

Yes. Track time will eat pads very fast. However, I've never seen a track day in this car. A few 500+ mile trips and some commuting. If the pads were to wear this quickly under normal driving in a Camray, the owners would freak out and Toyota would pay for all the brake jobs. I simply believe that different, more suitable pad materials should have been used for this car.

I guess I was being silly again.

I honestly hope that I live to see the day when a business or multi-national entity offers a product that actually performs AS INTENDED without all the additional parts, substitute pieces, or otherwise accessories, in order to get the performance/satisfaction out of the product you've purchased.

Sadly, I don't think I'll live THAT long.