Thank you for posting this link,very detailed information about what the stock sport brakes limits are.

I'm actually at the dealership now cause my steering wheel and pedals would shake when breaking.. They are changing both front rotors and pads under warranty and also an alignment and balance

Do you hold the pedal down at stop lights? Do you ride the brakes fairly often?

If you hadn't had the rotors replaced already, I'd say with near absolute certainty that it was just transfer turning into cementite (real word).

That said, your driving style could easily have compromised that new set immediately after installation.

I usually recommend for folks like us (I have done this to nearly every car I've ever owned, with the exception of the Z for reasons I'll explain in a sec) use a sintered, all metal pad and just deal with the extra dust and noise (shims really take care of most of that).

I've had sintered pads since almost day one (hard core race pads made by CL Brakes, RC6) and Carbotech has a couple of formulas that are suitable for daily driving as well as autocross or spirited driving.

Again, they're dusty, they make a little noise, but they feel AMAZING and aren't capable of forming cementite as they are not a material transfer pad like ceramics (stock pads) are.

My 2 cents.

So it seems that I'm having the same issue here. I have about 19k miles on my 2012. Never been tracked, but this is my daily driver and I do spend a lot of time in stop and go traffic...:mad: Every now and then, I do a little spirited street driving. I'm starting to get the shimmer in the steering wheel when I brake. I've done a few 60-0 hard stops to clear off any transfered metals, but it only seems ot clear it up for a few days... then it starts getting worse. I also just had new tires put on the car with an alignment. It seems odd that this happens after I get this done...anyones thoughts?

Yeah, if it's cementite formation, it actually alters the metal of the rotor... simply turning them down a few thousandths to re-surface them won't really suffice. You have to take off a LOT of material to get rid of it, usually resulting in the rotor being out of spec.

I would just get the cheapest rotors you can find and pair them with the most aggressive Carbotech or CL pad you can stomach and call it a day.

Why do you choose these pads over others? I'm asking because it seems there was some testing here on your part...which is worth a lot of time and $. :tup:

They are non-transfer pads. Not possible to create cementite with a non transfer pad.

You can still WARP them, but it's a helluva lot harder to WARP a rotor than most people think. Almost always involves heavy braking a followed by a temperature shock, like racing to the car wash and immediately dousing the entire rotor in water. lol (Rainwater won't do this, as it'll be constantly sprayed, not nearly-submerged instantly like in a car wash scenario)

Carbotech pads do require bedding/create a transfer layer!

o rly.

Well then scratch that.

RC5+ or RC6 from CL then.

ok...researching...thanks

For all you "Warped rotors" guys:

-Warped- Brake Disc and Other Myths

I'm kind of on the fence about warp, I just know that in the old days, when all the auto parts houses would turn the rotor, when we clamped the rotor to the lathe and just rotated the rotor against the lathe bit there would indeed be an uneven surface. Thinking back none of us questioned the "trueness" of the lathe, the trueness of the rotor mounting face, we just turned the rotor until the high spots were gone and put it back on the car and the problem was solved. Usually we saw rotors that were ran several years on the metal face of the worn out pad by drivers that had no idea what the noise was but they KNEW it would cost them money so they just kept on going, haha.

The pulsation and loss of braking power is definitely caused by high spots on the friction surface, but that's not necessarily caused by warpage.

You would have to measure both sides of the rotor's change in position relative to the mounting hub in real time. If one side sticks out 2mm and the other is recessed 2mm at the same spot, then chances are the rotor is warped. If both sides stick out, or only one side sticks out, chances are it's cementite formation causing the hardness of the rotor material to increase so that it wears at a different rate than the surrounding metal. This causes the condition to gradually worsen over a period of time, making it "sneak up" on the driver in most cases.

Truly warped rotors are usually obvious almost immediately and don't "sneak up" on the driver. One minute they're fine, the next minute there's a pronounced pulsation in the pedal.

Show me the other side of that rotor.

Right, we weren't into Analysis in those days, we were just trying to get rid of the symptom, get the pulsing, juddering to stop, and get the car safe again for "Mom, or Grandma" and move on to the next customer.
In hindsight it probably was Cementite but no one knew anything about that in my circle of friends, we either replaced the rotor if too thin, or we turned it, and if the pads were over 1/2 gone, we changed them too, and 99% of the time we never heard from that person again.

Update:

-Shaking again at 17,000 miles. Rotors turned. Shake gone. Original Potenza's also replaced at this time with Michelin PSS.
-Shaking again at 20,XXX miles. Replaced front rotors with Z1 motorsports slotted rotors. Still shaking, but better. Brake-pads shaved, shake gone.
-Shaking again, ever so slightly, 300 miles later. Ordered StopTech Street Performance pads.

"Sport Brakes".Shittiest factory brake upgrade. Ever. In the history of shitty wannabe OEM performance part options.

Number of Nissans I will own once I trade this vehicle in, whenever that may be?

ZERO. NONE. Nice interior, great lines, but that's where the product ceases to deliver.

I really hope this solves the issue.

FYI, before they shaved the pads (20,XXX miles) , they had 8mm remaining per vehicle inspection (both front and rear, all 4 pads, listed at 8mm). Dunno what they come with from the factory.

Next move:

Drive the car until trade-in breaks even and get back into a real sports car, or a Cherokee SRT, as I am going to need some ground clearance and AWD would really be nice, where I'm moving.

You don't think driving style plays into this? The only time I've had a problem with the wheel shaking under braking in ~47,000 miles was when my rotors were cracked or I got off the track hot and parked too soon.

Judging from the lack of posts from other people about this, it is either driving style, a one-off problem with the car, or (my guess) the dealer doing the repairs is somehow screwing up the job. OP, have you tried another dealer?

If it does, then my Mustang 5.0 (yeah, the 80's 5.0...), WS.6, Z06, and the rental Kia I had for a month (while my 370Z was repaired from an accident when another driver lost control of their SUV) are all a lot better able to handle my daily driving than a 370Z/Sport is.

If my driving style is causing this issue, I'll just get into a real car and be done with it, because if I can get 17,000 miles out of 140 treadwear tires on the street and fry the brakes mutiple times and "it's user related", well, the brakes are ****. Simple as that.

What is there to screw up? The problem was solved for 7,000 miles the first time, 3,000 miles the second, and I can feel it starting to come back after a few hundred, now. Slotted rotors heat brake pads up faster than normal blanks. I think the SPORT pads from Nissan may just be total junk, or I got a bad set, or something.

I have no idea how someone messes up a pad/rotor change, but dumber things have been done at dealers. Maybe you've got a bad set of pads. Are you still on the original set of pads? If this was a systemic Nissan issue there would be far more reports of warped/uneven rotors, and there's just a few. Are the pads being bedded in correctly after turning or replacing the rotors? I'm grasping at straws to find a reason why this keeps happening to you.

I always thought it was generally accepted that Nissan rotors are garbage. I have heard of a few local guys that have had to have theirs turned a few times. Not that big of a deal for me though since I don't run stock pads, and as soon as I kill these rotors I'll be switching to something better.

The first time, the GTR tech bedded the pads in for me just like they do the GT-R's, using a heat-gun to verify temp, etc. It lasted 7,000 miles, roughly.

As to bedding, well, I've changed pads on some of my other cars without even bothering to turn the rotors and just drove it like normal and it did fine. Stopped a bit poorer until the pads conformed to the grooves worn in the 100K+ mile old rotors, but eventually it did fine. Tens of thousands of miles and many aggressive turns later, no shaking.

It's a big deal to me because I drive this car the same as any other car, and it is the only car that's ever had this issue, from my 1988 5.0, to my 2002 G20, to the Kia rental car I put over 1,000 miles on (still smooth as glass on the brake pedal), to my much maligned WS.6, and especially my Z06.

This car.
Sucks.
In the braking department.

All on the original pads? I don't know what else could be causing it at this point.

Yes, I just ordered new pads and will have them installed Monday morning. I went with these: 370Z StopTech Brake Pads (Sport Model)

Can't ever go wrong with Stoptech. Hope that clears up the issue.

Had this issue as well. Just replaced my rotors and brake pads and the issue is gone.

Now my issue is I have a rasping sound coming from the rear driver side tire that I thought was the brakes but apparently not as its still there. Some kind of rubbing that I couldn't find when I did the change out today. It's a mystery scooby!

Oh yes the rasping sound was there before and after I switched out rotors and brakes.

I had mine resuffaced then about 10k miles later it happened again. I really think it is just the stock pads suck. I have a sport and Nissan wouldn't even cut me a price break the first time for turning the rotors. They wanted $125.00 per wheel, I went and did the labor and took them in for $40.00 for all 4.

I have a 2012 Base Model, no sport, with 22k on the clock with VERY aggressive driving...3rd set of tires already for the rears lol. Have had 6 Autocross events, the stupid highway pulls, a lot of canyon carving, and my pads are still fine and brake soft smooth and feel perfectly fine. As stated earlier, the sport pads are garbage unless you get the new upgraded pads offered for the 2013. Other then that, change your pads ASAP.

What did the 2013's get?

Well, fried either/both my Stoptech pads and/or Z1 slotted rotors. Horrible shake from any stops above 70, and noticeable at any stop from above 40. **** this, I'm selling the **** when I break even in it. Going back with what works and getting a nice American made (well, somewhat, nothing is 100% American anymore) vehicle. Above and beyond, this is the shittiest car I have owned. It's built like a Faberge egg. Gorgeous but tissue-paper soft. Yes, I have owned cars with more issues, but none below 100K miles. This thing was falling apart from the get-go. Nissan. Stick to shitty throw-away cars. It's what you do best, no-matter what you market it as.

If you like your vag-wagon, great. Maybe you only drive it to church and back each weekend, or maybe Nissan's quality is so variable that yours doesn't have issues. Lucky you. Some of us do drive spiritedly, and some of us apparently do have a ton of QC issues. Given all the rotors and pads I have been through, it's something to do with the geometry of the suspension up front (yes, it's been realigned already), or the lack of airflow, or something (Isn't that what totaled a NISMO at VIR?). Either way, this **** is for looking at, not driving. I drive.

And to think, if you would have just bought the new pads instead of having some dumb @$$ putting a heat gun to your pad trying to to bed them in then you wouldn't have had an uneven brake pad getting hot in one spot and depositing material onto your rotor causing it to warp. I wouldn't have skimped out on the pads when you bought new rotors

1: I bought new pads. They are made by StopTech.
2: WTF are you talking about with this heat-gun nonsense? An IR temp-gun was used to measure rotor-temp during initial bed-in, the first time they did this. It actually produced the best results, with the car going 7,000 miles before the brakes sucked again.
3: I cannot help what the GT-R techs do with my car. It's all free, and it's all by a Nissan dealership. WTF do you want me to do, go spent MY money on fixing **** that shouldn't be broken? HELL. NO. That's why I bought a NEW car. So I wouldn't have headaches like this. Problem was, it was a NISSAN. FAIL. I should have researched more and taken a hint from all the 5.0 ship-jumpers.

based off of post #63 first sentence. that is what its based off of. for a fyi brakes are not considered a warranty product, just like tires and oil and washer fluid. I have 53k on my Z with stock pads and rotors and not a single problem with my brakes. I've done a couple of canyon runs and a lot of spirited driving but no problems. Maybe its your driving technique. I am not in any way shape or form slamming your or trying to put you down, just helping you out because in the future if you do purchase a 5.0 and get the brembo brake kit you will still be at the same point you are with this car. Also for a FYI on those, the rotors are softer material than the 370's. Think about it before you jump ship.

this is what I thought you meant by a heat gun, not a digital thermometer import
Wagner Power Products 503008 HT 1000 1, 200-watt Heat Gun - Amazon.com

It's really strange you're still having issues. So you've now established that it's not the pads or the rotors themselves. The only variables left are the calipers, cooling, the install or your style of driving. Is there any way you can get a temperature reading after some spirited driving? I'm at a loss as far as why this problem keeps popping back up. The only thing made by Nissan in your brakes are the calipers, and I doubt that's the problem. Are there any other dealerships you can take it to in your area?

Yes, actually they are, for 12/12, and mine first began showing problems at 10K miles of street driving. No, I won't be at the same point. I've owned "many" cars (for a 27yo), and I have literally NEVER had these issues. In fact, I was in a Kia Optima for about a month earlier this year, and it didn't develop any issues with its brakes. My car takes about 2-3 weeks to start shuddering pretty bad sometimes after service (for same issue).

I'm glad you lucked into a good 370Z, but if my Z06, WS.6, G20, 1988 GT, 1993 Crown Vic, 1995 Trans Am, and the Kia rental car can all handle my driving, then **** this pussy **** if it can't.

I take 5 corners in 13 miles on the way to work. Exactly how spirited can you get given the above!?

Yes, there is another dealership, but so far this one has been very accommodating and agrees that the problem is BS and should never occur on a street-driven car where the owner is getting 17K+ miles out of the OEM tires and showing even wear on front/rear tires and pads.

Dear god no. We had a misunderstanding. Someone that stupid shouldn't be allowed to make enough money to afford more than a scooter.