First Problem With my 370Z

ts-c63

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

bigdog1250

For all you "Warped rotors" guys:

-Warped- Brake Disc and Other Myths

__________________
350z / 40th 370z / C6 Z06 / BMW M4 / V10 R8 / C7 Grand Spot / 997.1 GT3 / S2K / Camaro ZL1 / 718 GTS / 991.2 GT3

Fountainhead

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.

Sh0velMan

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.

__________________
Buy My Car! | Build Thread

Fountainhead

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.

ImportConvert

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.

Mt Tam I am

MYTH # 6 - The brake fluid reservoir should be topped up during routine service.In most modern passenger cars, the brake fluid reservoir is designed with a specific volume and is equipped with an internal float. The volume corresponds to the amount of fluid that will be displaced when the pads have worn to the point of replacement plus a generous reserve. When the replacement point is reached, the descending float completes an electrical circuit and a light appears on the dash warning the driver that the pads should be replaced.
If the brake fluid is topped up the first warning of warn out pads will be the screech of steel backing plate against iron disc. This will be both annoying and expensive.


If I don't top off my brake fluid, the VDC turns itself off.

__________________
Nissan Motorsports 34R Oil Cooler. Stillen CBE. Hotchkis Sport Sway Bars. KW Variant 3 Coilover System. Stillen Gen3 CAI. Michelin Pilot Super Sport. Stillen Brake Ducts. Carbotech™ XP10/XP8 Pads. Z1 Front Rotors. Z1 Stainless Brake Lines. Two degrees of camber

sig11

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.

ImportConvert

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.

Chuck33079

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?

__________________
2011 MB Touring-Sport-6sp-Nav/GTM TT/FI TT TDX/JTran/Kosmic/Eibach/Hotchkis/SPC/CSF/RPS/SoThatsWhereAllMyMoneyWent

ImportConvert

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.

Chuck33079

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.

__________________
2011 MB Touring-Sport-6sp-Nav/GTM TT/FI TT TDX/JTran/Kosmic/Eibach/Hotchkis/SPC/CSF/RPS/SoThatsWhereAllMyMoneyWent

ImportConvert

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.

m4a1mustang

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.

__________________
- Steve

Zs & Coffee - Saturdays at 10AM in Fairfax, VA and Columbia, MD (Click the banner!)
LIKE us on Facebook!

ImportConvert

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.