I need help selecting new pads&rotors...
 

Dear Z gurus, I need your help out here

I have the non-sport (stock) brakes. My rear pads are worn down to 3mm now and I need to find me a new set of pads & rotors.

I drive all street, but I drive her VERY hard. Also it would be pretty cool to get drilled & slotted rotors. I love the looks :)

My dealer recommends stoptech, but I'd like to see what your guys' opinions are. I need something cost-effective, somewhere in or near the "super street" category.

Noise would be an issue for me. My current pads & rotors squeak until they warm up a bit. Usually 1-2 city blocks and the noise is gone. I don't care about dust. What are your recommendations?

Hawk HPS will be your best bet for pads.
Rotors... Stoptechs are fine :tup:

Z1 makes rotors for the Z as well :tup:

I'd stay away from drilled rotors, even though they look awesome.

I heard that the HPS will destroy my rotors? Is that true? This is why I've come to you guys for help :)

How come? I'd like my rotors to be drilled & slotted. I'm notorious for warping them. Just to give you an idea, I destroyed a brand new OEM set in less than a week... Lol!

This Kit will take care of your needs.

Go with the Posi Quiet pads for normal street driving. StopTech is also a good pad option but I like my cars clean and the Posi Quiets offer the lowest dust of any of the pads I have used.

With Motul fluid and SS Brake Lines the Posi Quiets will still offer a great upgrade to your current setup.

I know that some people don't like the Hawk HPS (they dust heavily for a street oriented pad, and they're not sufficient for real tracking). Barring other variables, they won't destroy your rotors.

Drilling holes in a rotor weakens it. If you do get drilled rotors, make sure they are good quality and the holes are chamfered. If you're notorious for warping your rotors (which is most likely just uneven pad depositing), try reevaluating your braking technique :tiphat:

Drilled rotors crack under heavy use.

And destroying a set in a week means there's something critically wrong with your driving. Not to mention I have no idea how you would manage that without driving like an asshat on the street.

Are you holding the brake pedal down when stopped?

A week?!? :eek: Yeah that's insane. I can't imagine that happening on public roadways without being completely irresponsible :shakes head:

What Chuck said. Don't hold the brake pedal when stopped if your brakes are hot. This causes the pad to deposit a bunch of material in a single location on the rotor and is the definition of uneven pad depositing, which is often incorrectly referred to as a warped rotor.

All drilled rotors will crack due to the area around the holes cooling faster than the rest of the rotor however the cracks you will see on the surface of the rotor are superficial and do not affect the integrity of the rotor. If the cracks start to spread then you should worry but for normal street use we have 0 issues with our rotors cracking to a point of concern.

I drive auto, so yes, I usually hold it down when stopped.

And I drive like a banshee high on meth.


So I guess I'll avoid drilled rotors. Just gonna go with slotted ones.

Josh, thanks for the link! Is the price for a full set of 4, or per wheel?

Throw it in neutral at stop lights and get off the brake or keep replacing rotors. And keep track driving on the track.

If you've got the brakes good and hot and you're on a level surface, throw the car into N while you're at a light if you can.

The only other suggestion I can offer is to back off the hard braking when driving on public roadways. Otherwise, you're probably going to be replacing rotors a lot more often than is necessary. In which case, you might as well buy the generic rotors from any local auto parts store.

FWIW, I find myself limit accelerating fairly often when I'm doing some spirited driving. Limit braking on the other hand? Never. That's just asking for an accident.

:iagree:

Thanks guys :) I do pop it into N when I can, I just hate the delay when you pop into manual again :/ as far as my driving habits... It's just my crazy nature. I go through brakes and tires a lot. If I wanted to baby it, I'd get a civic!

This kit is for the entire car, all four wheels.

Thank you sir. If I have any issues with ordering, I'll PM you :)

Oh, and I'd like to thank everyone for their help!

Pull the handbrake.

And get a sport brake set-up.

Lastly, downshift instead of braking so hard

Handbrake sucks. Power slides work better :)

Oh and I downshift every gear right to redline lmao! Drive her like I stole her!

He's not saying yank the handbrake to drift. He's saying use it to hold you in place as opposed to the brake pedal so you don't fry your rotors.

Ahh that makes a little more sense

:iagree: :shakes head: :icon17: The handbrake grips the rear tires, so any uneven depositing is much less noticeable than when it happens on the front brakes.

It's a drum brake inside the rear rotor, so you don't get pad buildup.

So, I think I'm guilty of this with my rotors. They feel warped... Aside from turning, is there a way to fix it by trying the bedding techniques?

Nissan offered $240 to turn them, but I figure I can get rotors for that same price or cheaper.

Though I've since tried to change my ways and use the brake more. :tup:


Posted using TapaTalk.

I have not yet to installed my Z1 light weight rotors, but I have installed the SS brake lines and changed out the brake fluid with motul. That alone is a marked improvement in braking...quick, crisp and great feedback due to the consistent brake pressure. I definitely would recommend this as a minimum if you are forced inducted!!!

Just drove past you at dufferin and steeles. Love those wheels.

I've got the Z1 cross-drilled and slotted rotors. They made it through the Nismo Performance Academy at COTA and some pretty spirited drives with zero cracking.

If I was tracking a lot, it might be a different story.

As soon as Z1 has the two-piece rotors available for the rear, I'll probably swap out all four.

There is no best brand, but there are different brands for your budget and for your application.

Are you tracking, street driving etc. Tell us your overall budget and what you use the car for. Brakes are a bit like stereo equipment imo... You can buy a $200, $2000, or $200000 pair of speakers, and you will get what you pay for.

He's driving on the street like it's the track. :facepalm: I don't think there's really a good pad for that.

^ yeah I'm pretty sure I made my driving habits pretty obvious... Got the parts yesterday, which is great news, but I also messed up my ankle and can't walk/drive right now lol!

So, any bets on how fast I can kill these new Z1 brakes?

2 weeks. If I win you make me the beneficiary of your life insurance. :rofl2:

Posiquiets are awful if you actually put any heat into your brakes.

Next time get CL RC5+'s. They're loud and messy for a street pad but you'll **** yourself the first time you lay in to them. They'll also last a really long time.

I can definitely feel DjSquall - I'm going on 30k miles and I have already had my rotors turned twice due to lateral runoff. I DO NOT drive like a crazy person, but I do about 90 miles a day here in the Washington Metro Area which typically consists of part highway and part stop and go traffic on the regular. (Usually half and half on a daily trip..) On the highway I cruse between 65-75 but usually just at 70 and very rarely do I need to stop hard in traffic as I tend to keep a comfortable distance. In traffic I do no accelerate quickly and due to that, I do not need to brake hard or long. I engine brake down hill often (but only when necessary), and sometimes at stops. I have tried modifying my braking from high pressure braking, low pressure, full on, and intermittent. I just want to put emphasis on the fact that I am not driving wild on my regular commute yet I do see see the same symptoms.

The only thing I have not done yet is dropping it into neutral (or the handbrake idea) at stops to lay off the brakes, but I do find it odd that I would be building that much heat in the first place. (It's not like I'm trying to set the brakes doing 80mph hard braking then keeping the brake depressed to the hot rotor.) Could my limited amount of stop and go traffic (1/2 my day = ~45 miles with may half of that S&G = ~22.5 miles) really be heating the rotors up that significantly to cause deposits?

I have an extended warranty so the dealer turns the rotors for free, but I don't agree with their "lead engineers" when it comes to the number of times you should turn a rotor on our vehicles. When I asked them, "how many times do you turn them before you will just replace them" the answer was essentially indefinitely (which is a load of ******** if you ask me). Probably the same guy that told me you can't clean our MAFs. So as much as I want to take advantage of this, I would also love to forego it by just replacing with something that may cool better since it sounds like they will inevitably just keep turning the rotors. But from what it sounds like, folks here are not recommending the drilled/slotted. Ultimately, I will probably have them turned one more time before absolutely DEMANDING that they replace the rotors under warranty but I just wanted to say, what gives here?!?

Vic,

I'm interested in your evaluation that you are not hard on brakes yet have turned your rotors multiple times in 30K miles. Maybe there is something else at play here - nothing you've said makes me think you are heating up your brakes excessively (although note that riding the brakes, even just lightly, for lengthy distances can do it).

If you like the cosmetic aspect of drilled and slotted rotors, go for it. You'll be fine for street driving. Some people maintain that because cross drilled rotors are weaker than non-drilled rotors, they are not a good choice for tracking.

Big shout out to Josh@Z1 Motorsports! I needed some brake pads in a hurry (due to my own lack of planning). I called him up... got some great advice on the best fit for what I needed...ordered the parts...paid for them over the phone and got them shipped overnight - all in under 10 minutes!

Thanks Josh! Great job. Look forward to meeting you in October!

This is the year I make the move to try out XP8's all around. Want a pad that is fine on the street, and can be tracked on too. Dust and some noise don't bother me, my key consideration is I want something that just a light touch on the brakes gives me the same windshield-eating bite as the first time I tried left foot braking.

CL RC6 or RC5+ if you want a more mild pad.

Thanks for the info! I'm looking for something pretty hardcore, so hopefully the XP8's are the right fit. I don't think I'll get into them and think they are too much.