Hey guys. Any advise is appreciated on my issue:

So I live in Kansas City and found the 2004 Infiniti G35 I wanted(black on black) in Dallas, TX. Flew there yesterday to get it. Paid $20,500 and it had 43k miles. Test drove it...wow! I was instantly in love and glad I made the flight. Test drive showed no issues except a "scrunching" sound when I released the brakes slowly from a complete stop.

Bought it, drove it home....and sure enough 1 day later the front brakes are squeeling like crazy! Only when I barely apply the brakes to begin coming to a stop, then gets louder as I apply a little more pressure, then no more noise when I apply even more pressure and begin to come to a complete stop.

I of course called the dealer. He says the car was in his showroom for a while and the brake pads must have "collected dust" and I should put the car in reverse and go about 10mph and then pushe the emergency brake all the way? Do this a couple times then do the same thing with the normal brake. WTF!! Anyway, he then said if this doesn't work, I should take the caliper off and use sand paper on the rotor and brake pad lightly as "dust particles" must have found their way into the brake pad.

I think I know the answer....but is this a bunch of BS?? Any suggestions? What would you do?

I know this is the risk I took by buying out of town so I'm not crying foul here, just a little pissed that my new car is having issues already.

Thanks for any advise/help

 

Did you ask him when the last time he had a brake job done?

 

Sounds more like the pads are about gone to me. Don't do the e-brake thing he said, that does not work on our style e-brake which is a drum inside the rear. Get a can of brake cleaner and spray down the rotors and inbetween the pad and rotor, drive up your street and brake a couple times and do it again. If the noise keeps up you should take it in to have the pads looked at.

 

I asked but he said he wasn't sure. He then said that "these cars dont have any brake problems with only 43K miles". Obviously he is wrong.

 

Funny you recommended this. A friend here at work recommended that and it's exactly what I was going to do after work! I'll try it and let you know the outcome. Thanks for the quick replies guys.

Any other comments/advise?

 

If that car has 43k it may need a brake job. I'm sure you have seen the issues with the 03/04 brakes.

 

Hello fello Kansas Citian. Your braking issue is not a cause for concern. Unfortunately, what you're hearing is the nature of these brakes. My 03 does the same thing. What is causing the noise is two things:

1) Build up of brake dust in the pad void space and around pad seating hardware

2) The brake pad shims moving slightly

I've yanked and cleaned the pads/hardware on a couple of occasions and it fixed the issue for about a month then the noise came back. The issue seems to occur more often in the hot months.

The scrunching sound is just the nature of these pads releasing off the rotor. My 03 does it too and probably more so since I have an auto which will move the second you release the brakes.

BTW, us KC guys need to get together because there's starting to be a bunch of us in here.

 

+1 This is what I would also recommend. Many brake pads have wear indicators which are metal arms that hit the rotor when the pad thickness is well , not so thick then the metal arm rubs on the rotor and squeels and when you hit the brakes it will go away. I would recommend a pad change. Make sure you replace your pads with a high quality ceramic pad like EBC or Hawk pads. You will have much less brake dust on your wheels ,a quieter brake ,and decreased stopping distance. Always turn your rotors or buy new ones when replacing pads. One more tip is to use the brake pad lube that is ussually supplied or you can buy it at auto parts store. No it does not go on the brake side of the pad it goes between the shim ,pad and caliper piston. It keeps everything stuck together adn keeps the shim from rattling and the pad from riding on the rotor. Just my to cents

 

I'd have to disagree. The pads obviously have wear indicators, but it's been my experience that squeeling brakes on these cars rarely mean worn pads. You can confirm the pad depth by simply removing the wheel and looking through the observation hole on the caliper. If there is less than 1/8" of pad left, then it's time to consider a replacement.

Regarding pads, I've have read on this site and after conversing with other G owners, the opinion is aftermarker pads like EBC or Hawk do indeed have less dusting, but at the expense of initial bite and feel. For a street use, the OEM pad is hard to beat if you can handle the dusting. For mixed street/track use, Hawks or the like are a great compromise.

As for turning or replacing the rotors, it's not needed unless you're getting pulsating or the rotors are worn. Unfortunately, this is a performance car, has stellar braking abilities, and it eats through rotors in about 30K miles.

 

I have had my *** chewed off by very knowledgable mechanics for not turning or replacing my rotors when doing a pad change. What they say (and I've seen evidence) is that your pads will "glaze" because the rotor surface is extremely smooth and your new pad won't bite as it should. I did this once and my mechanic told me to pull my pads out and snad then with a block sander because they did "glaze" and then he turned the rotors. After this the brakes did bite much better. I don't think he was trying to make $$$ off me cause he only charged me $20 to turn them. If it were my car I would upgrade to a drilled/slotted rotor anyway.

 

+1

Some of the best shops I know always tell me to turn or replace my rotors.

 

project MU NS pads FTW for OEM feel.

 

Because it makes them money Contrary to popular belief, the ridges formed along the face of a rotor actually improve braking performance because it allows the gases to escape while under extreme braking. It's basically the same principle as a slotted rotor. Now if the ridges are extremely deep, then you've got some underlying problem that needs to be addressed.

The obvious downside to turning a rotor is that you're removing rotor material which reduces the life of the rotor and more importantly, kills the effectiveness of the rotor to shed thermal energy (causes brake fade). I've spent my fair share of time at auto-X events and I honestly don't know of anyone at those events that gets their rotors turned. These guys are also swapping race and street brake pads before and after the events. Only when the rotors wear out, warp, or develop hairline cracks is when they're serviced which means they're replaced, not turned. I've done my own brakes for about 18 years now and I've never gotten my rotors turned. I've also never had a warped set of rotors either.

Rotor glazing is caused to by two things with the latter being the culprit for most causes:

1) Running a pad above it's heat range. This would be hard to do with the OEM pad unless you were running them in a track event.

2) Improper bedding of the new pads. You can be certain that 99% of the public doesn't have a clue about proper brake pad bedding. A shop will not perform the bedding because there's too much liability involved performing the proper procedure and some customers may see it as abusive or even dangerous.

Regarding aftermarket ceramic pads, basically, don't do it unless you've invested in some seriously high quality aftermarket rotors (larger too) that can handle the excessively high heat ceramic pads cause. Basically, you'll get worse braking performance with a ceramic pad on a OEM brake setup.

Interesting read regarding performance brakes:

http://www.raceshopper.com/tech.shtml

 

You obvisously work for the government.

 

is the correct bed in procedure the series of hard brakes and gradually picking up speed? That is really hard to do on a public road and I'm not sure how I can get that done on my BBK