My '03 gt has 30k (klms) on it. Get alot of brake dust, and need new brakes. Dealer said the rotors are soft and the Nissan spec brakes are soft, so dust is normal and will be renewing brakes every 30k. He also said rotors may need machining - theres no grooves so hard to believe. Trouble is here in Australia there aren't too many g35's. I imported from Japan (V35), and don't know if dealer is up with the techs on it. Any suggestions?

 

If dust is your main concern buy some EBC green stuff pads, i had about a 50-75% drop in brake dust with these pads. Your rear rotors are most likely fine since they dont get beat on as hard as the fronts. machining the rotors will give you a new contact area for the new pads so you can start out relatively fresh with bedding in the new pads.

 

How long you had the 03 g? I've only had mine few months - love it. Is the dealer right about every 30k? I mentioned Bembros and he said they'd be too hard - wear the rotors real fast. So trying to get balance between no dust, good breaks and not wear the metal.

 

you do have to machine the rotors everytime you change to pads. they need a clean, new surface to bed in

 

If the rotors are straight(as in not warped) and within minimum tolerance thickness there is no need to machine them on every brake pad change.

As for the fronts wearing faster than the rears it depends on how agressive you drive with VDC on. VDC enganging a lot will eat through some rear pads in a hurry.

If you are looking at buying new rotors you might as well just upgrade the entire brake system with the 05-06 rotors & calipers or 04 brembos. 03-04 OEM standard brakes were the worst of all the G's for dust and performance.

 

If you have any grooves at all, you will not be able to resurface them. There is not much tolerance on them. Not like Mom's old Chevy!

I just replaced mine with the StopTech Stage II kit:

Four Drilled or Slotted rotors
Hawk HPS pads (no dust/noise)
SS brake lines
MOTUL 600 synthetic brake fluid

I can tell you they work great and if you do it yourself (not hard if you have ever done a disc brake job) you will save $200 over a dealer repair.

www.stoptech.com

I got mine through www.importpartspro.com

 

^ Texasscout, do you happen to know if there's any advantage for the drilled vs. slotted rotors? I see on the website that they're both the same price, and besides the looks on the outside, they're both pretty similar.

 

not true. it the rotor are glazed over, you need to turn them. if you dont, they will squeal.

 

Do you guys have Nissan 350Zs? They share the same brakes.

 

I got the drilled rotors just because I like the look, however I have heard that they can sometimes crack if they get too hot. I have not heard that about the slotted type.

Anyone have any opinions?

 

There have been several discussions on the forum for this topic. I researched before I replaced mine at 30K and went with slotted/drilled because like Texasscout I like the way they look; I noticed no performance increase and can heat them up just as quickly. My assumption is that the drilling transferred from motorbike disc brakes where there is no internal venting and the disc is relatively thin. Popular Mechanics had an article on it and claimed that slotting increased performance and drilling did not.

If you want the best performance enhancement for stronger brakes, everyone seems to speak highly of the braided brake lines and they are rather inexpensive.

As for the brakes themselves, there are several sources for them and they are extremely easy to DIY.

 

drilled rotors maybe more incline to crack on tracks... slotted ones not so much. tracking a car will create much igher heat levels vs normal driving but the slots also help the rotors cool faster so they can keeps its bite on the track.

 

This is usually true since most of us don't have brakes that reach such high temperatures for us to lose grip. The slots give all the braking performance while the drilling is there to keep the temperatures from going up. Most of my track customers ask for slotted rotors only and the ones that are more concerned with warping usually asked for drilled only rotors, just to give you an idea.

 

Thanks Dwyman
It's just that I'm surprised as I haven't really thrashed the car until I got to know it. Mechanic has told me that rotors are so thin they would go under limit if machined. Have spoken to performance guy here also n he 's suggested dimpled rotors (haven't heard of them before). I've got the feeling the quality here in Aust is not what it should be.

 

Thanks eveyone for your help. It's given me info to make an imformed decision - not uninformed like the dealer. We do have z's here, (and most think they're Gods gift!). But dealer said to use Maxima as guide as the weight is similar.
Glad I joined this site. Thanks again.