Off hand I agree. I believe at least the 1st gen Gs had semi-metallics

 

well i have an 05 g35x, and the stock brakes don't create black semi-metallic like dust, so maybe i'm wrong, but there isnt any black dust or hardly any at all like on every other car i've owned.. and after replacing my rears with ceramic, the little bit of dust so far looks the same as the stock fronts..

 

Hmm, are you sure they are stock pads on the front? Mine are OEM replaced by the dealership before I bought it and they turn my front wheels black after a couple weeks of normal driving.

 

That sounds about right. How much bigger are the '06's?

 

I found the OEM pads to be very grabby. It was difficult to make a smooth stop. Perhaps Infiniti thinks drivers will interpret that as "more stopping power." Bah!

The Hawks are nicely progressive. I can easily modulate the stopping force. Biting power? I have no trouble inducing the ABS in an emergency. Did so just last week, in fact.

 

Well I guess I'm not sure, but they are quite worn down, the rears were shot though..and there still wasn't brake dust from those either..

 

My rears don't dust at all, just my fronts. My previous vehicle was the same way. Oh well, at least they work well.

 

Locking the wheels up has always been a poor judge of a brakes power. A geo metro can lock up wheels, (or cycle the ABS if it has it)

What it indicates is the tire losing traction. That;s about it really.


A good indicator of braking performance? 80-0 and 100-0 stop tests.

 

11.3" front rotors on the 05x and 12.6" rotors on the 06x, plus the calipers are dual-piston calipers.

Out back the rotor diameter increased from about 11" to 12.1".


However braking performance is the same. They used aggressive pads on the 03-04's (and 05 x) which made the wheels black as a byproduct. When they went to a less aggressive pad in 05 (2006 on the x) they had to compensate with mechanical advantage (larger rotors) and more clamping force (2-piston caliper vs 1-piston prior) to equal the same stopping distances.

You can prob track down an 05-06 owner who upgraded to a BBk and buy their brakes.

 

I think you are confusing brake performance with tire performance.

Once the brakes have enough retarding force to lock the wheels or activate ABS, there would be no further gains from increasing their "power." At that point only stickier tires will show significant improvement.

Now if we were talking about fade resistance, consistency, controllability, etc; the Hawks eat the OEMs lunch.

 

Having to stand on the brakes in order to get them to lock or having no modulation/feel while doing so, isn't a good brake system. Neither is having to use ultra grabby pads that eat rotors and warp them in order to get a good 60-0 brake time.

If the Hawks are less grabby, then they give up a good 60-0 time for less dust.

There is a reason why Infiniti decided to up the brake force via larger rotors and decided to use twin piston calipers vs single.

 

My point was the threshold of locking up a wheel also depends on the traction of the tire on the wheel. You could put a high dollar BBK on your car but it won't do jack with poor tires that will lose traction easily. If you slam on your brakes, a quality soft tire with good traction will resist locking up better than a poor, harder tire. Think of stopping in the rain or snow as an exaggerated example where the tires traction gives out well before the max braking force is applied.

My point was with better tires you can use your brakes harder since the point of losing traction will be higher with a quality tire vs a poor tire. The same goes for launching. On poor tires you will find it very easy to spin the tires and break them loose. But toss on some slicks or drag radials and you'll find it much harder. In that aspect, using the ability to spin tires to measure vehicle power would be poor. I was getting at the same thing when it comes to stopping.

I didn't mean it so much as a reflection on true braking performance however. I was just merely pointing out that using the ability to lock your wheels up isn't a good indicator as to how well your brakes work. It could also be a reflection of how poor your tires are.

Many other variables and factors to consider.



On another note, but slightly related. It amazes me how people are willing to spend thousands of dollars on performance parts for better handling, more horsepower and better braking....and yet cheap out on tires. All your high dollar performance mods are now being transmitted to the pavement by poor cheap rubber. It's like buying a blu-ray player but hooking it up to a Standard Def. TV

 

Haha, my Grandpa has that setup. I don't even try to explain it to him because it would be a waste of time. I could probably switch his blu-ray out for my DVD player and he would never notice.

 

I've gone ahead and ordered Hawks High Performance Ceramic pads, but seems like I should have ordered the HPS instead.

On another note, what is the correct part number for OEM rear pads on an 06? 44060-EG00K and 44060-EG085 are they interchangeable?

Infiniti dealer was expensive so I called the Nissan dealer and they had EG00K but not EG085. I've searched around but could not get a defninite answer for a stock 06 G35. Thanks.

 

The stock pads on the G35 are definitely not ceramic, but semi-metallic if memory serves. They perform great, wear quickly and dust a lot. I ordered a set of Akebono ProAct ceramic pads from Tirerack and they are good. There is very little dust and I can go for months without any noticeable darken of the wheel. Braking power is about same as stock though that is a subjective assessment. I didn't measure the before and after braking distances. There is a more performance oriented ceramic version from Akebono as well and perhaps those might even work better if maximum braking power is a concern. Brake modulation with the ceramics are easy and while have good power, has completely eliminated that grabby, lurchiness that was common with the stock pads.

Contrary to what was posted here, I read that ceramic pads are actually gentler on the rotors and will make the rotor wear longer. They are also extremely quiet and noise free as they don't vibrate and 'sing' like metallic pads. I would definitely continue to use them.

In my setup I have slotted aftermarket rotors in front while I run the stock rotor in the back because the rears really don't do much and are tiny anyways. I suppose they do help with the VDC though. I run the same ceramic pads all around. They've been great and all my parts were cheaper than Infiniti stock parts by about 40% of what my Canadian dealer quoted for the job. Of course not being Infiniti or Nissan parts, they weren't willing or able to do the install so I took it to local shop instead. If you're going to go with new rotors you might want to consider slotted or cross drilled especially if you track or autocross.