My son bought an '04 G35 coupe about a year ago and we need to replace the brake pads for the second time. Seems like he only got about 12-15k miles on this set. I think we also need to replace the rotors as well this time around. Can anyone recommend a brand for pads and rotors that are reasonably priced and good quality. The dealer seems to want quite a bit at retail. Also any good online sources for parts would be appreciated. I usually get parts for my car from AutohausAZ.com, but they're out of stock on the rotors and the only pads they carry are for G35 coupes from 7-31-04 onwards. His car has a build date of July, 2004.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Gary

 

for brakepads, Akebono Ceramics are VERY reasonably price and good quality pads too.

as for Rotors, you can get a set of OEM style for cheap.... a lot of the vendors will try to sell you the full package rotors and pads for around $500, but you can get OEM style rotors and Akebono ceramics for about $300, that was my last calculation when I was shoppin around...


Everything G35 has some really good prices, here's a link to the brake section, just browse around and you'll find what you need


http://www.g35parts.com/Infiniti-G35...arts-s/107.htm


also Infiniti Parts USA as well, check them out they got some brake pad specials at the moment

http://www.infinitipartsusa.com

 

I wasn't aware of that July production date difference on the pads and so it made me curious to look at the AutoHausAz site. I question why in most cases the same part number has different production date ranges. I looked at the 2003 MY on their site and it's even more scattered. Just seems odd and I haven't seen this differentiation elsewhere. Does anyone know this for sure, and why?

 

talk to 88 rotors on this site theyre a vendor they quoted me at 444 for 4 hawk pads and drilled rotors. and tell your son to stop street racing haha eatin up pads that fast!! but yeah i was gonna buy stillen rotors from the website and hawk pads from their site and that woulda cost me 1200+. vendors here are dope!!

 

G35driver.com members don't let other members buy Hawk HPS pads. You will be sorry if you do buy them. Why? Crappy initial bite when cold and non-impressive bite when at operating temperature. Sure you can save some money buying them but make sure to save up for that $500 deductible when that car gets into an accident. I had hawk hps pads on my g35 with brembos and they sucked. I now have project mu NS pads on the rear of my g37 with akebonos and they are much better. The G37 comes factory with the akebono pads but not sure if they are the ceramics. They suck also.

 

Adon has good suggestions, also check out rockauto.com for any OEM replacement parts. You might find they have better prices than the dealer and other local part stores. They have an easy to search online menu. Pair up your purchase with a 5% coupon from retailmenot.com and you'll definitely save some loot. You can't go wrong with Centric premium rotors and the Akebono pads or even StopTech Street performance pads.

 

It's largely a matter of personal taste. True, the Hawk HPS pads don't have a ton of bite cold. So what, they work just fine for day to day driving, have reasonable life, and they are what I choose to run. As for rotors, I have run both the plain (non-drilled, non-slotted) OE replacement rotors manufactured by Brembo with good results, as well as the Centric Premium plain rotors.

 

Thanks for all the replies. I found Akebono ceramic pads and Centric Premium rotors at rockauto.com for $168.82 delivered. I'm not familiar with these brands. How do they compare with OEM Infiniti parts? Any idea where the Centric rotors are manufactured? Btw, the local dealer wants $384 for stock pads and rotors.

 

Tirerack.com and bigbrakeparts.net both have a good selection of aftermarket pads and rotors. If you want something that's quite a bit better than stock and similarly priced, I would recommend DBA-4000 rotors and Ferodo DS2500 pads, the performance is much better. Hawk HPS pads will be a lot cheaper, but not as good, but on the upside, they dust a lot less. The stock pads and rotors are very soft and wear quickly, but they're quiet. The longer lasting, better braking aftermarket options will occasionally make a little squeak, which is a more than adequate tradeoff.

 

not sure exactly where the Centric Rotors are produced, but they are the overseeing company for many brake suppliers. Their rotors are the same ones you get from performance companies like StopTech and PowerSlot.

 

I believe centric actually has several suppliers/jobbers that produce parts for them. Based on the ones I purchased I would say they are at least as good as OE parts if not better.

 

Whaat? Hawk pad suck? My buddy has them on his 03 G35 and loves them. I planned on buying them too. I guess I'll start checking other brands. I want a great pad that's substantially better than oem

 

Depends on what your definition of better is. If all you care about is lower brake dust levels, then the HPS pads are top notch. If you want better performance (or at least parallel performance to OEM), but with lower dust levels then you will be better off looking elsewhere.

Seems like the Akebono ACT pads and the StopTech Street performance pads have become strong front runners of late. There are still quite a few people who like the EBC compounds and some spendy people who love the Project Mu pads.

 

Like dudefish and iDrive_MD said, it is a matter of personal taste. The hawk hps pads don't dust like the oem brembo pads but you pay for it with the huge lack of stopping power. Again, it is only my personal opinion but I'd never pay for hawk hps pads or even take free ones. The hawk hp+ pads are a different story.

The Ferrodo's are expensive but are one of the top of the line pads from what i've read.

You also have:

Endless
Project Mu
Axxis
EBC
Stoptech
Wagner
Akebono
Nismo
Etc.....

 

If I was looking for a pad that worked well in winters and produced less dust, which brands would you suggest? This would be for an 06 MT coupe.

I vaguely remember searching this once before and reading the OEM pads aren't actually that bad.