Hello! I am a new Infiniti owner, and have used this site for months to answer some questions, now I have a question I can't find anyone asking!

I had my front rotors resurfaced about 1,700 miles ago in my '08 g35x sedan. Now the dealer is saying I need new pads, (current pads are 80% worn) but they also need to resurface the rotors AGAIN. Can this step be skipped? This will be the third time these rotors will be turned. It just seem like they are trying to make an extra buck off me!

The front calipers are also getting replaced, but those are covered under warranty, so I assumed they could cut the price down on pad install because they will be replacing calipers anyway.

Does anyone have some insight into this? Thank you do much!

 

Was the caliper sticking? I'd think new pads and rotors would be covered under the warranty if the caliper failed. They usually don't fail until well after the warranty period. I'd see what your service advisor can do. I realize pads and rotors are a wear item, but it's most likely due to the caliper failing that cause the premature wear.

 

Hello. Yes, the calipers were sticking causing severe shaking and vibration. I will ask the advisor what he thinks that would have done to the pads and rotors.

 

Well, doing my research paid off. I tried to have the advisor really break down why they needed to resurface the rotors, and she was full of crap. I basically out talked her and got her to admit that it doesn't really need to be done. Just saved $250! The best part: she called back and said her manager said to resurface them anyway, FOR FREE! I wa always taught to ask questions when dealing with mechanics. Paid off. Thanks!

 

Ideally, you WANT to resurface the rotors every time you change the brake pads for more even wear, and to avoid the other issues.

 

Yes, I totally Understand, but to have to resurface them again after only 1700 miles seemed a little extreme.

 

Not really, while you don't ever have a need to resurface your rotors at all unless they are warped (carbon buildup), the point of resurfacing them when you change brake pads is to get them to match the new brake pads, and this is technically the proper way to change brake pads if you are going by the books to the t. The amount of wear on the rotors has absolutely nothing to do with that, and any wear is more than enough to want to resurface them again. If anything, I'd be arguing the $250 cost of resurfacing them, as Pep Boys and plenty of other places will do it for something like $40 if you take them off and bring them in!

 

Resurfacing the rotors is a huge scam.

If you have vibrations when brakeing, its you should immediately re-bed your brakes. If this doesnt fix it, you left it alone too long and you can basically kiss that rotor goodby. Theres a good stoptech article on it, but basically, even if you resurface the rotors, it leaves the patches off buildup, even though everything is now smooth. The breaking will feel great for a while, but the vibrations will come back, where the dealer can charge you an arm and leg again.

If you dont track your car, you can just get replacement rotors from autozone for llike $40, and its a fairly simple diy, especially for the front. The rear rotors are slightly less intuitive but also easily a diy, but almost always its the front rotors anyway.

Also, resurfacing when changing brakes is also a waste of money. Better option would be to leave the rotors alone if you have no vibration, or replace them if you do, or replace them when they get thin.

When you put new brakes on, the point of resurfacing is to get rid of old brake pad material. You can kind of diy this with your new pads, especially with high performance pads. You can do like opposite of bed in to scrape the old material off, then bed in your brakes properly. If your swapping oem to oem, its same material and you dont even need to do this much.

If you want to be super technical about it or plan on weekend warrioring it,then the best best way would be to have a separate rotor for your separate pad compounds already bedded in for different pads.