I will try feel the edge of the rotors next time I wash my car. Thank you for your advice!

 

Some manufacturers like BMW will always change pads and rotors together. I agree that it's not necessary to do this, but when you machine your rotors you will lose mass. This will make the rotors more subject to warping: that's when you feel the thumping in your brake pedal when braking. So if you aren't concerned about the increased risk of your rotors warping, it's generally not necessary to change the rotors the first time you replace your pads.

 

There are some easy tips to help prevent warping. The obvious is cold water on a hot day or after a hard drive. But another one is setting the parking brake on a hot day or after a hard drive.

Hooman

 

I hope you meant NOT to do those things.

 

I heard that having improperly torqued lug nuts can cause warping too, because if the lugs are not tightened evenly/properly, heat expansion of the rotors may be uneven, causing warping.

 

I thought our parking brakes are actually cute little drums inside the "hat" portion of the rear rotors? How would setting these cause warping? I haven't seen parking brakes use the actual discs in 10+ years.

 

yeah...don't do those things

Hooman

 

i have the rotors you need - original almost new y replaced for cross drilled brembos if you wanted = email me

 

I've read that when you set the parking brake, the pad is cooler than the rotor and causes uneven cooling. This causes warping. Made sense to me at the time.

Hooman

 

That doesn't make sense. It's usually one or the other. Soft pads = worn out pads but durable rotors. Hard pads = Long life pads, but worn out rotors.

 

Yeah, that makes sense if the parking brakes actually touched the rotors. I meant that since our parking brakes are actually little drums, there really isn't a massive differential in rotor temperature because it is not directly contacting them.

Besides, I've never really seen anyone with warped rear rotors, only warped front rotors, since they are the ones that tend to get quite hot. Tho I suppose if the VDC got too excited your rears could get hot too....

 

My last ride was a 300ZX Turbo and I spent most of my driving on the freeways.
My front pads lasted 125,000 miles and the backs only showed 30% wear. I didn't
have a breakdust issues but replaced all pads at 125,000. The car was 10 years old
when I sold it and the breaks worked great. Now we have another Nissan vehicle
and the breaks a p*ss poor. I've never had pads that leave the amount of dust
these do. Drive two blocks and it's time to clean your wheels, WTF

'04 G35 Twilight Blue Coupe Prem. Pkg. Borla cat-back Stillen intake Z Tube clear sides
35% Tint Nismo goodies Volk GTC's (soon)

 

How do we tell if we have warped rotors? Would these be covered under warranty? Why would we need to change out rotors at 44k miles? I felt my front rotors and they are definately not even....not smooth at all. My rears are fine...very smooth.

 

They replaced my front rotors, (without resurfacing them) and new pads...and resurfaced my rear rotors and replaced the pads at 19,000 miles....I drive pretty conservatively, so I'm sure most people are needing this service sooner.

I'm just ready to turn 32,000, So I figure next oil change I will ask my service advisor to replace both front and rear rotors, and new pads.......This will be the last "freebie" and next time around I will look into aftermarket rotors/pads for a little longer life expectancy......

 

I tried to do that at my dealership, but they said they would get in trouble if they change it too quickly, but you can try it. It doesn't hurt!