Anyone else get a burning smell following some hard breaking. Cannot find any mention through searching. It lasts a few minutes after the breaking. Is this normal or not?? I imagine the pads are heating up but it happens quite easily.

Thanks.

 

I got a burning smell on the track... never had a need to brake anywhere near that much anywhere else though. Stopping hard once or twice isn't enough to make the smell in my experience.

Are your pads new, by any chance?

 

Thanks.

No, the pads are not new, but have not done many miles. My car is 04 but has only clocked up 5K miles. Perhaps the pads need changing already do you think?

 

Depends on how much and how hard you use your brakes. Have you tracked your car? Usually when your brakes are in need of changing they will start to smell. Also check to make sure you don't have a frozen caliper.

 

Is a frozen Caliper obvious? ie, can it be determined by looking through the spokes or is it not apparent by looking. Thanks.

 

Wow, 04 with only 5k??? I take it your G is a weekend drivre?

 

When I was in school (central PA.) I would take my G out for an occassional romp on the backroads. It was great man - no traffic, no lights, no people, no cops - so I would push it pretty hard. I would also break pretty hard. By the time I got back to school I could definately smell the brakes and hear all the crackling (from the heat). I think this is normal, any other car I've driven hard exhibits the same behavior - i think its just hot metal you're smelling - or maybe you need new pads? I know I do - I'm at 15K and still on my 1st set of pads. They are starting to grind.

 

You won't be able to tell from a visual. If you are still under warranty take it back to the dealer and have them do a diagnostics check. Frozen calipers are dangerous because they lock the brake and sometimes release but lock again. You can damage a lot of the braking components also.

 

Thanks for the replies. I'm afraid, the dealers here don't want to know. grey import, etc. Warranty void as soon as the car got on the boat in Japan. I think I must just be pushing her hard and breaking hard - I hope. Having new rims put on next week and will ask them about sticking calipers just in case.

Yes, the mileage is mega low. the car was in as new condition when collected in September last year. Not a single stone chip, nothing. And I only drive a little, I want her to last forever!!!

 

Frozen calipers can be determined visually and with a quick test at home.

If caliper has been frozen for some time, you'll visually see black or blueing marks on your caliper indicating high temp from brake pads dragging on rotor, as well as possible heat cracks.

Simple test is jack up your wheel(s) and give the tire(s) a spin. If there's some to a lot of resistance compared to the other(s), then caliper is dragging the shoes on the rotor due to caliper piston being frozen or seized and not releasing completely as it should.

Continuous hard braking situations can give off a smell thats normal. Another quick test is drive/brake normal, then smell/feel caliper (be careful when doing that) and if one is hotter or smells more so than the other, then that one is dragging and heating up prematurely due to pads not releasing correctly.

 

Thanks 06CPV35. I'm not very competent car-wise, so I'll do the latter test. The Rotors are the Discs right? I wonder why our cars don't have discs with holes. My neighbour has an M3 and his discs are, I assume this is for heat dissappation. Why didn't we get some of those. Looks good too.

 

Yes...Rotors-Discs...same thing.

G/L...Know your situation over there across the pond with Dealers.

If yours ends up with a caliper/brake problem, any competent brake repair shop should be able to handle this.
Any place over there that works on Nissan Z33's? Your V35 is basically the same.

lol...Slotted and/or rotors with holes...yes, would've been nice oem. Sounds like an addition to your mod list.
You have Brembos...y/n? Can't remember. Wish they hadn't stopped those on the 05-06's.

 

Its just the smell of your brakes being extremely hot and burning a little bit, you will notice that after hard brakeing you dont stop as fast. Its normal nothing to worry about...

-sean

 

Great. Thanks for all advice. I'm feeling more satisifed that this is normal, I'm just breaking too hard. Will check it out though. I don't have Brembos. It sounds like a backwards step taking them off the later models, because they look the mutts.

What exactly is burning then, the pads?? Surely burning any part is bad??

 

The burning smell is your pads. Like i said its just from being to hot, you probably passed the pads normal temperature range...thats why its burning!