GAU-8,

yeah i know i just worded that weird my bad haha.

G35fromPA,

Thats what the dealer said, and i asked infiniti about it too. im not being sarcastic but how did you arrive at the numbers 65-70 %?
and idk about you but i can drift pretty well, id rather have my rears lock up than my fronts loose grip from too much braking power. In my dads porsche the fronts have lots of braking power and you have to be really careful when turning or trying to drift cause the fronts loose grip before the rears, extremely dangerous.

 

unless you clutch kick

 

Undertsteer. Sucks when you're not ready for it.

Please define? I've been around cars for a spell and never heard of that.

 

While the G35 may have a bit more rear bias than some other cars, thereby causing more premature rear wear than some others, it is still a front biased car. The brake bias number I arrived at comes from plugging all the brake specs (rotor sizes, # and size of caliper pistons, brake pad dimensions and distance from hub, etc.) into a brake bias calculator, and though the exact % differs somewhat depending on model, they're all at least ~62% front bias. Most street cars are set up this way as too much rear bias makes for a dangerous car for most (read: inexperienced) drivers.

Here is an article that talks about brake bias:

http://www.zeckhausen.com/Testing_Brakes.htm

"a brake kit with too much rear bias not only results in longer stopping distances, but is unstable without the assistance of electronic stabilization control or ABS. I can relate to this with my road race car which has an adjustable proportioning valve. The handling gets pretty scary when I've got too much hydraulic pressure going to the rear brakes."

I've never done drifting, though I have road raced and autocrossed many times, and every car that I've every driven has been inherently much more stable with front bias. A front-biased car will understeer rather than oversteer, and though it may be a bit slower on the track, it's much easier to control lap to lap. And for most drivers on the street you definitely want understeer and the fronts to lose grip before the rears because it's easier to get the car back on track. Most drivers don't know how to drift a car around a turn.

 

sometimes when i drift in the porsche i clutch kick, its just when your under full throttle and you depress the clutch for a second or so and it brings the rps up then when you release it the rears snap loose. is your car manual ? accelerate at full throttle in second gear and at about 5 grand kick the clutch and you will light up the rears pretty well.

drifters use it a lot when they cant get enough power to get the wheels loose

 

G35 from PA,

thats very true, except most drivers on the street would want understeer? losing grip in the fronts would make you lose control of the direction of the car and harder to get back on track... just saying

 

Yes, most (average) drivers want understeer for the street, which is why most cars are set up that way from the manufacturer. You don't lose control over the direction of the car as much as you do with oversteer. In an understeer condition, the car just plows straight ahead, which is much more benign than the tail snapping around on you. To get it back on track, you just lift your foot off the throttle and steer. Correcting oversteer (consistently) requires more coordinated and trained responses.

But don't take my word for it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understeer

"It is common practice among automobile manufacturers to configure production cars deliberately to have a slight linear range understeer by default. If a car understeers slightly, it tends to be more stable (within the realms of a driver of average ability) if a violent change of direction occurs, improving safety."

http://www.clarks-garage.com/shop-manual/susp-15.htm

"Most passenger car suspensions are designed with a certain amount of understeer...because it is much safer than oversteer. If the car understeers, the car makes a wider turn than intended, but the car remains stable. If the car oversteers, the car makes a smaller radius turn. This increases the cornering force on the outside wheels which brings the rear wheels even closer to the point of losing traction. This results in even more oversteer. If no correction is made, the situation will continue to become worse until the rear wheels lose grip completely, the car spins, and all control is lost. "

 

yeah i was just throwing my two cents in, good research though

 

The rear brakes actually engage first by fractions of a second.

This reduces the natural forward lunge especially when braking hard.

But overall the front brakes do provide the majority of the braking power during the stopping process. They just don't engage first.

 

As with others in this thread, my rear pads wore out faster than my front pads. More specifically, the inside rear pads went first. FWIW, I had plenty of rotor left the first time I replaced the rear pads. Will have to replace rotors next time, though.

I wonder if the rear wear has to do with the traction control? Doesn't the TC apply braking to a spinning rear wheel? That could explain faster rear pad wear.

 

hey man i would check to see if your riding your emegency brakes the fronts should always wear first

 

As i said above, the rear pads engage first when stopping. So they tend to wear out first.

 

Rear calipers as well as pads are tiny. At 30K I have quite a bit of pad left but, the fronts are very new. Go figure?

 

Same thing here, just replaced my rear brake pads, fronts were perfectly fine.

EDIT: I'm only at 30k miles too.

 

Just replaced my rear pads with 36k miles on my 06-Coupe (Auto) while the front pads still have ~50% left. After couple thousands miles, I get intermittent slight squealing noises from the rears BEFORE applying the brake at around 30-45 mph. The squealing noises sound like normal worn out pads, and it immediately stops if I slightly step on the brake.

Typically, the noises come on after 5 min driving. An indie shop removed the wheels, checked and founded nothing wrong with the brakes. Sticky calipers can be ruled out for now.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciate it.