I just had front & back brakes under warranty fixed. My 03 has 23,000 km (17,000 miles) I am pissed because they just turned the rotors & now outside of the warranty I will have to do my own brake job in another 20,000km & I will have to buy new rotors as well since the dealership just turned them. Any opinions??? Thank you

 

How many years old is your 03? Because 17m miles is not very far for an 03. If you have to pay for rotors and pads in another two years time that will be one brake job you've paid for in 4 years. That doesn't sound unfair.

Cale

 

In service date December 2003, so it is 28 months old, and yes it has very low mileage. Does anyone know if the service bulletin on the brake warranty, indicate new rotors or just pads?

 

I'm pretty sure it's worded so that the dealership makes that determination.

 

It does cover new rotors if they're needed.

I've heard that some aftermarket pads don't eat up the rotors as bad (as well as create less brake dust). So, when the time comes to do it yourself, don't use the stock pads. I'd have changed to a different brand already if it weren't for the free replacement warranty.

 

If someone is doing constant stop and go driving their brakes do not last that long. While I admit that anything less than 40,000 on a set of brakes to me seems unacceptable in "regular " driving. However, stop and go driving is considered extreme. My brother used to have a paper route while in college and used to go through a set of brakes each year...

 

People need to count stops per mile and seconds per applications per hour along with pressure applied graph............guess that's what the pad wear tells you in the end.

Amazing that people don't see the 15,000-50,000 mile variations possible depending on the exact same car driven by different people in different locations.

Years ago the Q45 had a "special pad compound" we use to call it the "female real estate special"........didn't stop too well in heavy heat ---but low dust long wear if just driven around town.
Women are expected to rear end cars talking on cell anyway so 10-15% less stopping performance was not noticed.

Kind of what most get in aftermarket: low dust hard pads and harder cast iron rotors.

 

If given the choice would you buy pads that stopped 10% shorter from 80 mph in wet conditions yet wore out twice as fast.

Assuming your insurance company didn't care and didn't punish you for changing oem design would you buy after market longer stopping pads.

Ever notice how hard it is to get real data on stopping distances with just different pads.

No pad other than oem is actually tested on the car it is SOLD for use on in US, unlike Europe where pads must be at least be checked for fit and approximation to oem.....performance pads must be at least 80% as good as oem fitment.

BMW is a special case in Europe [due to volume] but how do those pad compounds translate to Japanese designs?

Kind of like hamburger: Mac vs Wendy vs Bking ---ever had the plain patty analysed for fitness to consume.........low odds of making you sick but that's about all one can say.

This 5 year old test of pads for poice cars should enlighten you somewhat:
http://www.nlectc.org/pdffiles/Evalu...kePads2000.pdf

Never hear or see "our pads stop better/shorter than oem pads" in any advertisement.....why not?

 

Yes that all makes sense & I only drive in rush hour (stop & go) but with only 17,000 miles I would have liked to see more... oh well planning on moving to the M35X next spring. Thanks for your responses

 

There have been enough problems with the brakes that Infiniti saw fit to put a 3yr. 36,000 mi. warranty on them. ('03 and early '04) Front pad and rotor replacement with rear pad only. I just said "screw it" and installed Stillen Metal Matrix on my car before I had a hundred miles on it and have been very happy w/my decision. JBX