Long story short...

I was taking my brother to work because he had his Talon in the shop, ironically. I was sittin there in traffic and I started going again but something was definately wrong. My car was shuddering and had a really rough idle, it used to be smooth as silk. I get back to my dorm and there smokin coming from the driver side back tire. I come to the conclusion that the smoke and shuddering was from the brake caliper not releasing from the rotor. I get into my car and start it up today and the idle is really rough again. I think on this one, I finally blew the rest of the exhaust manifold gasket. Usually it seals up after it gets warm, but I could hear the leak the whole way to the shop.

Anybody got any guesses as to what is causing this bad idle or smoke? Could the exhaust manifold blowing cause a bad idle?

 

im not really sure, the fact that there was smoke pretty much throws everything i woudld have told you out the window...mabye its 2 seperate problems?

 

How many miles are on your car?

 

139,000mi

The place I took it to said I need new pads, rotors, and calipers. They wanted $960! Yeah right. Another place said $630. I wouldnt hesistate to do it myself but Im alittle worried about the calipers. Nissan wants $50 for pads, $92 for each rotor and $292 for each caliper! I dont think so.

The rough idle I can only guess is is the O2 sensor. The place also said I have to replace the stud, which they want $400 for. That I will save for another day. The guy at Nissan sounded pretty sure when he said there werent any recalls on the exhaust manifold gasket/studs. Is he right?

 

my 92se also had a rear caliper stuck when i bought the car. i used an autozone rebuilt caliper and it has not given me any problems yet(it has only been on a couple thousand miles) and the caliper was pretty cheap(somethin like $45). good luck.

 

Was it hard to change the caliper? I could handle the rotors and pads just fine, but I wasnt too thrilled at the idea of changing calipers, ie draining/bleeding brake fluid.

Everything came out to $670, they got it done real fast, I was very impressed. They were done in about 2hrs.

I dont think they tightened up my E-brake though. I hafta pull ALL the way up for it to hold. If I would of had time, I would of had them adjust it. Also, the brake pedal travels alot more to get the same effect as before. I mean to the point where I want someone to check it out. Could this be a side effect of new fluid, pads and rotors? Ill give it a few days to get better, but Im not too happy with that aspect. By the way...I did check the brake fluid and it was full.

 

i think that if you are capable of changing pads and rotors that changning the caliper should not be much harder. try checking out a chilton's manual for directions. regarding the pedal, having to push the pedal further, try bleeding them again until no air bubles are in the fluid- this should give a firmer pedal feel.

 

Well, I had the work done already.

I figured it couldnt be that hard to change calipers too, but I didnt want to totally screw it up. I talked to the place again today and they said the brakes will eventually go back to the way they were. They need to recalibrate or something...same with the Ebrake. Right now, I have to pull all the way up for it to hold, but he said it should get better. But if it doesnt, they can bet theyre going to hear from me.

 

Hmm... sounds like the shop just did a nice job of story telling. I bet they are assuming you will simply get used to it. (which your probably will)

 

i got a question about Recalls.... Ive had 2 maximas and both had problems with the fuel injectors... there hasnt been any recals on fuel injectors i should know about right?
thanks