I've read a couple of threads touching base on brake problems. i've had this car for about a month now and have heard a weird noise similar to a rubber mallet making one loud tap in my right rear wheel well area while SLOWLY coasting to a stop. this only happens about 25% of the time about 3 secs before i come to a complete stop. ive read a thread where someone replied that it was rear sway endings that described a similar noise??? i looked closely at all 4 corners and noticed that the dealer had put brand new pads on rotors showing grooves in them (some worse than others) and im assuming thats why they squeal also. the rotors also lead me to assume that maybe who ever traded it in, was probably riding on skims (pretty much no pads) and makes me think that my car might have had a history of brakes clamping (either that or they just abused them). they arent too bad but definitely not new. do u think that nissan maybe put too small of calipers to stop this 3000 lb car? are there a lot of posts of calipers sticking on Max's in this generation? if there is reason to, im looking to swap them out with either brembos or...if someone knows if nissan has a bigger set from another nissan that will simply trade mine out? i'm saving to get some 350z wheels, it'd be sweet if i could get ANY gen Z brakes too-assuming they will be an upgrade (bigger and better). i'm not gonna lie...i didnt know squat about nissans b4 i bought this car, but i knew the VQ was a good V6...i sure didnt expect everything else to be questionable though. so far ive discovered premature clogged emissions (thats a new 1 on this forum LOLOLOL) and an o2 went bad (another new 1). i'm thinking god that i have no coil prob yet as i have since found out that 99's are THE WORST . my car has 73 k on it. i bought it used so these problems can be expected and can be easily corrected....as for the brakes obviously i dont want to buy new pads every 3000 miles so i just need to find out if i DO have a possible recurring brake problem.

 

your grooved rotors should either be turned on a lathe or replaced. that may be causing the squeal, but new pads sometimes squeal too. i havnt heard many cases with sticking calipers for our cars though. im not sure whether or not theres a bigger set from another car you can toss on. im sure there is though. someone else will probably chime in about it.

 

brakes do tend to be a pretty big issue with this gen of max. at least the calipers. not even 4 days ago i inspected my brakes due to a similar noise that u've described. i noticed extremely uneven wear on my rear pads and later found out (the hard way after about a half hr of trying to spead the pistons) that both of my rear calipers were seized. i searched the forum b4 doing anythin and came accross numerous threads of ppl experiencing the same problems with their calipers. i'm not saying that calipers are definately your problem, but it may very well be worth looking into. they seem to be a very common problem with the 4th gen

 

calipers are a common problem on the 4th gen, the consumer guide websit reported this as well when they reviewed the max

 

indeed, i have learned that also but as far as i know they claim it was for 95-97 models??? does anyone know if the 95-99 all had the same family of brakes..if so 98's and 99's probably are in the same boat...possibly going up chits creeks wit no paddle

 

Wish they had done a callback for that....
3/4 of my calipers have had problems.
I changed them for rebuilt ones and changed the 4 badly eaten disks and pads.

Question:
I believe the pads used were metalsomethings in the front and stock altimas for the rears. (though I had asked for hawks).
The mechanic said the metals and stock should be a bit less noisy and less dust.

1 week 400Km later... I have a pretty significant amount of gold/rust color dust all over my disks...

Is this normal?

 

Were your caliper sliders serviced at least every year? At what interval has your brake fluid been flushed? I flush my fluid every 2 or 3 years and service my caliper sliders 1-2 times a year. I have a 98 with 190+kms, live in St.John's Newfoundland and have had 0 problems with brakes. I do have the same problem as everybody in NL and that is the friction material will separate from the steel back in about 3 years which is excellent since a lot of pads will do it in about a year or 2, I am using NAPA Ceramix pads which have an EXCELLENT bite in cold and wet conditions. If anyone should have problems it should be me since it is almost always foggy, living next to the North Atlantic ocean, loads of salt used in the winter and no shortage of rain.

 

The rear brakes (calipers in specific) can stick or seize. The fronts are just not strong enough in my opinion. I have replaced the rears for stockers and will be fitting Q45/J30 front calipers down the road.

 

I recently got the car, and it wasn't very well maintained...that was obvious...
Still I don't believe that its normal too see the orangy dust all over the rotors. Wondering if its the pads, left over rust residue, or what ....

 

The orange dust is prolly just from ceramic pads

 

where can i found out what other bigger stock nissan calipers will change over to fit on mine?? anybody know?

 

My brakes have been a problem with my 97 since I got it. I've replaced my rear calipers twice already because they seized up and I'm not lookinf forward to my front calipers as it needs new pads soon. I probably need to replace the calipers on those too. Also, there seems to be no solutions on how to fix the issues with the uneven wear on the brake pads.

 

are those known to be relatively easy to swap with no modifications to fit flush??? i have read about the 300Z conversion (both twin turbo and N/A) since i posted this..even those tend to require slight mods to convert over to this max...i most likely am getting a set of chromed 350z wheels from L.A. which are 17" so most likely no problem with upgrading bigger set of calipers. are there any nissan grease monkeys that work for a dealership that could provide a write-up on bigger nissan brakes that convert to our max? i will wait for response here but im just gonna take a ride down to a nissan dealer here and shoot the chit with them. maybe parts manager there could help me out as well...damn i'm clueless with these cars. thank god for this forum

 

I replaced my back calipers with Autozone lifetime warranty replacements. They were $80 a piece.

 

Is everyone making sure their rear calipers aren't behaving badly because of the Emergency brake cable????

Uneven wear on pads is fine, they never wear completely even. Gold/rust colored dust on your discs? Or do you mean on your rims?

 

The advanced handling forum has the answers you want but in short:

Q/J calipers bolt up fine to the Maxima torque member. However a small amount (around 5mm IIRC) has to be milled from the diameter of the Q/J rotors to clear. These rotors are thicker than the A32 rotors. These calipers also bolt right up to the A32 brake lines.

This setup can clear 15'' sawblades but the problem becomes, why get stronger calipers and not the advantage of a bigger rotor? Also, when moving the caliper further away from the hub the torque advantage of the caliper is increased. This is where (for the Q/J setup) clearance becomes an issue. As the caliper moves away from the center of the wheel, the clearance is reduced between the caliper and the spokes of the wheel. This is where wheel size, width, and offset come into play.

Again, some time reading and re-reading posts in the Advanced Handling Forum will be to your advantage.

 

dap.............i live in an apartment now and putting my car on lifts is a pain in the azz. i guess im gonna have to suck it up and put it on stands and lay on the HOT AZZ black asphalt and get some brakes changed out.... after i find out some more info about this. maybe my pads just suck. im pretty sure the dealer put them on bcuz they are brand new...probably made from recycled aluminum cans