spirilis

iTrader: (2)

My shipment of 4 rotors + rear pads from Rockauto.com arrived today (already bought the front pads from Pep Boys), so I went ahead and did the front brakes this evening.

All I have to say is, WOW. Both in a good way, and a bad way.
Bad way refers to the OLD brakes... What the !@#$!?? Let's see, the left front caliper, pads & rotor were pretty straightforward to remove, but the right was a *****.
The caliper bracket-to-knuckle bolts were tight as *hell*, and I could not remove the pads without removing the caliper bracket--they would NOT come out. After removing the caliper bracket with pads intact, I had to take a hammer and some adjustable pliers to get the pads out.
That was OK, then came the fun part. The right front rotor was seized to the spindle. Tried it with a hammer, crowbar, penetrating oil, nothing. Wouldn't budge at all. So I took a quick run up to Autozone in my mom's old junker (that's a whole separate rant in itself, an '88 AWD Ford Tempo with blown shocks) to find a suitable tool--found one. (a "Timing Gear Puller", which would have worked except its bolts didn't fit the threads of the Nissan rotors--however, the Steering Wheel Puller I already owned did have a set of bolts which fit. The Steering Wheel Puller wouldn't have worked since it's not wide enough for the rotors' threaded holes.) Using the Timing Gear Puller with the right bolts, the rotor came off very easily. I guess letting all that penetrating oil soak in for 30 minutes helped too...

Alas, I cleaned off everything with a wire brush, sprayed it down with brake & parts cleaner, applied a small thin layer of anti-seize compound to the inner backing of the new rotors (Raybestos PG-Plus rotors) and put 'em on the spindle, applied disc brake lubricant in all the right places, installed the new Raybestos QuietStop pads (Raybestos model PGD815AQS), reinstalled the caliper (w/ piston compressed in its bore), put the wheels on & torqued the lugnuts, applied the brakes to adjust & tighten the calipers, took it out for a spin and burned-in the pads. (used a procedure of "accel to 60, brake slowly to 20MPH w/o stopping, accel to 60 again, brake a little quicker, accel to 60, brake hard, etc.") All I have to say is WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That ****'s like night & day
Before, the brake pedal had a very soft feel to it like it needed bleeding (or the master cylinder was shot)... after doing this brake job, the pedal's almost as tight as my old Mazda was after a full front brake & hydraulic flush service. Amazing
I still have the rear brakes & a fluid flushing to do. But I'm feeling much more confident about my car already

Also of note, the car feels a tad more peppy... this may just be the subjective butt-dyno, but I wonder if one of the old pads were stuck...

So yeah, if any 2k or 2k1 Maxima owners are complaining about shady brakes, get them replaced. You'll be impressed

maxman00

iTrader: (1)

sounds like something I need to do! It may be early, but do you have much brake dust?

naerok

iTrader: (6)

i got those and dont feel any differnce. One thing i do notice is that it sweaks... when my OEM pads never did..

MAKSYMALNY

I put Raybestos pads on the front and rear of my 2000 SE and they squeak like a mouse in a blender.

spirilis

iTrader: (2)

I'll have to see how they fare later on... I got the Raybestos QuietStop pads though, so if they're as quiet as they claim, I shouldn't have much squealing...
My OEM brakes were royally ****ed, so this is a huge difference for me

KCMichaelM

Hmmm... I've never had that much trouble taking off the old brakes. Ditto on Raybestos squeaking though, and the brake dust was horrible! I changed them after 3k.

spirilis

iTrader: (2)

I'm using both Raybestos pads & rotors, maybe that'll make a difference here?
Either way, I love being able to brake properly

KCMichaelM

Could be.. I was using stock rotors still. That may have much to do with it.

spirilis

iTrader: (2)

Yeah, the main reason for doing the job was the rotors. The pads just kinda went along with the theme

slowlane

iTrader: (1)

I have Raybestos Quite Stop pads up front, and am experiencing a lot of squeeling under regular highway and slow braking with the OEM rotors. I just ordered a pair of brembo blanks from Drivewire.com and was wondering if I could still use the Raybestos pads. The pads have seen 4K miles. Should I order a set of OEM pads with the new set of rotors?

scopium

man is that your life story.... thats a long a ss post

spirilis

iTrader: (2)

ah yeah I got a tad excited didn't I?

spirilis

iTrader: (2)

I guess as long as you didn't put the Raybestos pads on OEM rotors with grooves (i.e. you DID get the rotors resurfaced before putting on the new pads, right?), you won't need new pads when you slap on the Brembo rotors.
Otherwise, when you put on the Brembo rotors, check the pad surface on the Raybestos pads--if they've accumulated any small grooves in them, I wouldn't use them.

slowlane

iTrader: (1)

Thanks,

my pep boys will do a rotor swap for no cost, since I had my brakes done there. There were plenty of grooves in the OEM's so I will bring a pair of OEM pads just in case their necessary.

I have raybestos rotors in the rears and they rust pretty (make that very) well. So if you don't want ugly looking rusty rotors, make sure their zinc plated.

00MaxSE

iTrader: (25)

So, what pads give out the least amount of brake dust?

spirilis

iTrader: (2)

Finished installing the rear rotors/pads. Almost as bad as the fronts, actually maybe a little worse... the right side rotor was stuck, requiring me to remove the dust cap to get my timing gear puller in there (ended up drilling a hole through the dust cap to get enough leverage to remove it, which I will need to replace soon...)
I see what the rear caliper piston thing is all about--luckily my pair of needle-nose pliers did the trick (twisting/pushing at the same time). The real trick was to hold the needle-nose pliers the right way, so I could twist & push at the same time...

Not a whole lot of difference in braking effectiveness, but then again, the rears don't do **** anyway. At least I know all my brakes are new now
The pedal is a tad tighter too after changing them...

itdood

Most rotors have threaded holes in the hat that let you put in a bolt and simply tighten it, as you do it presses against the spindle and breaks it loose. I'm not sure if nissan has those. Every car I've ever had from new had seized rotors for the originals, and all of 'em had those threaded holes to get 'em loose. Any other way of taking them off might hurt the wheel bearing, I say *might*, I'm not sure.

spirilis

iTrader: (2)

Yup, I had to use those threaded holes with a Timing Gear Puller to get the rotor off. The problem was that the dust cap was in the way--I couldn't tighten the center bolt of the puller against the dust cap, as the dust cap gives in, so I had to remove it so I could push against the spindle bolt.

irvine78

iTrader: (2)

you're not suppose to feel any difference...Raybestos aren't exactly 'performance' pads...they're just inexpensive stock replacements. not to mention they squeak like no other. if you guys want to get some performance pads, try Porterfields, AXIS, PBR or EBC pads....i have had all these pads and IMO, i like the porterfields and EBC the best.

spirilis

iTrader: (2)

I might try some of those later on when these wear out...

itdood

I didn't even use a puller. Did the threaded hole go all the way through the hat? I guess it had to actually since there isn't much meat there. anways, if you just kept tightening the bolt so that it went through to the other side of the hat and hit the spindle, then just keep tightening, it would have pushed the rotor off the spindle. Since the bolt would have hit the spindle and can't go anywhere, the action of tightening the bolt would push the rotor off it. Make sense for this situation?

spirilis

iTrader: (2)

Yup, I see what you mean, and I tried that. I probably would have broken my bolt or ratchet before it came off--it was THAT stuck. I drenched the lug studs and sprayed the back of it with penetrating oil and let it sit 30 minutes or so before attempting the gear puller method.

I get the idea that my car's previous owner let the car sit around a LOT in a humid climate, 'cause those brakes were severely rusted...
The car's a 2k model and had 26K miles when I bought it this past June. Considering I put more mileage than that on my cars in 1 YEAR, it had to have sat around a lot.