I need a brake job. I was wondering if 2004 rotors would fit my '02 without any modification needed. I know they are a bit bigger, thats why I want them over stock '02 ones.

 

you have 2 options for the 2004/5 rotors:

1. The rotors fit fine, but you will need to relocate the calipers farther out because of the increased rotor diameter. There are brackets available for this. These brackets are available from BlehmCo (www.mattblehm.com)

or...
2. you can upgrade the rotors with the 2004/5 calipers as well. With both of these components, NO modifications are necessary at all - it is straight bolt-up.

I have done both

with OEM calipers, 6th gen rotors, and relocation brackets:


with 6th gen rotors AND calipers


by the way, this only applies to the FRONT, not the back rotors.

 

But will they fit behind the factory 17s on the 02-03?

 

no they will not

 

Yes they will. In the last brake question thread, someone has done this and he had his stockers on there. I have also done this mod (upgraded rotors and calipers), however, I have yet to try the stock 17s as I am running my summer 19s right now.

 

with the caliper relocation kit they well, with the factory 04+ caliper they will not.

irish, great info, where did you source those 04+ calipers? car-part.com or something?

 

are the 6th gen calipers any bigger then the 5th gen? i cant tell much a difference. also where can you buy the 6th gen calipers?

 

is it with jeff's relocation kit youre talking about?

 

with the relocation kit, it will only fit under the 5th gen 17's (not the 5.5 gen) but if you opt to get the 6th gen rotors/calipers/hardware, it will fit using the 5.5 gen 17's...it's been done by dizmax96...look here at post #33: http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....6th+gen+rotors

 

What size bolt do i need to remove the 04 caliper? It's a junkyard I plan to go to tomorrow to purchase one and just want to make sure I take the proper tools.

 

YES, THEY WILL fit under the 02-03 OEM wheels...

with stock calipers/relocation kit, they will fit under the 00-01 AND 02-03 17's
with 6th gen calipers, they will fit under the 02-03 wheels ONLY.

Calipers were from DaveB, new.

for those who haven't seen it, here is the size comparison..

 

Is this a better (or simply less expensive) set up than using the BlehmCo BBK that uses the 350z caliper? Thanks for the posts/pics on this...

 

I am confused, what good is a bigger rotor without a bigger caliper to match? Won't the contact area of the brake pistons still be same?

 

I was thinking the same thing?!?!

 

The original reason for the blehmco kit using the OEM caliper was simply to get a beefier rotor on there, to stop the rotor warping that is so common on the maximas. We didn't know until later that the 6th gen calipers would also fit!

 

Well, wouldn't the bigger rotor actually be worse than the original one in terms of performance? I mean, the engineers paired the original rotor and caliper together in their respective sizes. Now that there is a bigger rotor, and more rolling mass, won't the caliper have to work harder (albeit a tiny bit) to stop the car?

 

no...with a larger rotor, the torque arm effect of the rotor is located farther outward, increasing stopping power (in theory). The downside to the bigger/heavier rotor is, of course, the same as the downside to bigger rims - more rotational mass, which hurts accelleration.

I'll be happy to give up a little accelleration for non-warping rotors though...

as to "the engineers" ....Apparently the Nissan engineers forgot about stopping the car, and gave the maxima a brake system that is grossly inadequate for a 3300-lb car.