I got to dive my moms G35 recently and noticed that I like the brakes on that car much better than my own even after getting 6th gen rotors calipers, hawk HPS pads, ss lines, and high performance fluid. There is much less travel in the pedal before her brakes start really biting down. I am guessing the G35 has a larger Master cylinder. So I am wondering has anyone changed the MC in our car? And which MC could possibly fit?


BTW she doesnt have the brembo brakes, just the base brakes, which look to be single or twin piston calipers, with rather smallish rotors

 

Is it the G35 coupe? If so its lighter anyways. BTW if they are two piston then they are way better than ours

 

well it is a G35 coupe, but the G35 coupe is a heavy pig. Its heavier than the maxima, the G35 sedan and the I35. Look it up, they are 3500+lbs

 

Damn they are that heavy? ****, thats crazy. Oh well, I stand corrected...

 

humm. . . G35 coupes w/optional Brembos FTMFW!

the hawk pads are soft til you put some heat in them. so that's a major factor towards feel, also OEM compound is always going to feel the best. engineers spend 100s of hours trying to get a pad that feels good, minimizes dust and noise, and gives longer pad life. If you want more bite you might want to switch to some cross-drilled rotors. not everyone will agree on this though. I personally think they add a splash of fast especially seeing them behind the OEM rims.

 

Stock Pads are probably your best bet at improving pedal feel. Crossdrilled rotors are way too loud.

 

When my car was brand new, the pedal was great, firm right from the top, but not hard and not soft. Now it's soft and I'be bled them many times and everything is else is good. The cars at work, ie cavaliers, have better feel than my car... maybe the rubber lines are getting old, well 6 years is old, and maybe they're flexing...

 

try to bleed them again, try using speed bleeders (even then hold the pedal down while u tighten the bleeder screw

 

I've done it all sorts of different ways, 2 person, 1 person, checkvalves... I even have the Motive power bleeder... The pedal feel isnt' bad, it's just not as good as before. It stops perfectly fine still.

 

I also drove a G35, and although the brakes did feel like they bit a lot harder, I don't find that my brakes have any more travel before they start to bite than the G35 did. Have you bled your brakes recently? When I installed my 6th gen brakes and bled them, the pedal feel greatly improved...maybe you should try to completely bleed the system?

 

negative, ghostrider.....

1. The Hawk HPS have very good cold bite...FAR FAR FAR superior to OEM. The Hawk HP/HP+, though, needs to be warm to bite well. The HP/HP+ is mostly a track pad though, while the HPS is a street pad.
2. The Hawk HPS are not the same compounds as OEM pads. The Hawks have better bite, less fade, and are just as smooth and quiet as the OEM Nissan pads. Plus, they dust a HELL of a lot less than OEM pads.
3. CROSS DRILLED ROTORS WILL NOT GIVE BETTER BRAKING IN ANY RESPECT. "Not everyone will agree on that is right." The people who disagree with your statement are the ones who know what they're talking about. The people who AGREE that XD rotors give better braking are simply wrong.
4. "add a splash of fast"....well, at least you're admitting they're just for looks.


Stock pads have awful feel. I switched back for about a week between sets of Hawks, and was amazed at how crappy bite was. I had to put the pedal to the floor to stop using the OEM pads.

Crossdrilled rotors are loud, I will agree with you there.....at least in most cases.


Sciff, the only way you're gonna get improved feel is to change to a BBK setup, using multi-piston calipers and a larger MC.....That, or you can disconnect the vacuum advance to the power brake assist - that will give you feel, for sure

 

Deff agree on all aspect you brought up about the Hawk HPS pads. MUCH better bite, and the HPS pads do bite harder after they are warmed up, they get almost grabby after a 100-0 stop or a few hard 80-30 type stops. They are also quite and do not fade anywhere near as much as the stock pads. The one thing I am going to have to heavily disagree with you on is how much brake dust they produce, they DO produce much more brake dust than stock pads.

This pic is from today, I didnt get a chance to wash the car before bringing it out to this meet, look at the rims, they look gunmetal and its hasent been that long since I washed them last




I bled the brakes twice when I did the 6th gen brakes, I will prob try bleeding them again when I am under there for the bushings job, and maybe try tightening the (dont know the actual name for it) screw that connects the brake line to the caliper

 

My example is based on the fact that I have Hawks up front and OEM's in the rear. I haven't washed the car in about a week. My fronts looks pretty much clean right now. My rears are dirty as hell....

 

You are currently running hps up front and OEM in the rear?

If so.. Why would you do that?

I would imagine the OEM even in the rear wouldent be up to the task of handling autoX, I found they faded quite a bit even after agressive street driving.

 

because I'm lazy and haven't gotten around to putting the rear HPS's in....I've never had any fade problems with this setup anyhow - the rears don't really do all that much work.

BTW, autocross is not really very hard on the brakes....the best drivers uses minimum brakes on course.

 

topic of HPS pads has been debated a lot

i believe there isa general concensus that they definitely do dust more than OEM and in some cases, squeal quite a bit

 

i don't have any experience w/ hawk pads, but i currently have OEM pads up front and PBR semi-met's in the rears and the fronts wheels collect virtually no dust after a month of zero washing, while the rears look like crap

 

NO WAY... I used to kill myself trying to keep the wheels clean with OEM pads, and the Hawks are not squealy at all. Now maybe if you did not "bed in" the pads properly they may be dusty, but that is because you're needlessly wearing out your pads.

 

I have a 2000 GLE that had a soft brake pedal feel. Same as you, I replaced pads, rotors, bled brakes - twice. I solved the problem by adjusting the brake pedal.
1. Remove the spring pin that attaches the brake pedal to the rod that goes into your MC.
2. Loosen the nut.
3. Spin the threaded rod out about 3 threads.(might take a set of vise grips)
4. Retighten nut, and replace spring pin.

Vualla - It's like a new brake pedal again!

 

a simple and cheap way to get slightly "better brake pedal feel" would be to switch to stainless steel brake lines. it may not actually help you stop faster, and it won't help if you are running pads that don't "bite" very well, but it can help avoid the mushy pedal feel from the expansion of the stock rubber lines.

 

irish; one question, if crossdrilled rotors have NO ADVANTAGES WHATSOEVER as you allude to, how come they come as standard equipment on Porsches, AMG-tuned benzes, M-sport bimmers, and the new IS300? These engineers don't just sit around and randomly dictate that cross-drilled rotors should be put on. Yeah, I like how they look, and that's one of the reasons I got them, but paired with the Hawk HPS they grip so well that in a simulated panic stop from 50-0, they out-grabbed my michelins on dry, clean pavement. It's enough to make your eyes bug out and give you a bruised collarbone. Just from what i remember though, the HPS pads felt better new than my OEM pads, however the OEM pads retained a very progressive characteristic throughout their life, that, at around 30k on the HPSes, are seeming to lose, requiring more heat to be put in them. maybe it's the composite compound that's hardening, but some longer braking exercises from high-speed they will show that characteristic again. I think that people are free to disagree with me, however that doesn't always mean they know what they're talking about. No offense to you of course