Hello,

I am the proud owner of a 2003 White SE, it is a truly great car and really reminded me of how much I miss torque (I went from a 350z to an S2000). I picked up the car at a dealer for a great price. She has 77,000 miles on her.

Aside from a few issues the dealership is going to handle, I am noticing an odd sensation in the brake pedal sporadically. I can't replicate it on-call, so bringing it to the dealer will surely be a waste of time. It only happens when braking at very low speeds (like pulling from a parking space). The sensation almost feels rumbly like when ABS kicks in, but much more subdued. It nearly feels "crunchy" and then goes away. You can also hear some sort of electronics/machine working when this happens.

I searched the forum and didn't come up with anything dealing with this, so I hope maybe some of you vets can shed some light on it. Thanks!

- Jesse

 

sounds like you may have a bad abs sensor.

 

Is the ABS light on, or has it come on after one or more of these "events"? It may just be "low speed ABS cycling" (one or more brakes being released and reapplied multiple times) caused by nothing more than swarf on the business end of one or more wheel speed sensors. But just in case it requires more than just the cleaning off of the wheel speed sensors, the dealer where you bought the car should agree to look at it (including scanning the ABS system), and fix it. I don't believe a dealer can sell a car with a known brake issue. If the system is operating properly the ABS system should not operate under about 5 MPH. FYI, the ABS light should come on for about a second only when you turn the ignition sw. from OFF to ON, and then after starting the engine and you accelerate the first time to about 4 MPH the system performs a self-test and you MAY hear the system operate and you MAY feel it in the brake pedal (this is when some people who don't know this, get their knickers twisted). If the self-test is NOT successful the ABS light will illuminate.

 

My ABS light only lights up for a couple of seconds upon startup, then never goes back on. Maybe it is the self-test, hmmm. I will bring it up to them when I bring it back for the other issues.

Thank god for the lemon law warranty! I just hope they don't try to screw with me, they are an independent used dealer...

 

Just took the car out to dinner, it did the same thing a couple of times when coming to a gradual stop for traffic/lights. I had the stereo off and definitely heard a mechanical "whirr" for roughly 1.5-2 seconds. I really hope this isn't a major issue, something like this is so hard to replicate.

Would the OBDII show it?

 

that does sound wierd, a good obd 2 scanner that gets into brakes might show it

 

Have you checked the brake pads? I had used some aftermarket pads at one point and had what might have been similar issues(grinding type noise at low speed especially when coming to stop). When I took the pads off they were really chewed up, although not worn out. I replaced them and the problem went away.

 

Nissan thinks it is a dirty sensor. I'm going to have the dealer I bought it from clean it up and hope for the best. They hate me already.