Weird... replying to my own post..

Anyway, I just got my car back from Nissan dealer today - I was at 26K miles when I finally made it in. The service guy basically told me that the brakes and rotors weren't covered items after 12000 miles. BUT, they decided to make a customer VERY happy - they not only gave me NEW rotors, they also gave me NEW pads as well.. No cost to me. The odd thing was that I had purchased a set of Hawk pads from Tire Rack, and they said the pads weren't the correct ones. But since I got a new set of pads from Nissan, just going to send the Hawks back to Tire Rack (confirmed with Tire Rack that they are supposed to be the correct pads.. I dunno what went wrong here? Tire Rack very good about it..)

Anyway, they also fixed my driver's seat, and I'm a very happy Nissan customer tonight... BTW, it was Doan Nissan in Greece (NY) for any locals... Very nice people... Surprising, almost shocking for a car dealer to actually treat me that good... And Tire Rack was very understanding too... Good night for me... Heck with the $$$ I saved, maybe the wife will let me get those Eibach's I've been drooling after?!!

 

I've been living with brake judder for 20,000 miles now.

Just saving up $$$ for a big brake kit..

It's nice to see that they treated you good. No such luck for me.

 

You mean you have done nothing at all about it? I'd recommend going to the local garage with brake lathe and turn your front rotors. It costs 10$/rotor here in Canada and I did the rest myself at home. Good for 5-6k miles. At least you won't be damaging your front suspension every time you brake hard. Just my 2c, it's your car.

Mike.

 

Build: 05/00
Date of warranty work: 31 May 02
Mileage: 30000km
Details: New pads for front, resurfaced all 4 brake rotors
Satisfaction: Don't know yet; only been 3 weeks.
Impressed: No. I had a Mazda 929 before and the rotors didn't warp or need resurfacing for 7 years. My Max is only 1.5 years old.

5thGen
Canadian Division

 

I've had my rotors cut twice by Nissan Service and each time the shakes came right back. Went back there armed the TSB, the service manager wouldn't budge. Had a meeting with the service manager and a field rep, they still wouldn't budge. They blamed it on my aggressive driving Called the 1-800-Nissan-servicebites, explained the situation to no avail. "Brakes are a wear n tear component and its not covered", "the Service Manager has to deem them defective". After going at it with the SM a few times already there was no chance of that happening.

I give up on them OEM rotors. As soon as I have enough, I'm going aftermarket. It does kill me that I'm damaging my suspension but what can I do right now? I'm still saving up....

 

i had the same problem so i just went ahead and got some stillen rotors. AHHHH soo smooth now.

 

Build: 06/00
30k service asked for TSB on brake judder, they said none and I have to pay for the service.
3.5K later on 6/22/02 back to other dealer and show them TSB on brake judder, they check and It's confirmed brake judder and warranty in valid. But still wiating on Part.

Still waiting for the call from the service writer.

 

If you gonna have those aftermarkets soon <5k you could go that "local garage" path I already mentioned. Getting rotors off the car/ putting them back yourself is not a big deal at all. If it's gonna be longer wait - try another dealer? It's not neccessary that TSB is done by the same dealer your bought the car from and the service varies so widely in the Nissan land you never know . Good luck in any case!

Mike.

 

rears are fine, as rears have less stoping power. Front ones started vibrating after dealer first rotated tires for me because I got a flat and figured might as well rotate them. Resurfaced at 18000 miles. At around 10000 miles later, after I got tires rotated at a local dealer they torqued the hell out of the wheels again, and rotors began vibrating again. Don't get me wrong, I usually do rotations myself. The car was built in 7/2000.

It got really bad, and well, all of a sudden 36000 miles came around, I never had time to bring it in. So now at 42000 my brakes still work and still have plenty of pad left, but it vibrates like you wouldn't believe, the whole steering wheel shakes vigorously side to side. Maybe I should bring it in. I'll either just live with it or bring it in and spend the money to get it resurfaced. I don't even use my brakes that much. I do a lot of highway miles, but I don't slam on my brakes either. I think they're just poor design. My cavalier didn't have this problem, and that was a small car... although I had more problems with the drums warping on that car.

These brakes are descent but they warp too easy.

I'm thinking big break kit or something better when these pads go. So how's the brakes on people's cars with aftermarket rotors? Are they holding up better?

 

My sitch is similar....

Build 4/2000

First cut and new pads at around 26k(felt vibes about 18k)

No hassle from dealer...well not a lot...they warped again at 35k and change and I drove it to dealer with 12 miles to spare They recut them again but did not do it according to the TSB...I think he said he took them off to recut which isnt what the TSB says to do

In any event, I'm at 56k and the friggin things are shaking like crazy..I know my tie rods and all that other good crap is taking a beating

Brakes suck...my wifes Jeep Wrangler has 60k with org pads and rotors and they feel like they are brand new.

Gonna find a good local shop and hope I get it done right....not the crap Chinese rotors that a lot of shops put on...definitly feel like I'm losing control under hard braking

 

Not true. I have confirmed high speed vibration comes from rear rotors out-of-true.

year: 2001
make: infiniti
model: i30
miles: 20K
service: serviced and repaired rear rotors, noted out of true.

 

oh yea, people say ABS may be to blame for the vibes. but ABS pumps at more and say 15 times a sec. Unless you tell me you can feel 15 pumps a sec, then you're a robot. You can't really feel that quick of a change in pulse. So, ABS causing the vibrations is BS. My steering wheel feels like I have a wheel out of balance when I step on the brakes, it turns from right to left, so I would say it's danderous? so I hold on and actually pump the brakes slowly, or slam on them then it stops vibrating for a bit. I'm just going to see how much it cost just to resurface them.

 

You're right, ABS kicks in to prevent wheel locking actually getting off the brakes for short times very often. Brake judder feels mostly when braking from highway speeds WITHOUT locking wheels. ABS doesn't work in this case since they continue to spin. As far as resurfacing goes local garages here do the job just as good as dealer (I mean, crap anyway since rotors need to be replaced) at the price almost 10 times less. Funny enough, new stock rotors cost almost the same as resurfacing at the dealer. I'd rather go with new stocks given this choice.

Mike.

 

The dealer just told me after leaving my car there for two days
that they were unable to recreate the shaking of the steering wheel
that I described.
This is BS I am going to try and give him a ride and jam
on the brakes maybe then he will see..

It is the same way for me I think
the problem is worse somethimes more then other times
I am not sure what causes it to be worse. (hot maybe)

 

what's a good set of brakes (i'm guessing rotors and pads) to get??
my car is over 58K (it's a 2000 SE), and i haven't had a damn thing done to the breaks ever (resurfacing, cutting, drilled, turned, whatever). i've been having that brake judder problem forever, and i realize i'd better get it fixed soon. my friend who works at a shop in Nova told me i had 15% left on the fronts and 30% left on the rears (i'm figuring he meant the pads). this was almost a month ago.....

i saw stillen mentioned. is there any other aftermarket brakes that are good quality, but won't kill the wallet???

thanks

 

Any aftermarket brake systems will put a HUGE hole in your wallet. I personally bought the Stillen Rotors and AXISS pads and I have no more problems.

 

Call nissan north america!!!

 

Call them for what? They are soo dumb. Talking to them is like talking to the wall.

NISSAN CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS!

 

I sent an email to Nissan Customer Service about my brake issues and how even after the dealer resurfaced my rotors 3,000 miles ago that the shudder is back. Here is their idiotic response:

Thank you for contacting Nissan North America, Inc. and allowing us the opportunity to be of assistance. (Yeah, bull$hit)

Thank you for your e-mail, we appreciate your support. The manufacturers warranty doesn't cover brakes because brakes are a wear and tear part of the vehicle.

Any local dealer will be in the best position to assist you with the
Technical Service Bulletin. The Technical Service Bulletin is not a recall.

If you have any further questions or comments, please feel free to e-mail us.

Sincerely,

Telly Bilbrew
National Consumer Affairs

 

Out of curiosity - how many miles you've already put on your new brake set?

 

GET PERFORMANCEFRICTION CARBON BRAKE PADS - NO HEAT= NO WAPING - I HAVE USED THEM EVER SINCE I HAD THE DEALER RE-SURFACE MY 2K @ 28K
I BRAKE HARD BECAUSE I LIVE IN MOUNTAINS AND NO PROBLEM WHATSOEVER WITH PERFORMANCEFRICTION CARBONS

 

I Glad I Found this!!! 01 SE purchased in june of 00. Within 3k miles or less, started making noise from rear brakes( kind of like running wet finger around top of a glass). local dealer gave sob story that factory coats pads and if not burnt off in first few miles glazes pads, so they sanded the pads. Also replaced rotor, said it was
blued. NO GOOD!! They said may have to live with noise, toldem to stick it!! took to dealer purchased from 45 miles away and they replaced the caliper. So far So Good!!! 24k miles now. Never had judder just awful noise, but front brakes seem to be ok. Ill keep ya updated.

 

AFAIK peak rotor temperature is determined by how much is your deceleration under braking and doesn't depend on type of brakes. If car lost some speed in braking process it means it lost corresponding amount of kinetic energy. It can only happen if all that energy was converted into heat. Usually the braking time is quite short to allow much of that heat dissipate into surrounding air so - it doesn't matter what type of brakes you're using, temperature-wise speaking. I'm trying to make a point that rotors get "warped" not from temperature because they were intended to work at high temperature by very nature of braking. I have nothing against perfomancefriction pads - I'm just very doubtful that they can really help people with this judder problem. BTW, what is the odometer reading on your car now? Usually, resurfaced rotors don't go beyond 5-6k after being resurfaced.

 

I just got a call from Nissan and they said my rotors are warped and that they are not covered under the warranty, i have 13,800 and i'm ****sss'd Does the warranty vary from place to place depending on where you purchaced? Need feed back

 

It's covered under 3year/36000 miles whatever comes first according to TSB. Dealers're quite reluctant honoring that though. You best course of action would be to get TSB copy printed, bring it to your dealer's service manager and ask again . If it won't work - go to another one, just don't waste your time fighting for that. If nothing works - buy new rotors/pads and install them yourself. Front end shouldn't take more than 1 hr.

 

After complaining to enough people at Bankston, they finally called and said that there won't be any charge for the rotor work, Tech said he FORGOT that i had giving it to him when i dropped off the car.
Anyway it's fixed....Thanks..