My rotors had to be turned by the dealer today at 11K miles. I was just wondering has that been normal for others? That seems pretty pathetic to be turning them so early. Eliminating their life span quickly too quickly!

 

It has been discussed before. The OEM rotors are garbage.

Mine had to be turned at 11k and were warped again at 20k. Go and get yourself a decent set of good ones from AutoMax_95 and call it a day.

 

I am lucky. I have 14K on my brakes and all is well with my rotors. When I do my first brake job I will upgrade to better rotors. Preferbly drilled and or slotted. Anybody have any suggestions?

 

I guess I was lucky. My rotors made it to 24K before they were turned.

 

If I remember correctly I had mine turned at 8,000 miles, replaced at 14,000 miles, and now at 24,000 miles they've been turned again. WTF. Nissan should have used bigger rotors.

 

Crap.
Have 2K miles on new sterling 05 maxima 05 SE 6-speed.

I disappointed to hear this.
Didn't have to do the brakes on my 99 SE until 75K miles.

Dumped the oil @300 miles and changed to Mobile 1.
No mods yet. Plan Injen Intake, CE Y-Pipe.

 

hey marcel - you should read the owner's manual. nissan doesn't recommend a change to full synthetic until 20k

 

12.6" isn't big enough for you? That's almost the same size as a corvette C5/C6.

The problem is probably too soft a compound on the pads, which allows the material on the rotors to build up and cause vibration. It's actually hard to warp rotors unless you brake extremely hard many times consecutively.

 

What brake pads have you/they installed after the disks have been turned ?

Any feedback with after market brakes with more than 10K if they warp ?

 

I don't feel quite as bad about it as I did before. I just found out my soon to be ex-wife also had to have hers turned at 11k on an 04 Accord. Guess Nissan is not the only ones using cheap stuff.

 

mine warped at about 12k qne had to be turned. also had the shimmy at the same time. got about 18k now and the shimmy is starting to creep back into noticability. hopefully my rotor will hold out a little longer.

 

I just recently turned mine at 7k. Unbelievable.

 

I don't understand why you guys don't insist on new rotors, rather than having them turned at such low mileage!

 

My dealer informed that Nissan will not approve replacements just yet. It would have to be if they start to cause problems again.

 

it is Nissan's policy to turn first and if you're lucky to still be w/in their courtesy mileage, then replace.

some (more than few) are unlucky to receive poorly made rotors. I would never replace with oem. Group deal ends this month: http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=396095 but zinc coated have again sold out. you can get black powdercoated hubs instead.

 

I had mine turned at 15k and the stealership is replacing them at 19,500. Crappy brakes, hopefully they fixed the problem.

 

Our rotors are horrible. Mine have been turned twice, im now at about 45k miles and when I brake from high speeds my car shakes like a wet dog. I really gotta get in on that group deal before the end of the month.

 

Is this warranty work to have ur rotor turned?

 

Post #15
so once again, yes. If you're under 16k miles and the dealer chooses to do it. Official warranty excludes rotors and pads since they're wear parts.

 

Will getting new rotors help stop the shimmies? I'll ask my dealer's service manager about this when I go in to have my tires put on the Hunter.

 

bad rotors only cause vibration if you're breaking. when driving, if you feel shimmy, the brakes aren't touching the wheel. But if it only vibrates when breaking, then you need new rotors.

 

I had the shimmy and the hunter did nothing to help it. It was a total waste of time. The weird thing is, once I had my rotors turned the shimmy went away.

 

Rotors at 17K here. Asked for credit towards upgraded rotors and was told know. The Titans and Armadas are coming back at 5,000 miles for the same thing so dont feel bad. I had a 2001 Z28 for 50,000 miles and never had a ounce of trouble. I buy a Nissan and already I am having issues at 17K. If the car wasn't so damn pretty I would be really pissed. I feel like it is my job to nurse it to perfect health.

 

Interesting. I thought all Nissan warrantied work was guaranteed for 12K miles (or 12 months)? So, shouldn't they either replace or turn the rotors again within this time frame?

 

Don't feel bad guys. My wifes brand new 05 SE had the shimmy and brake shake. Dealer had to rebalance all 4 tires and, "barely resurface" (mechanics quote) the rotors. Now for the killer. This had to be done with only 600 miles on the car. Just waiting for the rotors to go bad again, then I'll fight Nissan for replacements. Keeping all my service records.

 

I was think about trading my 04 SL for an 05 but they have their own problems. So far I have had my cd changer replaced twice, rotors turned, hazard switch replaced, wheels rebalanced. I am going to the Toyota dealership tomorrow and try out the new Toyota Avalon. I actually love my max but I'm getting tired of taking it to the shop!!

 

Big Mike,

If you like the Max, you won't like the Avalon, or, at least not the price of the one that actually is worthwhile buying. I drove the new Avalon, and, to me, it's still a Japanese Buick. Styling is better than the old model, but not cutting edge like the Max or TL and the ride and handling, even on the upscale model is still too "Buick" for my tastes. Although I've had the shimmy balance and rotor problem on my wife's 05, the rest of her car has been perfect. Also, I have an 05 that I purchased 3 days after I bought my wife hers and mine has no problems at all. So, if you are worried about problems on the 05, they are probably minor compared to some of the early problems on the 04. That said, you can have problems with any car nowdays as my buddy has an 04 TL with more problems than most Max owners. Also, just yesterday, Toyota announced it was recalling 1 million vehicles. Guess you never know, but if the shimmy and brake problem has been corrected on my wife's car, then I'm still a happy multiple Max owner. Just love driving the damn things.

 

I currently have 17.5Kmiles. I think the rotors are warped. When I brake hard -either @hwy speed or 35MPH- there are vibrations. I can hassle with the dealer to have them turned, But it will come back. And most likely they will pro-rate new pads that will cost me $$$. I won't blame Nissan for it. Many cars I've come across have this issue.
So I just upgrade my rotors and pads. It will look good, brake better, so what the heck ! I found out r1concepts.com is in Orange County (CA). So I call and mention hearing about them in a car-forum, but didnot mention the ORG. I got a Vietnamese saleman (Thang Trinh, another Martin Trinh is there too), my countryman. The man gave me F&R drilled/slotted/zinc-plated + Axxis Ultimate pads for $300 delivered. I'm surprised he gave me the rotors for $180 (ebayed for $229), the F&R pads for $100 (on-sale for $120). The last $20 is for 8.25% tax and shipping/handling (so basically free S/H).
The man told me the my rotors are Japanese-made. But they do carry others. He told me not to get the gold or black, as they will wear off to silver anyway.
Their number is (714)630-6626. It's cheaper to call, as their prices on the website are higher. My prices are even better than the ones they offered on ebay. They're in Anaheim CA. Make sure you ask who makes the rotors to confirm. The man told me to call him back in 2 days if I don't get a tracking#s via email. It's super quick if it's true.
Google "r1concepts review" to find customers' reviews on them and their products. My mechanic asks for $110 to put them on. I will post the results when it's done.

 

I just sent my payment for front and rear slotted rotors, axis pads, stainless brake lines, and some fresh fluid. Good luck with the OEM rotors, Im hoping my new ones will be much better.

 

how can U tell if the rotors are warped?

 

Maxfan,

I'm sure you know more about cars than I do, so I'm sure you know that braking hard with antilock brakes will produce a pulsating ginding feeling/sound from the brakes. It's really quite noticeable in all cars with antilock brakes. The reason I bring this up is that you said it only occured under hard braking which would bring the antilocks into the equation. My pulse/shimmy brake problem was during normal stops at any speed, but the dealer resurfaced them and the pulse/shimmy is now gone. Hope I didn't insult you, but many people still don't know how antilock brakes react during hard braking.

 

I don't recall feeling the ABS kicking in on me, ever. I haven't had a situation when I have to brake that hard to have the wheels locked up.
I'm talking about diving @80MPH in a clear lane and some slow driver creep into my lane @55MPH. I need to shave off about 20MPH quickly and can feel the steering wheel and front end shaking. In the city, I normally don't feel it until brake hard to slow down (when making a quick turn). ABS only let you feel thru the pedal not thru the steering wheel.
Right now I don't have the shimmy anymore since the last tire balance/rotation. But at 10MPH I can see it eveytime I apply a bit of pressure on the brake. My last 97Max only have warped rotors every 45-50K miles, near the end of the pads. I just know it's time for new pads and to have the rotor turned.

 

Just got back from the holidays. Got up early this morning and went to have the new rotors and pads installed. It took about 2 hrs. I paid $300 even for the drilled/slotted rotors and Ultimate Axxis deliverred. Found out they shiiped me 2 sets of rear pads, so I got set extra as a bonus. The stock rotors/pads don't look so high-quality. Damn the rusty rotors. The pads got some metal chunks in it.
I only got 20 miles on the new setup. But there is no noise, very quiet. Even more so than the stock which sometimes making a low thug noise when releasing the brake from stops. I'm taking it very easy so I can't quite tell how good it will be. I guess it would be the same around town. It may benefit when going down a long hill. But it looks very good. Can't wait for the mirror finish to show. So far so good.

 

I have just at 14K miles on my 2005 SL. I wasn't aware of the short life of the rotors that seems to be prevalent for several of you (us), so I appreciate the information here. I intend to monitor the rotors more closely than I otherwise would have. Given that I drive a lot of highway miles, I hope that my rotors will last longer than average. It's disappointing to me that the Maxima rotors seem to have such a short life.

 

What short life ? My rotors only warp a bit and too early. I can get it turned under warranty. But decided to go for something different and look good.
You can turn the rotors a couple of times, usually near the end of the pads' life. The rotors should last way over 100k miles.
I don't think rotors are very expensive, unless you ask the dealers. Pretty soon, tirerack.com should carry Brembo rotors for the 6th-gen Max.

 

For those of you with manual tranmissions, your front brakes should last a lot longer being as you are using the negine a lot more for braking, where as with the automatic, the front brakes have to do all the braking.

I would imagine that under normal driving conditions you should be able to get 20k to 30k miles beofre needing rotor work. For those of you only getting 11k, what are your driving habits?

I had a 98 Ford Ranger and didn't have to touch the brakes until over 100k miles, and even at that point I still had plenty of life left in the pads and only had to machine the rotors.

 

Please help. i have had the 04 maxima for a year now with 14k on it. Two tires went flying off while i was driving. it looked like it was slit on the inside of the tire. has anyone else had this problem????

 

Sounds like you had the goodyears with the cracking on the inside sidewall. Get a lawyer and call goodyear for new tires. This is a known issue. Also get in touch with the national institute for highway safety. http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/.

Search around in the stickies for the goodyear issue. This is a well documented issue. Good Luck and get a lawyer.

 

thank you so much for the help

 

i just got off the phone with nissan. they refuse to terminate my lease. even after the tire incident, on top of it, my shocks, the sunroof broke, the trunk opens when it feels like it and the drivers seatbelt doesnt work.they keep transferring me to consumer affairs saying if CA wants to buy out my lease then nissan would ok it...if not i can forfeit my car and have it destroy my credit for seven years.