I felt an annoying pulsation when braking at 'higher' velocities. So I figured I would use this as an opportunity to upgrade the brakes a little bit. I choose to upgrade to EBC ultimax slotted rotors and Redstuff brake pads for the front. I just put them on tonight and figured I would post a picture and and my initial impressions.


(I know the wheels are filthy, but once pollen season is over they, and the rest of the car, will get properly washed and polished for the season)

I know you need to bed them in properly. I intend to baby them for the rest of the week driving to and from work to allow this to happen. Later next week I will begin to dig into the brakes and get a better feel of how they will work. Initially they seem good, when going to a final stop there is a nice rubbing noise, as if they were cold and wet, but otherwise, even at highway speeds, they sound good and quite. I suspect that some of my shutter in the wheel, with the old brakes, was due to them not being bedded properly. I know that if I were to dig into it hard, then for a while the brakes would be good and smooth. So for those reading, make sure you rotors/pads are bedded before just assuming that the rotors are warped.

Also for those interested I had just over 55k on the original set of rotors. They still could have been turned and there was just shy of a 1/4 inch, or so, of brake material still on the pads. I could have gotten another 10k or so out of them but I decided just to swap them out. I do almost all highway driving so YMMV when comparing the longevity of the OEM brakes but for me the OEM brakes lasted long and well. If I wasn't already thinking of swapping them out for something with more grip and fade resistance I would have chosen them again in a heartbeat.

 

those rotors look nice! ive heard great things about EBC red stuff too. great advice on the bed-in process as well its pretty important to get all you can out of the brakes. my oem rotors/pads faded quickly, i didnt like them too much, im much happier overall with my a/m rotors i have now i know you will be too.

oh and your wheels are filthy!

 

I get the same pulsation with just 2500 miles on the clock. I wonder if Nissan would acknowledge this condition and fix it.

I like your rotors and have considering replacing my stockers with some fancy stuff too.

 

Quick update. I have 300 miles, 2/3 highway 1/3 'urban', on them to date. There is now great pedal feel with decent feedback. It might be psychological but I like it. They squeal like hell when under 10 miles an hour and mildly warm. They don't do it first thing in the morning and do not do it when warmer, say after getting off the highway. I have yet to get into them, another week or so of break in before finally bedding the pads with the rotors late next week. The black finish has worn off and what a mess it left on the wheels. Thankfully it comes right off with a quick wash, which I finally did this morning with a nice clay/wax job, but it is very messy when that break-in coating and rotor coating wear off.

I snapped a few more pics today. There is nice rust formation because the car hasn't moved since I washed it.




I hope the rust burns out , when they get hot, from the slots otherwise it will look awful. I never thought of it before, but hopefully, because so many people have slotted rotors and no one seems to complain, this 'problem' will go away when they get used again.

There is a pronounced hissing sound, from the friction between the pods and rotors, whenever breaking. It isn't to annoying and maybe some people like it, but it could be something to consider. I do not notice any whine/wind noise on the highway. There was a warning from EBC before buying them that this could happen. Overall I am happy to date. In another week or so I will post an update with my impressions after being able to dig into them.

 

To answer your pseudo-question, they probably aren't warped, but not properly bedded. You would have to have beaten the hell out of the rotors to destroy them so early. Try re-bedding the pads to the rotors. Find an area, highway off ramps do really well, where you can SAFELY and LEGALLY have the car decelerate from 60-20ish quickly. You don't need to come anywhere close as to mash the brakes and get the ABS to kick in but give good solid push and get the car to a halt quickly. Doing this 3 or 4 times within 10-15 minutes will deposit a thin layer of break material on the surface. Do not allow the heat to build up enough to fade the brakes.

Often rotors are misdiagnosed when people think they are warped but the reality is there is some material deposited on the rotors but not enough to coat the entire rotor surface. So the pads grip well when they find the coated surface but not as well as when they find a raw metal surface. This causes the pads to grip-slip-grip... and gives that pulsation feel.

A quick note for people doing this, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE BROKEN IN YOUR NEW PADS AND ROTORS FIRST, if you do not you run the risk of irreversibly ruining the rotors by creating hot spots during braking. You need to mate the two surfaces and this can only be done properly by taking your time to brake them in with urban driving over a few hundred miles. If you create these hot spots the life of the brakes will be shortened. You might not notice this initially but the longevity will not be there.

You can read some more about it here.

 

Whenever i look at the rotors i cant help feeling the urge to replace them with either slotted or vented disk, its like the car need it. That aside, thanks for the info on proper bedding technique.

waiting to see if the rust will disappear from the slots.