aradhakr84

Hey fellow max owners. I bought my max on July 02nd and its been close to 1 and 1/2 months now. I have been hearing brakes squeal when driving on highway over 65-70 mph and using my brakes. It happens only when travelling on high speeds and using brakes. Rest of the time the brakes perform fine without any squealing. I went to my dealership twice - First time they said nothing was wrong. Second time they resurfaced the rotors. But I am still hearing brakes squeal.

Is there a problem in my brakes? Dealership is not able to find the problem. I can hear the brakes squeal as it is really loud and embarrassing. This should not happen on a month and half old car. Would really appreciate if any one can provide their insights or suggestion on this.

I still love my maxima and because of the squeal I am hesitant to drive in highway to avoid brakes squeal.

DrummerBoy00

I don't have a solution for you, but I am in the exact same boat. My Max is almost a year old and started doing the same thing 6 months ago.

For me, it seems to do it at highway speeds after the brakes have warmed-up a bit. But it also does it sometimes first thing in the morning as I'm backing out of the driveway, announcing to the whole block that I am leaving for work. Then they are fine going forward until they heat up.

I've been to the dealership three times to have them looked at. Each time they have told me that they found nothing mechanically wrong. This last time the service advisor told me, "That's just how Nissan brakes are. I deal with this all the time."

Hopefully someone else has some insight - but you are not alone with this problem.

aradhakr84

I don't think "That's just how Nissan brakes are. I deal with this all the time" is an answer I would accept here. It is unacceptable and should not happen. Braking noises are so loud that it cannot be overlooked at. I have driven different cars and never had this problem before. I do have lead foot but never had this problem/squealing in other cars I have driven before.

Hopefully someone can shed light on this brakes situation. What is the use in driving a proclaimed "4DSC" if you are afraid of your brakes squealing at higher speeds?

lightonthehill

'That's just how Nissan brakes are' is not an acceptable answer. Not only have my brakes on my year old '16 never made any noise that I could hear inside the car, but the brakes on my '09 and '04 and '00 Maximas made no noise either. I don't recall having a problem with brake noise on my 2nd, 3rd and 4th gen Maximas, either.

I thought squealing from the brakes while in reverse was a warning that the pad thickness was getting thin, and that squealing from the brakes while going forward was a warning that the pads were worn down to the metal. Neither of those situations would be true on a new car unless something was wrong and a pad was staying constantly in light contact with the disk, resulting in the pad quickly wearing down. One other possibility might be that a small stone or something has gotten into the brake assembly, and lodged. Sometimes that can lead to strange squeaking/squealing from the brakes.

DrummerBoy00

Okay, so finally a conclusion to this brake squealing saga. "That's just how Nissan brakes are" guy was no longer there, so I worked with the service manager this time.

They finally were able to reproduce the issue, but had a hard time locating exactly which wheel it was coming from.

They noted that the front brake pads and all four rotors were glazed.

They wound up replacing the front brake pads, machined all four rotors, and re-seated everything. All under warranty. No more noise (so far).

So what causes a car with 4k-8k miles on it to get glazing?

BlakMaxiJoey

From what I have read around the interwebs, glazing usually occurs with long and light braking... that chemically, compounds in the pads does not burn off, which becomes "glazed."

no?

aradhakr84

Thank you! I am going to talk to my service department again. I still have this problem happening randomly and sometimes loud.

DrummerBoy00

Thanks - that's what I found in my research last night as well.

It also sounded like it could happen if the pads weren't seated properly and were lightly touching the rotors more than they should. So I wonder if something got out of whack when I took it in for service the first time after I bought it (6 months in). It didn't start happening until shortly after that.

I am in stop and go traffic a lot, but don't feel like I ride my brakes excessively by any means. Certainly not more than others around me or more than I have done in all of the other cars I have ever owned - none of which ever had brake noise.

I also have some concern that it could be related to the active braking that the Maxima does on turns. I love the feature because it handles so well, but have always wondered if that would reduce the life of the brakes vs. a car without the feature.

BlakMaxiJoey

Not sure if it isnthe same with the 8th gen.. I haven't peeked at the pads. but, does the 8th gen front pads have the springs that separates the two pads when disengaged?

AAQ27

my car has 1000 miles on it and is just a month old. I have the same issue it started at 620 miles so took it in. They cleaned the rotors and said everything is fine. 400 miles later and the sound is back and they can't seem to diagnose the problem...
So i dont know what to do..

elijahblake

I'm having this issue on my 2016 maxima. Brakes start to squeal when I first press the brakes, if I let off for a split sec and press again they don't do it.

Haven't had time to take it to the dealership yet.

It's been doing this for a few weeks, I have about 5k miles on it.

snow1er

My 2016 SL is experiencing these same issues. My passenger side front brake is squealing first thing when I pull out of the driveway in the mornings and when I apply light brakes at freeway speeds. It seems to be getting worse and not better. I have owned the vehicle for about a year and have only put on 7K miles in that time, I have not driven it harshly enough to warrant wearing the brakes to replacement in that time. I am going to talk to the dealer this Friday and see what they say.

DrummerBoy00

I'm beginning to wonder if the brake pads the Maximas ship with are just not great - or there was a bad batch.

So a continuation of my saga - after they machined all four rotors and replaced my front brake pads, the squealing returned about 3 days later. I finally took it in again 3 weeks later and they found that the rear rotors were glazed again. They machined the rears again and replaced the rear pads this time.

I'm 3 days in again and no squealing, so hopefully that fixed it. Time will tell, I suppose.

I would really suggest those of you that are having this issue to go to the dealership and press the issue. Makes no sense for us to have cars that are a year or less old and be making noise like this.