At 26,000 miles i had to get my front discs machined because they were warped and the front end was shaking under braking at highway speeds. I'm at 58,000 miles now and the same thing is happening. Has anyone had this problem as well?

The first time Nissan did it for no charge because they said there was a problem with some of the brakes on some 01 - 02 cars. Mine fell right in the production number range so they did not charge me for it. This time they want $99 to machine my front discs.

Could I have a bad proportining valve or is this a common problem with these cars?

 

well it's not just 01-02, it's pretty much all fifth gens. it's just something we have to deal with. honestly though, we shouldn't complain too much, the 2nd gen TL/CL/Type S's warp WAY worse and much more frequently because acura REALLY skimped on brakes for those tanks (3500lbs). i personally think our brakes are pretty good...the new accords warp faster than our max's too

 

oh only a couple of maxima owners, or maybe close to all of them. i dont' know somewhere in between there. yeah our rotors are too small and warp easily. you can always do a big brake kit to fix that problem though

 

well fifth gens have smaller front rotors than 5.5 gens iirc...

 

All 5th gen, which included 5.5 gen, have problems with warping rotors. Didn't know it was true with the 6th gens also. I have a customer today at work who has a 6th gen and were were talking about mods and stuff and he said that he was no impressed with the brakes and wants to switch to a big brake kit. Said his rotors are warped after 25k miles. They should upgrade every maxes' rotors and calipers, as well as giving free paint jobs for skimping on the paint. can only hope...

 

either way, we're stopping just as good, if not a TAD better than stock wrx's...i think that's a pretty good thing
i have a bunch of wrx friends that think their stock brakes are so great but max's have no problem stopping just as fast. iirc, wrx's only have like 11.4" brakes in the front and tens in the rear or something..and they too have warpage problems. brakes warp. pretty much any sedan i can think of has regular warpage like our cars (if not even more often).

 

No warping problem on either of my 5.5 gen. My 02 rotors never warped and my 03 isn't warped either. Don't know if i got lucky twice but i have never had problems with either of my 5.5 gens.......

 

i find that it's partially driving style and other part is simply technique. i do recall having had my FIRST set of oe rotors warp fairly quickly but since then I've done a pretty good job of making them last after they got turned. i haven't been driving any slower either, but it's the little things that can help. perhaps such as not holding onto the brakes after you come to a full stop after a lot of hard braking, etc.

 

Uuh.... NO! These cars front rotors SUCK! Had the origional rotors machined at about 3500 miles, had them replaced with crappy new OEM rotors at around 13K and took them back to the dealer at 36,240 mile to be told that I was over the warranty miles so it was going to cost around $200 to get them machined with new pads. Needless to say I told him to go screw himself and I'll take care of it myself and he said, uuuhhh OK... what a moron. I'm looking for some reasonably priced slotted or drilled rotor for the car now.... anyone have any ideas. Thanks.

 

I got my powerslots and hawk pads here
http://shop.ivalueinternet.com/Rotor...ction/home.htm
$234 shipped to my front door.
took me 40 minutes and I was done and test driving my car

 

I had Nissan turn my rotors at about 30K miles because they were pulsating so badly. They blamed a tire shop for over-torqing the lug nuts...but it was covered under warranty so they did it for free. It's been almost 10K miles and not a single problem yet (knocks on wood). Since them I am the only one that changes my tires and I torque the lug nuts down to 90 ft-lbs. Hopefully that'll solve the problem for good.

Tony

 

the calipers and rotors from the 6th gen are bolt-on for th 5th gen. They may be warping a little for the 6th gens, but we are lighter, and I've had mine for 6months and no problems (oh, and I autocross with them too)

 

i had the brakes warp on my 2002 maxima in the 1st 10k. Dealer said they weren't covered by any recall or TSB(BULL$HIT). I've heard of a lot of people have this problem, especially with the nissan rotors. i ended up just getting a 13" big brake kit and that fixed the problem. no warped rotors and the braking was awesome. IF you are interested in a BBK from www.precisionbrakes.com let me know as we have a dealer account with them and always give our fellow org members the best price we can.

thanks,

-steve

 

I've been dealing with warped rotors on various cars for the last 15 years. I've tried everything, starting with rotors, then BBKs, and finally different pads. Here's my take on it, which some folks may not agree with, do your own research on the Internet because there is a lot of info out there.

The rotors aren't actually warping, it's called disc thickness variation (DTV). It's very common these days. It's caused by the steel in semi met brake pads depositing on the rotor. Semi Met pads are very high in steel these days to meet consumer demands for low dust and long life. That created a situation where the pads will sometimes outlast the rotor.

Actual warping is very rare. You'd have to get the rotor red hot then hit it with water to warp the thing.

A driver can feel just 0.0004" DTV so it doesn't take much. At 0.002" the steering wheel will start to shake. It's not much at all.

No rotor is perfect even after a fresh machining. There will be some high spots that will tend to get hotter than other spots so more material will deposit there. As more material deposits, the hotter it gets compared to low spots on the rotor so the process accelerates. Once it gets just 0.0004" higher than other areas you will be able to feel it.

The best luck I've had so far is with Ceramic/copper pads. The idea being that copper will not weld itself/deposit on the rotor like the steel in semi met pads will. My other car, which used to judder in under 10k with fresh brakes and rotors, now has 15k on this brake change and no judder yet. The weird part is that this time I went from power slot rotors to the cheapest no-name rotor I could find.

The other interesting experience I had was about 2 months ago with my Maxima. It's was judder to the hilt, 2nd time I needed a cut in under 25k. I do about 80% highway driving. I had to go into Philly, which I never do. I did about 4 hours of stop and go traffic that week. Judder was gone.

It leads me to beleive that if you do a lot of highway driving DTV may be more common. If you do a lot of stop and go, low speed driving, depositing doesn't happen, it might even be benficial.

 

FYI, I've found a combination which has worked flawlessly for me over the past year. (I normally had mine warp every 3 months or so)

Matt93SE's BlehmCo BBK brackets, iRotors (http://www.irotors.com/) cross-drilled and slotted 2004 Maxima (6th gen)-size rotors, Bendix IQ Titanium pads (bought from Advance Auto Parts) using the original OEM-type calipers.

Plus, before installing that whole combo, I replaced both front calipers because I was noticing problems with them dragging a little. Flushed the brake hydraulic system out in the process.

9 months later, *no* warpage, maybe ever-so-slight hints of it every now and then but they go away.

EDIT: I'm not sure if the BlehmCo kit fits 2002-2003 models though...

 

I have also found that ceramic pads work very good. They are quiet and stopping power is very smooth compared to semi met.

 

Yup, driving style has a LOT to do with it. My wife warped her rotors after probably 20k miles or so (bought the car with 40k) I drove the car for a few hundred miles, beat the **** out of them for the first bit, and they got 'unwarped' (the rotors don't actually warp... the pads leave material on the rotors which causes the uneven plane on the rotor). Shortly after I gave the car back to her, the pulsing was back.

I've since put aftermarket (Raysbestos or similar) rotors and Carbotech Bobcat pads on and the pulsing is gone, it seems to resist material deposits (after 5k miles or so). The only problem I will mention is squealing. They squeal like a pig sometimes. I also think I may have not tightened one of the bolts on the knuckle or torque member because she's getting a clunking when she either gets on the brakes suddenly or when she releases them suddenly. I keep meaning to look at it before the bolt shears off (assuming that's what the clunk is but it sounds a LOT like that's what the problem is)

Oh, and on my car (a manual), I've gone probably close to 60k miles on a set of pads/rotors and they show virtually NO signs of wear. The pads still have 3/4 thickness and I push the brakes close to their limit sometimes. The rotors also include about 15 track events on them

 

I have learned my lessons the hard way. The only replacement parts I will buy are OEM OEM OEM. I have never had a problem braking and after 60K miles my brakes pulse ever so slightly on the highway sometimes. 90% of the time I can stop on a dime no problem. I have confidence with OEM brakes. I agree it is all in how you drive. I almost never hit the brakes hard or even go halfway down. I also have a 6 speed. I have just always learned to utilize engine braking to the MAX!

Around $350 for 70+K miles worth of brakes is the $hiznit. I know a guy who had the OEM brakes on for 100K miles (5th gen auto)

 

This is a very good explaination of what "warping" really is. It's basically an uneven layer of pad material on the rotor.

IMHO, a lot of the warping comes from people not bedding (breaking in) the brakes properly or leaving your foot on the brake pedal at a stop after hard braking. If you don't bed the brakes, than you wont have a nice even layer of pad material on the rotor. If you keep pressure on the brake after a hard stop, the pad material literally fuses (melts) onto the rotor.

If the OEM rotors were of better quality, design, size, and mass they would run much cooler and a lot of these warping issues wouldn't happen.

I think the jury is out on ceramic pads. The ceramics aren't as "grippy" and they don't absorb heat as well as semi-metallics/metallics do. If the pad/caliper could absorb more heat from the rotor, the rotor would run cooler. You don't want the caliper too hot though because that would boil the brake fluid.

I tried the raybestos ceramic pads and didn't like them. They didn't seem to dust less and didn't grip well at all. I love my Hawk HPS pads, they dust a little more but I feel safer and more confident with them.

LOL, If you want your new car returned to the manufacturer under lemon laws, just intentionally warp your rotors. If it happens on 3 separate occasions within the 36k warranty period, you get a buyback. (Stick it to the man!)