Brakes worn out?

Hey guys, just had my D40 in to my local dealer for it,s 80k service. They called half way through the day to say that I needed to replace my front pads and rotors as they were worn out. Rather surprising since I spend most of my driving on the highway. Anyway I gave the go ahead but asked if the brakes were being done because it was a Nissan recommendation at that mileage or they were actually worn. Was told that they were worn and I was lucky to get that many miles out of the rotors, they are usually replaced around the 60k mark. Now i don't know..... I had a Land Cruiser a few years ago and had about 500K on the clock and only had the rotors machined once, never replaced. Is 60K a normal life expectancy? Sounds a little premature to me.

theres a heap of threads on this. pad and rotor life is rather short on the D40's. time to upgrade to some better rotors and some far better pads.

sadly this seams to be a common trend with modern vehicles.

Its because the D40 has to meet European standards and as such dusty pads and soft rotors.Well some lame assed reason like that anyway
I run DBA rotors and Hawke pads and have no dust and bugger all rotor wear and it stops better than stock .

i don't think its any particular standard, its just getting big braking performance out of small rotors.

Mine were replaced at my 40,000km service. We tow a LOT, so they were stopping abotu 4.5T on a regular basis (yes, I have trailer brakes, but sometimes I back them off particularly in slippery conditions).

Yeah totally agree but when you go aftermarket you dont get anywhere near the wear issues. The soft pedal is the same deal its something to do with Euro standards

aftermarket is probably better quality but you pay far more than what nissan would for theirs.
probably the biggest issue is the pads. way to hard.
old mechanics trick is to fit soft pads. you wear pads out quick but they are cheap and easy to replace, and it saves the rotors from wear.

funny thing is that the D22 doesn't have the same problem.

I'd still never trust Nissan to tell me when brakes need replacing.

I'm hoping for more than 80K out of mine and should get it going by the wear so far but it will be myself and then a brake expert's advice before I bother to replace them not Nissan and their glorified mechanics.

tweak'e said:

funny thing is that the D22 doesn't have the same problem.

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yep my D22 still had the stock pads and rotors when it was written off at 350k

As for the D40, i had my 40k service the other week and apparently the brake pads still have more then 75% left in them. If they continue to wear at that rate i will get well over 80k out of them. Mine is a manual so i guess that could be a slight benefit when it comes to brake wear.

Thai build have different rotors and pads AFAIK.

After going for a drive in a d40 today its no wonder the brakes wear quicker than a d22

Because you are a bad driver?

Significantly more power would be my guess.

The V6 diesel is even worse.

Anyone with a 550 had their brakes looked at yet? They'd be Euro-spec brakes like the 4cyl STX (equivalent to Camembert discs with chocolate mousse for pads).

I wasnt driving the guy with little regard for his license gave it a bit of curry and it runs

I'm still voting "Bad Driver" anyone who drives a Fendt can't be that good

KraftyPg said:

I'm still voting "Bad Driver" anyone who drives a Fendt can't be that good

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Wait till you see me drive that in reverse

Thanks guys, sounds like I might have to investigate a bit. If it,s just a case of too hard a pad maybe I can fit something a little softer to prolong the life of the rotor, if it,s a case of the rotor being too soft then I suppose the only avenue would be to upgrade next time I get the call from Nissan.

It would of been good if you could of seen the original parts they took off. I have herd of people being told by dealer ships that the brakes were stuffed, when in reality they still had more then 50% of pad left.
Were the brakes playing up at all, like a shudder, or squealing, or fading super quick, did you notice a big lip on the outside rim of the disk?

When my rotors were removed - they showed them to me - there was a lip on the outside of the disc and they measured it and showed me that they were past the service limit.

If I was looking at it myself I would have said "shit, run a cutter across the face to smooth it back down and shove it back on for another 40,000km" but they'd already installed the new rotors and I couldn't be stuffed arguing about it.

nathand22 said:

It would of been good if you could of seen the original parts they took off. I have herd of people being told by dealer ships that the brakes were stuffed, when in reality they still had more then 50% of pad left.

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Totally agree no one should take anyones advice on replacements of pads )or anything really) without checking them first. Even a brake mechanic could lie to you but Nissan techs like all dealer techs are there for one thing and one thing only, to make as much money off every car that comes through the door as they can.

Also don't take any "legal measurements" or "minimum requirements" that people quote as gospel, look the things up for yourself. I have heard arseholes cite "legal pad thickness" requirements anything from 20% original pad thickness to 90% pad thickness. They weren't Nissan techs but they were still in it for the same reason, to make money and sell stuff whether customers needed it or not.