Dynamic Turtle

Been speaking to Alex, he said certain combinations are more prone to squeal than others. Discs are Nissan/OEM, pads are Pagid.

Ekona, I can barely wire a plug...

I am using a different garage, hence why I took it to a new guy this morning.

The previous garage was a porsche specialist, so I assumed they'd know what they were doing. Seems like their experience with Cayennes & 911s doesn't quite apply to Zeds...

OK so I took the car to a garage this morning to have the brakes looked at. They've been squeeling horribly and rubbing at low speed, causing an audible chafing sound.

1) The car had new pads put on it 400 miles ago, but the previous garage has "chamfered the pads heavily in an attempt to reduce squeeking, leaving only 70% of the pad touching the disc".

2) There are no shims on any of the pads (surprise surprise)

3) There is a small lip on the discs, approximately 1.25mm all around

Now, obviously the lack of shims appears to be the main culprit here. I've seen many posts where their absence has been blamed on brake squeel. My guess is that it would be most economical to keep the existing pads & discs and simply fit shims. The car still brakes very well with the "70%" contact, so I'm reticent to change pads.

However, I've also read that discs should be changed once lips hit 1.6mm. I still think we're several thousand miles away from that, but they will need to be changed at some point. He said that doing two seperate ramps obviously adds labour charges (which seems logical enough), and recommended that I change everything now in one go (surprise surprise). He's quoted me £809 for new ADL pads & discs.

My preference simply be to have shims fitted and see how that goes.

What are your thoughts?

Boiling water, get a sponge, sponge it on.

 

Use some fishing line or dental floss, ease the badge off. Just keep putting the water on and wiggle the badge/use line and it will start to shift about and come away.

 

Some white spirit then to shift the adhesive that is left over.

 

Get some super resin polish (autoglym) and polish back the finish.

 

Dry it all up and you are ready to go

Blimey, sounds like a lot of work

OK whilst I still haven't run though a proper bedding in procedure yet (next weekend hopefully - on a road trip at the moment), i've definitely noticed the brakes behaving differently this weekend. The squeeling is happening at 20mph braking, rather than 5-10mph. And once warmed-up, the pads can definitely be heard rubbing against the discs at low (10mph) speed. Although tbh it sounds more like metal on metal. perhaps the shims rubbing against the discs?

Looks like these might need more attention than a bit of copperslip?

I happened to be in CostCo today and had some time to kill so wandered into the tyre dept to check a few prices. The Pilot Super Sports there were £248 inc VAT & fitting (225/45/18) each. Is that a good price?

 

S.

A grand on tyres? Why buy a 350z and pay 911 consumables prices?!

And that mpg is simply amazing when you consider the performance and size of the engine.

Agreed, that is pretty spectacular.

Suprising, seems our petrol over here is a tad cheaper than there at the moment. 98 octane, being about NZ$2.20 -2.30 a litre depending on which gas station.

 

One of my mates in the US was moaning that its costing him $50 to fill his car up now and he thought that was rediculous....

But everything in the US of A is 3 times further away. Trip to the corner shop means a 10 mile round-trip.

Bear in mind you'll need a dealer who actually gives a toss once you've driven off the forecourt too

+1

Yep, same here. The 335i pops-up on a lot of radars when considering a 350z (at least, it did on mine). It's a different animal though and ultimately, I wanted a tighter, louder, more thrilling experience than a BMW saloon. The other main factors were higher cost (obviously). Would've been looking at nearly double the price of an equivalent mileage 350z (roughly, £8k vs £16k) and all the horror stories I'd heard about reliability. There's probably a reason why a £40k beemer is now selling in the low teens, five years later...

Oh, and as you rightly point out, there are millions of 3-series on the roads. The 350z feels far more exlusive.

I guess it's a very good machine though, with added practicality and fuel economy, if you find a reliable one. Glad to hear you're enjoying it!

Best feeling ever waiting for a new car... enjoy it.

Nobody has a nice feeling picking up a brand new Daewoo Matiz.

Christ, I hadn't even noticed they were there!

They look fine!

No idea. They were replaced by the dealer i bought the car from, who neglected to provide me with any documentation.

Edit - I mean that he didn't provide me with the docs supporting the replacement pads, tyres and clutch. He's a performance car specialist but has probably never worked on a Z before. Might have to give him a call once I've been through another attempt at bedding-in (again), if I'm still not making any progress.

I trust the garage have re-used the shims (or put new ones in) and copper greased the back of the pads and shims. More often the absence of one or both is responsible for squealing.

I have no idea. It was kwik fit (i know, i know) and the monkeys could barely string a sentence together. They're 2 mins away so will go there next week for another look.

OK so I I've maanged to remove the boot counterweight. Finally. After an hour of wrestling with the trim and breaking one of the plastic clips in the tussle. Not much fun I can tell you and possibly more hassle that it's worth. Think before doing this. It isn't easy.

These new pads are really starting to get on my nerves now. I've worn them for 300 miles now. Paid a guy at the local garage £40 to slip them this morning (noob with no expertise or tools, so I can't do it myself) and after an 80 mile round trip, they're squeeling again. badly.

Live in london too, so as the OP said, it's been very difficult to find a quiet spot to run them in properly. Unless I get up at 5am to do it, which isn't much fun.

Any options?

Some people don't like the look of the rays, but they're much lighter than the standard wheels, which has performance and tyre longevity benefits (according to unreliable internet sources whom I cannot recall).

I love them though :-)

I stand corrected! Thought it was cheaper than that.

Eeek - even uprevving is pricey...

Whoa, that's had some love.

Personally hate modded cars, but that looks rather menacing

My 2c:

1) I'm glad Nissan delivered 98% of the engine's potential in it's original format, rather than forcing owners to spend hundreds or thousands on upgrades to maximise performance.

2) The other 2% (in the form of re-mapping for DE owners?) appears to come at relatively small cost (£200?)

3) exhaust tuning is horses for courses. Happy with the note from my standard box. Not sure I could justify £600 (or whatever) for a slightly lower octave.

DT

EDIT: Forgot to add that I'm surprised that the 350z has such a large mod scene, in light of the tiny bhp gains available (in the absence of a very large budget).

Then you have a Grand Tourer

Also worth bearing in mind that yours is bought and paid for unlike a large number of supercars.

(checks interest payment on Z loan.... )

Sorry, didn't grab any pics - wouldn't be very cool!

So there I am leaving work on a friday evening, looking forward to the weekend, which is the only time I get to enjoy my Z, and feeling pretty smug generally.

When I see some guy outside the office having his brand new McLaren MP4 delivered! Nothing like seeing a £170k supercar and a happy new owner (thankfully a short fat middle-aged bloke) to make you (and your Z) feel a bit less special.

Amazing car though. Just WOW.

I use my zed as my company car and do about 30,000 miles per year in her, I wouldn't change it for anything.

Costs a bit in petrol, but not bad I get between 24 and 28mpg.

Done about 80,000 miles to date, on sixth set of rear tyres And don't mention the company car tax

Long journeys are not a problem even when I do over 600 miles per day, I've always found her comfortable, and the best thing people gat out of your way on the motorway.

You wont regret it

Ah so your the guy with "Trotter's Independent Traders" written on the side?

Serious mileage though. Something that's not often considered by prospective buyers is just what comfortable ride the Z is (for a sports car).