Another brake question (Pads) for Nissan/Infiniti

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So, I have run many pads (Project mu B force, EBC Blue, OE, Stoptech Street Performance, Endless something or other) I ran a few sets of the EBC NDX pads which worked great, until they didn't. The Stoptech Street Performance pads seem to be a good compromise of cold and hot performance. I always run stock sizes. I've also run many sets of rotors, Primarily EBC, DBA, Centric or OE. In every case, the aftermarket rotors have more swept area that the pads don't touch. Has anyone who had worked on these particular cars (06+ G35 and 06+ FX45 as well as some others) found pads that cover more of the rotor swept are without drawbacks? There is room in the caliper for a taller pad. I recall The Critic at one point saying they used some pad instead of some other.

I've attached some illustrations, hopefully they get my point across without ruining the internet. These may all look like the same pictures, but they are different rotors and different pads, in different combinations - front and read. These pictures are from the G35, but the FX uses the same pads and the rotors, while thicker, have the same swept area. The fronts are 888's the rear are 905's












 
What type of breaking are you looking for? Aggressive or general purpose. Slots and drills give more bite but less durability. Big heavy solid rotors have more mass to absorb heat and survive. Give centric plain stock rotors and a set of ceramic brake pads and see how they compare.
 
I personally am a fan of Autozone house brand brakes. If I can get duralast GT brakes, I get them. On the 3 cars me and my brother have used them all, they have been rated with friction ratings of GG which means amazing stopping power both hot and cold, plus they have a lifetime warranty. They do leave quite a bit of dust though. On cars where I can't get them or on daily drivers where I am not quite as caring about the hot braking, I get the Duralast gold Cmax. For my protege, the fronts were also rated GG, where as for my RX7 they were just FF. But they are good pads and seem to last a while.
 
You'd be better off contacting the companies directly and asking them why
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: danez_yoda
What type of breaking are you looking for? Aggressive or general purpose. Slots and drills give more bite but less durability. Big heavy solid rotors have more mass to absorb heat and survive. Give centric plain stock rotors and a set of ceramic brake pads and see how they compare.



Generally Aggressive. I have used Centric premium and cryo solid rotors with good results. I have no complaints with any of the rotors, what I'm looking for is a pad that covers all of the swept area instead of leaving a ring of rusty, untouched rotor surface. In all my photos, you can see that a good amount of rotor area is not being used.
 
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Originally Posted By: slacktide_bitog
You'd be better off contacting the companies directly and asking them why
smile.gif



This is probably the best option. If a pad exists that fits properly in the caliper and will touch more of the disk surface, I would like to try it.

I reached out to Centric at one point because their stuff seems to be well documented, but all I was able to get was that this pad is the one for the front and this other for rear.

When I was exposed to champ car racing, we could get catalogs of all the pads and their dimensions. I would like to find that for the commercial market.


I thought I saw a thread a few years ago on this board from someone who was working on this same car and said xxx pad wasn't really big enough, so we use xxy now.
 
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The OE pads are slightly taller than most of the aftermarket D905 size pads. Slightly though.

The “rust ring” you are seeing is normal. The factory rotors come with paint that extends into the unswept areas. What we do is that we will tape off the rotor hat with painters tape and spray the unswept area with black primer. After it dries, we then proceed with the brake job. This produces the same look as the original rotors.
 
The primer lasts a while? I hate to be picky about something as silly as a rust ring, but it has been making me crazy for about 12 years now, on two vehicles. I'd like to think no one else notices, but I do.
 
DBA sells coated rotors -- I believe it's called "e-coat" and the part number typically ends with the letter E. I would give their US operation a call and talk to the tech support guys to confirm they're available for your car. If there truly is a problem of a lot of unswept area, the coating should inhibit rust from forming there.
 
Isn't the size of the brake pad determined largely by the caliper ? I mean, I guess a pad manufacturer could add material in the area between the caliper bracket to cover more area but why would they ? The add'l contact area isn't likely to provide enough extra "stopping power" to make it worthwhile plus more material = more cost = higher price to the consumer.
 
Originally Posted By: The Critic
What we do is that we will tape off the rotor hat with painters tape and spray the unswept area with black primer. After it dries, we then proceed with the brake job. This produces the same look as the original rotors.


How do you determine or know the unswept area ? Do you position the pads in place and mark it that way ? Or, if you cover a little too much, does the pad remove the excess paint ?

How long does the primer take to dry ?

Sorry for all the questions !
 
FWIW I have had good luck with Brake Performance rotors (which are zinc coated) and OE Nissan (non-value line) pads. I like their drilled/slotted combo rotors and they have held up through two winters without rust showing up. Only starting to see rust rings now after the third winter season. I don't like their cheap pads though.
 
Originally Posted By: hallstevenson
Isn't the size of the brake pad determined largely by the caliper ? I mean, I guess a pad manufacturer could add material in the area between the caliper bracket to cover more area but why would they ? The add'l contact area isn't likely to provide enough extra "stopping power" to make it worthwhile plus more material = more cost = higher price to the consumer.


More pad material = more heat dissipation.

Surface area is largely independent of friction.
 
Originally Posted By: CBR.worm
The primer lasts a while? I hate to be picky about something as silly as a rust ring, but it has been making me crazy for about 12 years now, on two vehicles. I'd like to think no one else notices, but I do.


Yep, it still looks good after a few years. I am a terrible painter (see the example below) so now I just buy rotors where the unswept areas already come painted. Akebono is one of them.

I painted this one. The excess paint will just scrape off during the test drive. Make sure the paint is fully dried though.


Genuine Toyota rotors, the unswept area is already painted:


Akebono rotors on a 2011 Sonata, the unswept area is already painted:
 
Thanks, I'll try the primer, it's worth a shot.

Originally Posted By: dparm
DBA sells coated rotors -- I believe it's called "e-coat" and the part number typically ends with the letter E. I would give their US operation a call and talk to the tech support guys to confirm they're available for your car. If there truly is a problem of a lot of unswept area, the coating should inhibit rust from forming there.


I've had good luck with the DBA rotors, I currently have DBA 4000 series rotors on one of my cars. Their E-coating is great, but in this particular application, the e-coating doesn't come up high enough. Pictures 3, 4, and 5 are all DBA coated rotors.
 
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