I've been experiencing ever worsening pulsating brakes for the past 55k miles (it started with being tailgated by a new unloaded fullsize truck descending Sonoma Pass). The pulsating happens with harder braking from high speed (If I brake hard from 80 mph, the pulsating stays until the car stops; when braking slowly/moderately from 50 mph there's no pulsating), or descending hills, mountains.
At the excellent advice of members here, I bought a dial indicator and found 3 disks had runout of 0.001", while the front driver side rotor had 0.003" of runout. Nissan specs a max runout 0f 0.003" for the front. I took it off and noticed the casting/machining wasn't perfect, the rotor faces were of uneven, but compensating thickness (if you were to rotate it, you would see the vents had a runout). I also noticed a pad imprint that would bind as I slid a finger along the rotor face. I cleaned the hub and rotor mounting to the point I wouldn't feel irregularities (wire wheel, 500 grit sandpaper and aluminum foil), took a DA sander to the rotor faces and indexed it on the hub to where I got to a little bellow 0.001".
It didn't make a difference to the pulsation, as I imagine any thickness variation that developed because of the runout isn't just goint to go away.
Using the emergency brake at high speed doesn't cause "handle pulsation".
Anyway, sorry the long story.
I bought some old stock Bendix import quiet pads already, as the old pads need to be replaced.
I'm leaning towards buying new rotors. Carid has Bendix PRT1441 or Raybestos Pro 96065R for about $40.
Any opinions on which one is better?
At the excellent advice of members here, I bought a dial indicator and found 3 disks had runout of 0.001", while the front driver side rotor had 0.003" of runout. Nissan specs a max runout 0f 0.003" for the front. I took it off and noticed the casting/machining wasn't perfect, the rotor faces were of uneven, but compensating thickness (if you were to rotate it, you would see the vents had a runout). I also noticed a pad imprint that would bind as I slid a finger along the rotor face. I cleaned the hub and rotor mounting to the point I wouldn't feel irregularities (wire wheel, 500 grit sandpaper and aluminum foil), took a DA sander to the rotor faces and indexed it on the hub to where I got to a little bellow 0.001".
It didn't make a difference to the pulsation, as I imagine any thickness variation that developed because of the runout isn't just goint to go away.
Using the emergency brake at high speed doesn't cause "handle pulsation".
Anyway, sorry the long story.
I bought some old stock Bendix import quiet pads already, as the old pads need to be replaced.
I'm leaning towards buying new rotors. Carid has Bendix PRT1441 or Raybestos Pro 96065R for about $40.
Any opinions on which one is better?
