Who said pulsation/residue is exclusive to Thermoquiet?
Not me
I believe the only thing I mentioned was that Thermoquiet has been anything BUT quiet, in my professional experience
Nevada_545ās comment seemed to imply that, not yours @db4690.
I have no experience with Thermoquiet pads.
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So your not going to even try the hard stop method?
I use this procedure to verify the rotors are warped, works every time.
I perform warranty repairs but I have never found a residue problem, must be a regional issue. People here are hard on brakes, they wear them out in 20,000 miles in city traffic and overheat them in the mountains.
I amā¦tomorrowā¦Iāll report back.
If you are IN Nevada, no wonder you havenāt seen it. It is typically a moisture or humidity driven problem caused by cars sitting for extended periods. It can even wear away so its not visible but the rotors will have thickness variation because of the hard spot created by localized corrosion. The rotor may appear clean but there is a fat lump on the rotor that causes pulsation.
I used to work as an engineer for a division that made brakes. That ālot rotā was one of the problems every brake supplier struggled with. Along with squeal, grinding noises and taper wear among others. One car model GM built, the mid-90ās Malibu, had 3 different pad materials available as warranty replacements. One would squeal, one would grind and the other would pulse. Each pad fixed 2 of the 3 problems so if you complained about squeal, you got the grinder or the pulser!
So Keith I did the hard stop twice and believe it or not the vibration seems almost gone. Thanks a lotā¦
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Thanks for the feedback. If its not completely gone, you may still have a slight warping of the rotors that was aggravated by the residue build up. Now hte question is, can you live with the remaining vibration or do you go ahead and replace the rotors and pads?
Yeaā¦still has slight vibration. Maybe Iāll wait a couple weeks.
Vibrations during braking that come and go are a little worrying. It could be something coming loose, even the wheel lug nuts coming loose. Suggest at the very minimum before further driving to verify the lug nuts are all there and not loose.
As mentioned above itās a little unusual to replace pads at 34k. But it isnāt unheard of either, especially with an automatic transmission. If you do a lot of stop and go driving or drive a lot on steep roads, like in San Francisco, even more so. I think what you need at this point is a thorough visual brake inspection. That will quickly tell whether the pads & rotors are thick enough, and whether thereās any obvious warp to the rotors. That can all be done on many cars without even removing anything other than the wheel.
Were any of the wheels removed just prior to you noticing all this? Like to rotate the tires? If so, that could be the cause. If the wheel installation process is not followed properly, it can warp the rotors. Also the rotors could be fine, but the wheel could have been put on a little crooked, not seated agains the hub properly. If everything about the brakes seems to pass the visual inspection, suggest to ask your shop to remove then reinstall all four wheels, but not to use their power tools to tighten the lug nuts. Instead hand tighten them with a torque wrench, using the proper alternating or start pattern, and to tighten them in installments. In other words if the final tightening spec is 120 ft pounds, tighten them first to 40, next to 80, then to 120. If that fixes the problem, then youāll know what the cause was. If not, at least all four wheels are properly installed.
There is nothing unusual about replacing brake pads @ 34,000 miles. My customer wear out their front brake pads at between 20,000 and 50,000 miles, depending on the model and driving habits.
If the rotors are warped and need to be resurfaced the pads should be replaced if there is less than half of the friction material left. You may have 20,000 miles of pad left but it is practicable to perform the complete brake replacement at this time.
About material transfer from pads to rotors. Some years ago, I did a brake job on one of my kids, duster/dart/valiant? Donāt rember which kid or which car. I replaced pads and rotors because rotors looked terrible, grooved deeply.
For some reason, i threw the rotors on a shelf and they sat there rusting for a few years.When I decided to finally went to throw them out, I could see the rust was creeping under the pad material, separating it from the rotor. when I whacked the edge of the rotor with a hammer, all the grooved material fell off, leaving me with a perfectly flat, smooth, but rusty rotor.
Completely agree with you.
thanks for the vid
havent brought it to Nissan yet but they told me rotors can be resurfaced once so may not need replacing. Thanks
That video did not show how to replace the rotors, you have to take both bolts out of the caliper and 2 large and tight bolts out of the bracket. New clips that the pads fit into are a good idea also but depending on your climate you may be able to re-use them.