Good brake job combo & upgrade for us diy'ers

[j.cerdic]

Hello everyone just thought i'd share a little info, i do my own brake jobs heres a material list that works well for me and might interest others.
03, g35, sedan original owner.
ROTORS by extreme stop, slotted and drilled made in canada $500.00 all 4
BRAKE PADS by hawk performance, ceramic made in the USA $160.00 all 4
CALIPERS by NAPA off the shelf, made in china probably? Anyways $550.00 all 4 with core return add $60.00 per wheel whith no core return so return your old calipers for recycling. Also add about $25.00 for misc products and $35.00 for a case of beer.

Now $1200.00 for a complete brake job that will last, not having to walk in to the stealership and pay for their 2nd rate, 2nd rate parts, not having to clean the freaken brake dust every freaken other day, not to mention the instant gratification you can only get knowing YOU DID IT YOURSELF, and last but not least lets not forget the lovin momma bear has commin your way for all your hard work, and for not trying to collect on the insurance money. FREAKEN PRICELESS

John in Brampton, Ontario, Canada.

P.S. stop laughing at how expensive beer is here.

[Gilley]

Why did you replace the calipers?

[sergey85]

hawks are pretty nice pads. mine just now kind of started making noice i guess it might be time to replace them already

[afrosheen]

Yeah, what's wrong with the calipers? They fail very rarely. The soft rotors and softer pads that Infiniti supplies us with are the only bad guys here.

BTW drilled and slotted are brittle. Anyone that brakes hard and splashes through water runs the risk of cracking them. They're track-day rotors if you ask me. Standard vaned rotors from a few companies (and even the Brembo blanks) are good enough for day-to-day.

[shorod]

From what I've heard from others at the track, drilled rotors are NOT track rotors unless they were cast from the start to be drilled rotors. Under the extreme braking, the rotors that were taken off the shelf and drilled for the ricer crowd tend to crack from hole to hole. When I had my Stealth twin turbo, I bought slotted and drilled rotors for my everyday use, then removed them and put the stock solid rotors back on for track time. I didn't notice a braking difference around town. Where the real difference came was when I switched to high-temp synthetic brake fluid and especially the stainless braided brake hoses at all four corners. The track pads made quite a difference (especially in town when they weren't up to temp) but that's a given.

So, I agree with afrosheen, there isn't benefit in going with the typical drilled/slotted rotors unless you're doing it purely for appearance. For everyday use, the solid rotors are fine. I don't know the background of Extreme Stop rotors to know if they start with a part intended to be drilled and slotted, or if they take an off-the-shelf part and throw it on a mill.

-Rod