Brake feel. Is this normal?

Alfer

My mom (70's) bought herself a 2010 Touring model convertible from CarMax last summer. Great car and she lets me drive it around now and then as well.

My question is this...when I apply the brakes, I am noticing an odd faint pulsation feeling in the brake pedal. I'm not hearing any brake noise and it seems to stop just fine. This happens no matter what speed I've been driving/stopping.

I'm wondering if I need to bring it to Nissan to have it inspected or is this just normal for this kind of car? Note it's the first true sports car in the family so I don't have much to compare it to.

The car has approx. 18K miles on it.

Any thoughts on what's going on?

Thanks for any help you can offer us.

jcosta79

Deposits on the rotors. Just take the car to a local shop and have them turn the front rotors. Should only cost you about $100 and that will take care of the problem.

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JARblue

My suspicion on a used car like that would be excess pad deposits on the rotors. Any good shop should be able to turn them for you

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DEpointfive0

Your mom is in her 70's and bought a 370Z? God bless her

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SouthArk370Z

I agree with it probably being glazing/deposits on the rotors but you may not need to have them turned. Do a few 60-5 mph hard braking runs (don't come to a complete stop or you may compound the problem) and that may clear up the problem. If that doesn't help, take it to a brake pro - they can turn/replace them if needed.

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JARblue

I going to add that upgrading the rotors and pads might not be a bad idea before I noticed this fact. Probably not necessary

The only reason I wouldn't bother with that is because he mentioned it happens at any speed. I had success with that method when the vibration only happens during high speed braking. My wife appears to be pretty hard on the brakes because this issue popped up around 12K miles on our Z. When I started DD the Z around 20K miles it was happening when braking from 20 mph or faster. I tried re-bedding the brakes with zero success (I might have had more success if I had done it when the issue first appeared). I ended up just replacing the front rotors and pads because I wanted slotted rotors, but turning the rotors was most definitely an option.

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SouthArk370Z

Good point.

But "burning off" the glaze is, for all intents and purposes, free (just a few minutes of your time and a little gas), so why not give it a try? Just don't do it in traffic.

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kenchan

then he will ask about another pulsation... abs... is that normal?

Alfer

Thanks for the info folks. I will give the quick stop method a try.

Oh and yes, I'm well aware of what the ABS pulsation feels like.

kenchan

btw, that was just a joke...