Canadian Nissan Truck Club

I just wanted to check in - I had to get my front brakes done and I couldn't bring it down from London up
to Milton to get serviced. I just didn't have the time. So I took it here and it cost me 600 bucks roughly
to replace the front brakes and rotars with a good quality and to have the rear brakes cleaned. He told me
the xterra's run more because of the 4 wheel drive on the front and it is harder to access. He said it is
not as easy to replace as a regular car. What I wanted to know if I got hosed? Is it harder to do the front
breaks? He told me he didn't want to put cheap pads and rotars on becasue of the work to replace.
Thanks guys

It's harder only if you're replacing rotors. Reason being, on a typical passenger car, you can just slide the rotor off after unbolting the caliper and associated bracket. On an X you need to undo the hub, and bearings to take off the rotor/hub assembly, then unbolt the hub from the rotor. IT is actually quite time consuming.

wow big $$$ for brajkes

2 weeks ago - I paid $590 for front rotors, pads, grease front wheel bearings + hubs at Cornwall Nissan.
Not saying you didn't get hosed, but, if you did, I did too...

No, neither of you got hosed, like Simon said, it's a LOT more time consuming to do a full brake job on the X in comparison to most other vehicles.

There is a lot of disassembly and reassembly to go through though, and that's on top of the cost of the parts.

It's not that it's that difficult to do, it's just time consuming.

Yup, not hosed but next time I would see if they would give a quote before doing it. Each shop may have their own price depending on how much they want the job

Like SImon says.. it is the way Nissan chose to design it. It not really just a 4x4 thing as other 4x4s have the rotors come off a bit easier.

I need to do my front brakes soon, I guess I should set aside the better part of a day to the pads and rotors?

Not a whole day, but probably 3-4 hours.

Thanks Simon. I know there is a write up here somewhere, I need to look at that again after I get the parts.

If you follow the write-up for the hub/bearing maintenance (found in the HOW-TO section here) that gets you pretty much as far as you need to be to replace the rotors.

The only additional step is splitting the rotor from the hub (6 bolts and some prying, relatively easily done), and then installing the new rotor (6 bolts and some tightening, download the FSM for torque specs).

now that I am thinking back - it wasn't so much the parts but a good chunk was labour!

Next time you need brakes let me know
I will do 400 installed all day

Zeniceguy wrote:Next time you need brakes let me know
I will do 400 installed all day

you bring the parts ill do it for frree well you have to bring a case of beer

As long as they were good quality rotors (like around $80-$100 each) you're fine, if they're $30 rotors, then it sounds a little high.

Amen on the time consuming part! I did mine in my driveway 2 weeks ago. Not hard, but time consuming when your anal like me I replaced pads, rotors, and cleaned/greased all bearings. Also sandblasted and painted calipers(nice clean fresh silver) hubs (black) and rear drums (black). It was worth it.... Looks SWEET! Note I also used all new Nissan parts

Took me some time when I did mine. It was an unheated shop in February-ish. SPent time figuring out the FSM and the locking bit (special tool but made a dofer tool). Now I know.

Nismojunky wrote:

Zeniceguy wrote:Next time you need brakes let me know
I will do 400 installed all day

you bring the parts ill do it for frree well you have to bring a case of beer

Next bidder? WHo would want a drunk guy doing your brakes

Snafu wrote:you bring the parts ill do it for frree well you have to bring a case of beer

Next bidder? WHo would want a drunk guy doing your brakes [/quote]

the beer is for after

lol - not when I work on my brakes - rye is for after

HI Guys -
2004 Xterra 4WD automatic > Just had front brake rotors, pads and calipers replaced by a local mechanic. Upon picking it up, the front PASSENGER SIDE freewheel hub (i think) was grinding when we got to about 40km/h in 2wd. Brought it back to be looked at, they did something to it, now the noise is gone in 2wd but appears in the front DRIVER SIDE if I attempt to engage 4wd. Any tips on what they can do to rectify would be great. I still love this truck - been a member here for a long time but drifted away from it as a hobby when kids came along

Double check the grease used in the auto hubs. If they used a heavy grease, it can wreak havoc on the auto hub functionality. To fix, clean out the hubs using a good degreaser, then use fluid film to lubricate the auto hubs.