Replacement brake pad kits

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arnis

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 23, 2016
Messages
1,043
Location
Estonia, Europe
Last year I ran out of front brake pads.
I payed excessively for the dealer to replace them. Front OEM front pads cost 4-6x more than normal price for pads
made by other pad manufacturers.
Now I'm running out of rear pads. Dealer asked 3-4x more than replacement pads. I'm tired of those prices.
And I ran out of warranty (mileage limitation). So no reason to pay too much.
They said correct part number is D4M604ND0A for rear pads.
I have Sunderland, UK Leaf made in June 2014.
I'm not sure what is going on, I think there are 3 different rear braking systems available on Leafs :?
Not sure what I have.

Does anybody have experience with aftermarket high quality brake pads. Brembo, Hella, Bosch?
What part number for my vehicle is the right one :?
 
I've used lots of aftermarket pads on other cars and I don't see why the Leaf would be any different as long as they fit. You basically 'get what you pay for' in brake pads and since they are a critical component and seldom require replacement I always get the best ones I can find. There are certainly different materials with different characteristics but if you match what the OEM pads are made of they should work fine.

That said, a friend of a friend works for a company designing brake pads and he said there is a certain 'black magic' about the formulation to get no-squeak pads, etc. but I've never had a problem with quality pads and rotors.

Unless you are driving your Leaf on a track you don't need racing pads and if you care about brake dust staining your wheels you may want to avoid organic pads but otherwise any decent brake pad should work.
 
The harder the material, the longer the pads last. However, what slows the car down is friction - kinetic energy -> heat. So, using a harder pad also means that your rotors will wear faster.

Because I'd rather do an easy pad replacement than a more labor intensive rotor replacement (or a rotor turning), I tend to buy cheaper pads that are made of softer materials.
 
alozzy said:
Because I'd rather do an easy pad replacement than a more labor intensive rotor replacement (or a rotor turning), I tend to buy cheaper pads that are made of softer materials.
The rear rotors with the integrated drum parking brakes are hard to replace. But the front rotors are pretty simple. You just need to remove one more bolt and loosen another to swing the caliper bracket out of the way, and the rotor slides right off the studs. They're not too expensive either. RockAuto usually has decent prices.
 
What kind of pads are used originally?
I know they have lots of copper in the friction material as it has lots of orange-speckles.
I also know they hardly make any dust. And that they don't last a long time.
And the rotors are hardly worn.
Therefore, original ones are soft as candy.
And I like the way they worked.
 
arnis said:
What kind of pads are used originally?
I know they have lots of copper in the friction material as it has lots of orange-speckles.
I also know they hardly make any dust. And that they don't last a long time.
And the rotors are hardly worn.
Therefore, original ones are soft as candy.
And I like the way they worked.

The 2011 and 2012 models from Japan that were delivered to the USA came with ceramic pads. As far as I know, the 2013 through at least 2015 Leafs manufactured in the USA also have ceramic pads. Ceramic pads create very little brake dust and last a long time, but they wear the rotors more than softer pads. My experience with ceramic pads on other vehicles is that the rotors wear to minimum thickness about the same time as the pads wear out. This makes brake service easy--just replace rotors, pads, and hardware.
 
Therefore UK built Leaf does not have ceramic pads.
Part number is also different for UK built Leaf, some aftermarket pad makers mention that.

But still, absolutely confusing how many versions are there.
 
With the 1-2 times you will have to replace brake pads on the Leaf, I seriously doubt that your WILL EVER wear out any brake components.

I have been using ceramic pads for the past 40 years, with good results. I have used wagner and a/c delco..
 
OEM pads last 100 000km front and back ( 90Mm front, 110Mm rear). Battery lost 10% capacity.
Therefore likely rotors much be changed once. before car will be officially worn down.
 
Well, rotors DO NOT need to be changed or recut during every brake pad change. The only time you NEED to is if you let the old worn brake pads gouge the rotor surface, or if they are very scarred or there is a vibration when you brake.

Considering how gently the Leaf brakes seem to work, I don't think the car will scar or overheat the rotors enough to need change.. If you are REALLY a perfectionist, yes, you could replace the rotors during each pad change (which is a 5 minute job). And the Chinese have made rotor prices come down to $40-50 each!! CHEEP!
 
in Estonia your rotors will likely be rusted by the time the pads wear out, that has been my limited experience there anyway.

if your calipers are the same as the US Leaf, then i would just use some ceramic pads, and if the rotors are decent then keep them as is, but if they are original they might be shot from the environment anyway.

post a pic of your caliper and rotor diameter. i can measure mine to compare. Rockauto seems to only list one size/shape/mfgr date of rear pad for the Leaf.

i am really surprised that you have managed to wear through the pads though, i am at 85k km (52k miles) with my 2013 and i'm not even half way worn through. Might be the brake pad material difference in US vs UK built Leaf though.

Marko
 
I can't believe people are needing pads on an EV, the brake contact on he LEAF must be more extreme than I thought, an EV of this weight should go to about 175-250K miles before needing pads. Certainly at least 100K. Even with the lower regen on a LEAF I find it surprising for lower milage replacements, certainly no one should need rotors, that should be a lifetime part on a LEAF.
 
I'm not planning on changing rotors prematurely. They are fine until they are not :lol:
Right now they look excellent.

It appears friction material width on the rotor is 31-32mm.
And brake pad backplate height is 105mm.

Stores have notes for some types of pads: "9/2012-2/2013" or "up to 8/2012" -both have same dimensions.
Bosch 0 986 494 090
vs
Bosch 0 986 494 857
Different price. First one has note "For AKEBONO" brakes.
Don't see pads for "3/2013 or newer".
https://photos.app.goo.gl/NioIlYH1Da4uEY6m2
 
EVDRIVER said:
I can't believe people are needing pads on an EV, the brake contact on he LEAF must be more extreme than I thought, an EV of this weight should go to about 175-250K miles before needing pads. Certainly at least 100K. Even with the lower regen on a LEAF I find it surprising for lower milage replacements, certainly no one should need rotors, that should be a lifetime part on a LEAF.

the amount of grit and crap on the roads in Estonia in the winter is my guess for why these wear out more quickly. Though i don't have good examples from the midwest which get similar a climate. Or the pads are just super soft so the rotors don't wear and the pads do instead.

i'll measure mine tonight for comparisons sake, but did you check rockauto.co.uk, i had a relative order from there to Estonia a few years ago and i think it worked fine. it even shows pad dimensions in some of the pics.
https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog...tric,3310372,brake+&+wheel+hub,brake+pad,1684

Marko

edit, pics from mine as promised:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/uaR6a1qcmy4mOdp52
pad is 106mm tall which lines up exactly with what rockauto wants to sell.
 
EVDRIVER said:
I can't believe people are needing pads on an EV, the brake contact on he LEAF must be more extreme than I thought, an EV of this weight should go to about 175-250K miles before needing pads. Certainly at least 100K. Even with the lower regen on a LEAF I find it surprising for lower milage replacements, certainly no one should need rotors, that should be a lifetime part on a LEAF.
As the battery degrades, Nissan *severely* cuts back the regen on the car. My car barely regens at all now, unless the conditions are ideal, and even then it doesn't regen as strongly as it did when new.

It is very disappointing.
 
garsh said:
As the battery degrades, Nissan *severely* cuts back the regen on the car. My car barely regens at all now, unless the conditions are ideal, and even then it doesn't regen as strongly as it did when new.

It is very disappointing.

This doesn't apply to newer model made since 2013.
 
My experience from driving the 2011 for 50,422 miles and the 2015 for 62,073 miles (and counting) is that regeneration (and DCQC charging rate) is limited strictly by the highest cell-pair voltage (and possibly overall pack voltage). The LBC (lithium battery controller) limits the regeneration to keep the highest cell-pair voltage below a threshold so the amount of regeneration drops as the battery deteriorates because the internal resistance increases. The 2015 has lower internal resistance now after over 3 years than the 2011 had in the fall of 2012 after 17 months of use so it has not experienced the dramatic loss of regeneation that I saw with the 2011. Regeneration in the 2011 was restored when the battery was replaced in October 2013, but was already dropping at cooler temperatures by the time the car met its demise in January 2015. Even with reduced regeneration, the original brake pads on the 2011 were still in excellent condition when it was rear-ended while stopped at a traffic light on January 4, 2015. The 2015 still has full regeneration after only 2 or 3 miles of driving in the morning after L2 charging to 100% overnight. I always charge fully overnight and drive in B-mode.
 
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