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Leaf 30 Tekna Brakes

6K views 36 replies 16 participants last post by  EmmaK1 
#1 ·
In our first couple of years owning our Leaf, we were told it needed new front discs & pads.
We questioned this as the car was relatively new and hadn't done much mileage.
Nissan replaced discs & pads in May 2017.

20,000 miles later, on a recent check-up due to an intermittent clicking when you take your foot off the accelerator, they are telling us the discs and pads need replacing again, and that the discs are 'corroded' (they are worn, one surface has visible grooves in it, that's not the same as 'corroded' in my book, no sign of rust or corrosion anywhere?)

Also it only seems to be on one face of the disc, the inside surface. The outside surface that you can easily see through the spaces in the wheel, are clean & smooth and look OK.
We questioned this with Nissan UK and they contacted our Nissan garage, who told them 'it is normal wear & tear'
We are middle aged and very careful drivers, getting good mpkWh as we make the most of regenerative breaking and so don't brake nearly as much as we would driving and ICE car. But we do make sure we use the brakes a little to keep them clean, and there are many times when regenerative breaking isn't enough, so the brakes are getting regular use, plus the car is kept indoors and dry.

I really think this is either a caliper sticking or some other malfunction of the braking system.
Plus, in all my history of driving (40 years) I've replaced many brake pads, but only once EVER had to have discs skimmed, and never replaced.

Two sets of new discs in 2 years? How can they say this is 'Normal wear & tear'

Any ideas, advice?
 
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#2 ·
They do seem to wear their inner surface more than the outer but I think my car is possibly on its factory discs at 108k so for you to be told you're needing your second set seems excessive.
Light scoring is inevitable and allowed under the MOT, but maybe you have some grit trapped between the inner pads and the disc causing the noise ?
If you feel confident to tackle the job yourself (very straightforward set up ) take the sliders out of the calipers and clean and lubricate them with rubber safe grease ( always be safe with yer rubbers) and clean beneath the stainless plates the pads slide on as rusting under there can pinch the pads causing them to stick.
 
#5 ·
Think evs need to swap to corrosion proof discs.
My ampera got a jammed calipher due to rust an wrote off a 70% worn disc.
This is one off the issues manufacturers never saw coming. breaking being too efficant so the discs don't get "skimmed" every day like a normal car.
 
#6 ·
Yup, lack of brake use is a definite stumbling block in EVs.
I use my brakes pretty much as I would a normal car, TBH.
I don't drive slowly enough that I can use regen braking in any meaningful way
They're not hugely expensive items though, can get good quality pads and discs for £80 all in.
Just fit them myself, car brakes are positively agricultural compared with the more 'swiss watch' set ups on motorbikes.
I'll probably do them soon, the pads came up as 'amber warning' in the service (19000 miles).
Told you I don't use regen much.;)
 
#32 ·
I don't drive slowly enough that I can use regen braking in any meaningful way.
Surely regen is always on and meaningful. My Carwings stats say regen is about 20% of the electricity put into battery. Even a heavy braking driver would achieve 10% I’d say. That should represent more than the friction losses in the brakes so they should last more than twice that of a normal ICE car.

What I have never been able to get to the bottom of is the use of B on the “gearstick”. When coasting it obviously increases regen. But if one pressed the brake to get say 0.2g of braking does putting it in B make any difference to the balance between regen and friction? I suspect not so B position is not necessarily achieving a saving. E.g. if one lifts off in B and then finds one is going too slow one accelerates again. So rather than cruising at an even speed one is slowing down and speeding up again all the time reducing energy efficiency.
 
#9 ·
I'm not. 250 including the MOT. Which I still find extortionate.

Still find it very strange that a car with 13,000 miles on it can fail an MOT on brake strength as they claim. I've got a 45yr old MG that can somehow magically last more than 5 years without even needing an adjustment to the brakes.

Oh, and my days of doing brakes on the drive in December are long gone.
 
#12 ·
Hi TuftyDave, brake disc and pad replacement is a nice little earner for the dealers. You would struggle to spend more than £60 for two discs and £30 for a pad set, retail including VAT (from bestpartstore for example). The dealer will fit much much cheaper parts than this.

Major cause of the wear is infrequent maintenance. Modern sliding calipers need cleaning and greasing probably every 6 months, say autumn before winter grit goes on the road and again in spring. Can be nicely combined with fitment removal of winter wheels.

However, if you are 100 % reliant on dealer servicing, it might be more economic to skip the labour costs and budget on disk replacement say every two years, even though this is an avoidable cost.

In their efforts to save cost at the factory, almost every single new car comes with dry fitted brake pads (no lubricant). Within a year, there will be corrosion between piston and pad and caliper fist and pad, also underneath the anti-squeal shims. Properly applied lubricant will prevent this corrosion, stop the pads going out of alignment, sticking etc and prevent premature wear.

After your car has been dealer serviced, take it home, remove a wheel and check what they have (have not) done.
 
#15 ·
Maybe I'm just not used to dealer prices then. I'm annoyed that they failed it. And in checking the MOT history site to verify they weren't just feeding me a line, I found out that they failed it last year for misaligned headlights, which they subsequently 'fixed' and then passed it. There was nothing wrong with the headlights. So now my 4-year-old car has 2 MOT failures on its record. Good work, Nissan.
 
#16 ·
Maybe I'm just not used to dealer prices then.
If you figure £40 for the MOT (the max anyone can charge is £54.85, they're allowed to be less than that).
Then £210 for the pads and discs isn't so bad.
Decent aftermarket parts would be £90-£100, much more than that for Nissan parts.
So looks like they've not charged you much labour at all, maybe an hour at best.
 
#19 ·
I took my Leaf to Groupon ATS MOT offer for £18. Passed no problem. Took an afternoon of my time, but saved £36 and a lot of headache from made up threats from the main dealer service department. I'll be doing the same next year.

Also, at main dealer, I always request free courtesy car. But stay away from the dealer that want extortionate £10/15 for basic insurance. (Glyn Hopkins I'm looking at you) I'd put 60 miles on the courtesy car rather than my other car, Otherwise what's the point of paying their extortionate service price in the first place?



Next year will be the end of my electric drivetrain warranty (5 yr for 24kWh). I have the clicking noise again (as described in OP) and I'll want it corrected again like last year when I first bought the car. Nissan Westway refused to look at the problem this year because I wouldn't authorise the brake work. Nissan UK Emailed me a survey and I've written a strongly worded feedback. Next year I'll want this looked at properly if I were to pay off PCP to keep the car, so I may have to DIY the brake disk+pads change myself next summer.

It's sad main dealers are so greedy, yet they are gate keeper to the manufacturer's service knowledge. The sooner we remove this middleman the better, IMO.
 
#20 ·
Yes, Bristol Street Motors sent me a link to a feedback survey yesterday. I won't be going back there.

It's ironic. We drive newer cars because we want the reliability and performance they can offer over older ones, but then we're locked into dealer servicing because we have a used car culture that is obsessed with 'FSH'. Then we have a dealer culture (there are always exceptions, of course) that treats customers like dumb cash cows. Drives me nuts.
 
#21 ·
Yes, Bristol Street Motors sent me a link to a feedback survey yesterday. I won't be going back there.

It's ironic. We drive newer cars because we want the reliability and performance they can offer over older ones, but then we're locked into dealer servicing because we have a used car culture that is obsessed with 'FSH'. Then we have a dealer culture (there are always exceptions, of course) that treats customers like dumb cash cows. Drives me nuts.
Another reason I like PCP.
The lease/PCP companies can't force you to use the main dealers, so I don't.
Only did so in the Leaf because servicing was free as part of the deal, I've used independents for other lease/PCP cars before.
Not my concern if the lease company gets less for it because it doesn't have main dealer stamps, and no having to justify my decision to tyre-kicker Joe Public twits.
 
#22 ·
Just had my second years service on my Leaf 30. 18,000 miles on the clock. The dealer told me the front discs were “excessively corroded” and needed front discs and pads ASAP. Decided I didn’t want to pay the dealer prices and took it to a local independent garage I have used for all my previous cars over the last 10+ years. Before ordering the parts he asked me to bring it down and he would have a look at the brakes. 2 minutes later he told me there is nothing wrong with them. The discs look brand new and the pads have at least 75% left on them. I know where the car will be going for it’s MOT next year and it won’t be the Nissan dealer!
 
#23 ·
Another Groupon MOT here, at a local Croxdale Fast Fit.

Cost £17.50, less some cashback, so about £16.

Said the inside of the front discs and really badly corroded and need replacing, quoted £170 for pads and discs, but said it wasn't even an advisory on the MOT... So think I'll hang on a bit longer.
 
#24 ·
My leaf went into the main dealer for another pair of wing mirrors. The passenger side has now been swapped twice for squeaking, drivers side once. Whilst it was there I got a call to say similar to you guys - the front discs were heavily corroded and needed replacement etc. I said no to the £235 and asked for a phone number for Nissan. Car has 10.5k miles and is 18 months old. Dealer called me back and said they had spoken to nissan abs Nissan would pay half and they would pay half. So I got them changed for free. Which was very nice news before Christmas
 
#30 ·
For my 13 Reg 24kWh Accenta, when it was serviced recently there was comment about corrosion on the disks, but it was not considered serious (although there was a quote for £260 for replacing the front discs and pads, and £371.04 for replacing the rear discs and pads!). As it had recently been standing outside for two months while I was on holiday in Australia, I said I would see what a bit of use would do, and as winter is now on us, have taken to charging to 100% rather than 80% with the result that I have to use the brakes (rather than regen) on the first couple of downhill corners when leaving home.
 
#31 ·
My Prii had this corrosion on inside face too and sticking callipers, but my 13 reg 40k miles Accenta is fine with <0.5mm disc wear on front outsides and <1mm on insides. So is interesting that some others are having trouble. No idea what the variation may be due to. Reports of excessive wear may be due to calliper sticking rather than disc corrosion.

I do though get one click when the discs cut in after regen is not enough. Is this just the slack in the callipers slots being taken up? Is it curable or needing to be cured?

Increasingly the rear brakes squeal when I reverse out of the parking space in the morning. Clears up after moving forwards. I assume the parking brake is not fully releasing. Can this be cured by greasing something like the cable or calipers?

For any of you having excess wear it is worth placing a finger on your 4 discs after a long journey to check their temperatures. Unless you are heavy on the brakes you should hardly feel an increase and certainly no mismatch side to side. Doing it on an ICE car or a Leaf with badly binding brakes though may lead to burns so a contactless thermometer would be safer. On a Prius this proved that one calliper was not releasing properly and greasing the sliding pins cured it. Just waggling the calliper side to side might clear it for a while. My Leaf is fine though.

Does the Leaf have some fancy recommended grease for the sliding pins? Toyota recommend some for the Prius that is fearsomely expensive and/or impossible to obtain in small quantities. I used a generic much cheaper type and it worked well.
 
#35 ·
I just changed my reduction gear fluid using the specified Nissan S ATF. I did not follow the instructions that I found on a YouTube channel. No need to remove the LF wheel. Just run the front end up on ramps, remove the fiberboard undertray and with a 10mm hex key remove the level plug. Its magnet should have only a slight gooey fuzz on it from the break-in as once gear teeth are honed in they don't wear. Again with 10mm key remove the drain plug.
My drained fluid was black at 67,000 miles. The drain plug magnet had almost no fuzz on it. If you can get one put a new sealing washer on the drain plug; I didn't bother on the level plug.
With a 10mm key remove the fill plug on top of the gearbox. It doesn't have a magnet. With a tube into the fill hole I poured the specified 1½ US quarts into the gearbox. The Nissan S ATF bottle is marked in both (US) quarts and litres. I suppose that in the UK imperial quarts are marked.
A little fluid should dribble out of the level plug hole. If not, add a little more.
When it's full, put the level and fill plugs back in. Torque the level and drain plugs to spec. The fill plug doesn't need to be very tight.
 
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