Brakes break

Our Project SE-R has about a quarter of a bajillion miles on it, so when stuff falls off or breaks, I usually just put it in the glove box. Problem is, the glove box is getting full. My daughter, who is 4, will open it just to reach in and find interesting stuff to play with. Through this practice I have found door handle bezels, pieces of headliner, and even a sunvisor in her toy chest. Now that I tell the story, it sounds really cool, actually. How many kids play with classic SE-R sun visors? I am giddy and proud, but I digress: lotsa miles equals lotsa little issues. Like brakes.

Brakes are actually more important than sun visors on most days, heading most directions, so when the back brakes started making sounds I'd never heard before, I figured it was time for an NX2000 brake upgrade.

For those who have followed our little project (after you finished reading about our Project 350Z's latest technological triumph), you might've heard me complain about the braking of this little Sentra-that-could. I kid you not, they were worse than the brakes on a UPS truck. I know, because I drove one of those for years. After the noises started, we got it on a lift, and found metal-to-metal on passenger rear side, and a sticking caliper on the driver rear. Odd that they weren't the same caliper, eh?

So I head to NAPA, an absolute treasure chest of Brembo 4 and 6-pot calipers, ceramic rotors, and other jewels. I opted for left and right OEM-ish rear calipers and rotors, loaded with pads of the highest quality to be sure. I'd have to pay a core charge of $85 per side, which was almost twice what the new caliper cost. So far, so good. Computer beeps, Mr. Friendly winces, together in stunning rhythm actually--not in stock. Great. I could order them, the friendly behind the desk let me know. Since their website was not working, I jumped back 10 years, prepaid for it all, and waited for it to come. Wednesday comes, brakes parts are wrong--one caliper wasn't right. Send it back (car on lift, mind you), and am told it will be 3 days before the correct caliper can be found. It only briefly occurs to me that God created the Heavens and Earth in 6, so the entire ordeal having already exceeded that, correct calipers still eluding me, was going to have to do.

I go in the following Monday and am told by the same Mr. Friendly behind the counter, now wearing a different shirt but otherwise about the same, that he is actively tracking the progress of the package on its way to him (I swear to you that the computers at NAPA are merely props, and that short men with really good hearing are shuffling beneath and behind the counters through card catalogue systems looking up part numbers and such). Incredulous but powerless, I allow his story, and ask if that zippy little Ford Ranger that I see all over the city proudly bearing the NAPA name can whisk the caliper over to me when it arrives, you know, because I've already driven to the store 4 times without getting what I need. He laughs, honest to God, right in my face, and the other 2 guys behind the counter that had been pretending they weren't listening start to snicker. Good times.

As of today, Tuesday, August 30th, the correct caliper is still not here, the Sentra is still on a lift, dripping brake fluid, waiting for skippy at NAPA to do his job. When he does, we are hoping to have stopping time more on par with FedEx trucks while we figure out the offset on the bronze VolkTE-37s we want, so that the NX2000 brakes we're going to be installing up front'll fit. All in the name of function, of course.