2012 Mazda5 brake pad and brake rotor replacement

Brake fluid, now there is a good debate. I would say that more depends on breaking style and if there were any issues with the brakes before the job. It sounds like a good rule of thumb, but unless the fluid burnt/boiled from extreme breaking or a hung pad I can't see the fluid being bad. I suppose better safe then sorry. I think the average Joe runs a higher risk of introducing an issue to the break like from improper bleeding/flushing then by not changing fluid under normal conditions.

On the frozen calipers, I was concerned about that when I had difficulty with the pliers on my gen 1 mz3 at over 100k. I got super paranoid with the normal floating pad setup on the rears too. A few thousand miles later though and all seems just fine.

I come from German cars, every 2 years mandatory fluid change for the brakes. If you are tracking a car, they want it changed every year. (there are reasons for this) Brake fluid is hydroscopic, it attracts water, once it becomes "saturated" with water, the boiling point drops and things start to rust on the inside of your braking system. Both are not optimal things to happen. Fluid is cheap and it is really not that hard to change, do your self a favor and change it!
 
http://www.mossmotors.com/SiteGraphics/Pages/brake_fluid/page1.html
A good read (skip to page 2). What I would debate is the typical 2 year (20K?) recommend interval for full change or frequent bleeding. You can find a lot of tech articles on the same subject but the Moss one is nice b/c it explains why and how. IMO, rotor wear correlates to brake use hence when it is time to do rotors, likely time for fluid too. Just my $.2.

Eye opening read, thanks for sharing.
 
A brake fluid change is coming in the near future. I just didn't have the time when I did the rest of the brakes.
 
A couple pics showing the rotors after a few hundred miles of driving. I'm not too happy about how much paint has already come off of them.

Rear rotor:
5xr7m1.jpg


Front rotor:
nd2cs3.jpg
 
I guess paint doesn't like to stick to iron that gets really hot on occasion.

Did those rotors come from the factory painted?
 
I was shopping around for my 2012 and between Rockauto, autoanything.com, AutoPartsWarehouse.com, and Tire Rack I was able to find the Centric High Carbon Cryo Treated front and rear rotors for the Mz5.
 
I guess paint doesn't like to stick to iron that gets really hot on occasion.

Did those rotors come from the factory painted?

Yeah, they come painted from Centric. I'm going to contact them and see what they say about how long the paint should last.

I was shopping around for my 2012 and between Rockauto, autoanything.com, AutoPartsWarehouse.com, and Tire Rack I was able to find the Centric High Carbon Cryo Treated front and rear rotors for the Mz5.

I picked up all my rotors from Amazon. They were the cheapest, and I had gift cards. Tire Rack also carries them. The downside is that they're not as cheap as Amazon. The upside is that TireRack usually has more stock than Amazon.

Here are the cryo rotors, front and rear, not slotted or drilled:

Front - https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)
Rear - https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)
 
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Forgot to update this. I contacted Centric about the wear on the painted portions of the rotors. They said it's not normal for the coating to come off so soon, and that the rotors may have been damaged by the seller, in transit, or by brake hardware rubbing against it. I've double-checked the installation and it's not coming from anything with the brakes. I'd believe the in-transit or seller abuse though considering the reseller I dealt with.

Also, I have to give a slightly negative review to the combination of plain Centric rotors and Euro pads on the rear of the car. They brake fine and are low dust, but damn do they squeal when you back up when it's cold or wet. The squeal goes away pretty soon and doesn't happen if you go forward. I wish Centric made a high carbon version of the rear rotors, as I think that would help the squealing. I don't know how the Posi-Quiet or Hawk pads would do on the rear in terms of wet/cold squealing so I can't recommend using one of those over the Akebono Euros. Just something to be aware of.
 
Forgot to update this. I contacted Centric about the wear on the painted portions of the rotors. They said it's not normal for the coating to come off so soon, and that the rotors may have been damaged by the seller, in transit, or by brake hardware rubbing against it. I've double-checked the installation and it's not coming from anything with the brakes. I'd believe the in-transit or seller abuse though considering the reseller I dealt with.

Also, I have to give a slightly negative review to the combination of plain Centric rotors and Euro pads on the rear of the car. They brake fine and are low dust, but damn do they squeal when you back up when it's cold or wet. The squeal goes away pretty soon and doesn't happen if you go forward. I wish Centric made a high carbon version of the rear rotors, as I think that would help the squealing. I don't know how the Posi-Quiet or Hawk pads would do on the rear in terms of wet/cold squealing so I can't recommend using one of those over the Akebono Euros. Just something to be aware of.
Google the part numbers below for Centric High Carbon Cryo rotors for Mz5.
Mazda5 Front Disc: Centric High Carbon Cryo-treated Plain (125.45069CRY)

Mazda5 Rear Disc: Centric High Carbon Cryo-treated Plain (125.45067CRY
 
Google the part numbers below for Centric High Carbon Cryo rotors for Mz5.
Mazda5 Front Disc: Centric High Carbon Cryo-treated Plain (125.45069CRY)

Mazda5 Rear Disc: Centric High Carbon Cryo-treated Plain (125.45067CRY

That front one you listed is the Cryo-treated version of the high-carbon series, but the one you listed for the rear is incorrect. That's the Mazda3 rear rotor. Centric does make drilled, slotted, and cryo-treated rotors for the rear of the car, but they don't make a high-carbon version. For whatever reason. Here's the link to Centric's part finder:

http://centriccatalog.com/Inquiry/AppResult.aspx?id=WEB_DISC&v=LD&y=2012&m=80&mm=2828
 
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Based on cross shopping part numbers on Rockauto for 2012 Mazda3 and Mazda5, that's how I was able to determine the part # for the Centric rear high carbon, cryo treated, plain rotors.
 
Based on cross shopping part numbers on Rockauto for 2012 Mazda3 and Mazda5, that's how I was able to determine the part # for the Centric rear high carbon, cryo treated, plain rotors.

Rear rotors on a Mazda5 are bigger in diameter then those on a Mazda3. So they are not the same. Which is why some MS3 owners as well as MZ3 owners upgrade their rear brakes to ours.
 
Thank you Orangutan for the write up! I referenced it when do my front rotor and pad replacement today.

Since I live in the rust belt, I thought getting my rotors off would have been a complete pain. They actually weren't stuck on there too bad. I do recommend using a hub cleaning kit such as https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned). It made short work of the rust on my hubs. I was able to find the kit much cheaper on ebay than what Amazon charges.
 
Just followed all the steps on this forum and completed my first brake job on my m5. Thank you guys. However, now my parking brake is not engaging? Instead of feeling it engage around 2/3 of a pull, I pull it all the way up and nothing happens? Any advice?


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The cable that actuates the parking brake will need adjusting after a rear pad replacement. You will probably have to remove the center/armrest console to get at that cable.
 
Just followed all the steps on this forum and completed my first brake job on my m5. Thank you guys. However, now my parking brake is not engaging? Instead of feeling it engage around 2/3 of a pull, I pull it all the way up and nothing happens? Any advice?


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Try going in reverse with ebrake handle engaged. I've read on other forums that it works. Please don't quote me on this. I have never tried it.
 
After much thought I realized I installed the caliper retaining clips on incorrectly, no tension was applied to them. I took the wheels off again, put them on correctly and went for a test drive. Pads then contacted the rotor completely.
On a side note, when the shop replaced my front pads and rotors a year ago, a squeak can always be heard in the morning on reversing the car initially. It usually goes away quickly. Is there a reason/cure for this?


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when the shop replaced my front pads and rotors a year ago, a squeak can always be heard in the morning on reversing the car initially. It usually goes away quickly. Is there a reason/cure for this?

Depends. Some pads just make a bit more noise cold when they rub of the rust from the rotors that initial few moments. Also you can take the fronts apart and lube all the pins and apply some disk break quiet lube to the back of the pads and places they slide on and see if that helps.
 
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