2021 CX-5 Turbo Front Caliper Mount Stripped

A

AC3

2021 CX-5 GT TURBO
2021 CX-5 GT Turbo

Dealership recommended brake replacement rather than brake service at last 48k inspection. Quoted me an absurd $1900 for full front & rear. Brakes were still serviceable, so I opted to buy my own parts ($400) and do job myself.

Started to replace front brakes today, got everything removed on front passenger side, but noted the caliper mount bolts were fitted with what seem to be helicoils. The bolts were tight, but came out with manual force. This is my first brake replacement on this CX-5, so I am wondering if helicoils are factory installed on these bracket bolts, or did the dealership maybe strip some threads and install them during a previous brake service?

The issue now is that I cannot properly tighten let alone torque the bolts after re-installing the bracket. I can get partially tightened, but then the threads let go and bolts spin. The helicoil is properly threaded on 1 bolt, but came off the 2nd bolt and had to be re-threaded.

Kind of the s**** as it's the long weekend, dealership parts dept closes early on Friday, and no way I am driving the car with a loose caliper mount. I blame myself for the timing of doing the brakes today instead of next week when I'm back from my road trip.

I'm trying to figure out if the bracket threads were previously stripped during a previous dealership inspection? If the bolts with helicoils won't re-install properly, should I be looking at getting new brackets/bolts, or just new bolts with helicoils again? I mean it's brakes, I don't want to skimp but no clue why this happened in the first place. Thx.
 
dunhillmc said:
please post pics of the parts you talking about. I've never heard of "helicoils"
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No disrespect but I guess you wouldn't know if these are factory installed or after a dealer service mishap - essentially they are tiny coil springs that along with a re-tap help repair stripped threads or strengthen threads of various fasteners. Google has tons of info on them.
 
hmmm... can you go up a size with the helicoils?

The dealer said you needed a 'complete brake replacement', what does that mean? more than rotors and pads? Is there something wrong with the calipers? Were your brakes working ok before all of this?
 
AC3 said:
Started to replace front brakes today, got everything removed on front passenger side, but noted the caliper mount bolts were fitted with what seem to be helicoils. The bolts were tight, but came out with manual force. This is my first brake replacement on this CX-5, so I am wondering if helicoils are factory installed on these bracket bolts, or did the dealership maybe strip some threads and install them during a previous brake service?
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My '23 has standard 14mm & 17mm bolts. I wonder why brake work would be done earlier than 48k and why would there be non-standard fasteners used?
 
Mazdiod2 said:
hmmm... can you go up a size with the helicoils?

The dealer said you needed a 'complete brake replacement', what does that mean? more than rotors and pads? Is there something wrong with the calipers? Were your brakes working ok before all of this?
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rotor & pads all around was their recommendation at the time. But there was still some life in them (5-6mm remaining on pads, rotors not bad), so I held for a couple months till now, when a bit of shudder started on fronts. Looked more like a cleaning than replacement was needed, but easier to do it now than dead of winter.
I'm hesitant to upsize and retap for larger helicoils if these were not placed there at factory.

I've had 2 inspections that included brake service at 2 dealerships, not sure if one of them f'd up during inspection and had to add these helicoils due to stripping out the bracket. But do they even need to remove the mount brackets to inspect? That is what I find odd, easy to measure and clean rotors / calipers without needing to drop the bracket, and there has been no brake replacement prior to this. I'm just kicking myself for not having waited a more few days till parts would be readily available (after long weekend), didn't expect to deal with these helicoils and potentially stripped out bracket threads :-(

In any event, I guess I'll get to choose & test drive a rental for a few days
 
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N7turbo said:
My '23 has standard 14mm & 17mm bolts. I wonder why brake work would be done earlier than 48k and why would there be non-standard fasteners used?
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That is also my question: mine were 17 & 17 bolts...which is what I found really strange as everything I've been reading points to 14 & 17 bolts. Are you turbo?

Canadian specs recommend brake service at 24k km, so this is my 2nd. I was really shocked that they suggested replacement at 48k - I don't ride my brakes, and mainly hwy, so something wasn't right.
 
The helicoils certainly didn't come from the factory. So that leaves the screw up to one of the two dealerships that did the 'work' on your car previously.

"I've had 2 inspections that included brake service at 2 dealerships, not sure if one of them f'd up during inspection and had to add these helicoils due to stripping out the bracket."

You say that all they did was inspect the brakes but then you mention 'brake service'? No reason to remove anything (perhaps the wheels) in order to do an inspection but the brake service?
 
Conrad 16.5 said:
The helicoils certainly didn't come from the factory. So that leaves the screw up to one of the two dealerships that did the 'work' on your car previously.

"I've had 2 inspections that included brake service at 2 dealerships, not sure if one of them f'd up during inspection and had to add these helicoils due to stripping out the bracket."

You say that all they did was inspect the brakes but then you mention 'brake service'? No reason to remove anything (perhaps the wheels) in order to do an inspection but the brake service?
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I said I had 2 inspections (eg. routine mileage inspection) , that included brake service at those mileage intervals. So obviously they did more than just drop a wheel to do said brake service, and for some reason the bracket(s) must have been removed at some point and somebody f'd up if I have helicoils.
 
So I just got back from my weekend away in the rental car. Passed by a Mazda dealership on the way home, bought some new bracket bolts (hoping that might be the easy fix), and asked about new brackets: they only sell brackets with a new caliper ($320 CAD). Checked my local Napa, they also only sell with the full caliper, but half the price ($162 CAD) and in stock.

Got home, disassembled it all, and the new bolts don't even fit. Looking closely at the bracket, the threads are rounded off in some spots. See the attached pics, you can see the helicoil or whatever was used to bulk up the hole or bolt (it came off in pieces, but initially was coiled onto the bolts like a spring). Who did this in the first place is the bigger mystery. The new bolt at bottom of pic is what dealership sold me today.

So: do I go for the Napa jobber caliper kit, just use the new brackets for now, and save the new calipers for "if when"? I have extended warranty so not sure if using jobber parts would void anything? Or is re-tapping the bracket a plausible solution? The pic looks a bit like it was already re-tapped and lined with a thread insert, doesn't it?

I'm kinda kicking myself right now....didn't expect all these surprises, but sure has hell didn't want to dish out $1700-$1900 dealer charge for what would otherwise be $400 in parts and some elbow grease.

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It definitely seems like whoever did the previous brake work messed up. My first guess is that it was a teaching moment for a new tech, who mistakenly removed the caliper bracket bolts instead of the caliper slide pin bolts and then screwed up reinstalling them, leading to the rounded threads on the bracket. Then, they decided to use helicoils to hide their mistake and hope you or anyone else at the dealership never found out.

At this point, if you have the time, it might be a good idea to find out what a local junkyard would charge for the caliper brackets if you were to pull them from a junked turbo CX-5 yourself. Or, instead of ordering from a local dealer, consider ordering from an online OEM Mazda parts store, like the mazdaswag.com link that @Silly Wabbit posted above. It's $100 CDN for a new OEM part, but not sure what the shipping time or cost might be. Partsouq.com would be another option, but they do not have stock for that part.

Palladino Mazda is Canadian, they have the part listed for $160 CDN but that doesn't include shipping.
 
I'm 80% sure those are not helicoils.
To me they look like stripped threads.
I've seen similar coils when doing torque-to-failures tests for mounting brackets.

I'd say the previous person over torqued and/or cross threaded them.
 
I'll throw my .02 cents in .... If there were only two dealers that ever worked on the brakes, it's the second that messed it up. If it was the first, the second mechanic would have pointed the problem out to you so they don't get blamed for it.
 
AC3 said:
Dealership recommended brake replacement rather than brake service at last 48k inspection. Quoted me an absurd $1900 for full front & rear. Brakes were still serviceable, so I opted to buy my own parts ($400) and do job myself.
Click to expand...
wow
 
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