Brakes shot at 23,000 miles, PICTURES

T

T.Narley

Member
Our 2008 CX-9, driven by my wife, has had an every increasing pulsation of the brake pedal for a few months now. She really complained about it lately so I decided to pull it apart today. This is what I saw.

Looks good right? Nice rotor surface, pad looks nearly new!

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I've been working on brakes long enough to know to do a thorough inspection, so I popped off the inboard pad. Houston, we have a problem.
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Further inspection revealed a much bigger issue on both front rotors. This is ridiculous on a car with just 23,000 miles that sits in a heated garage. The dealer tried to help but we are 2 weeks out of warranty.

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Through a local source I was able to find some halfway decent rotors and I went with ceramic pads. I want to upgrade to some high end rotors, but that's not in the budget at the moment. I also needed to get the car back in service TODAY because it's our only 3-car seat capable vehicle.

I always use this stuff, always.

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Reassembled

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And torqued. The dealer had tightened the rims so tight my 1/2" blue-point impact couldn't get them loose. (hand)

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holy crap dude. I'm not ready to jump on the new rotors ship yet, but we have some pretty aggressive pulsating on our 9. I'm gonna try the brake bedding procedure I think... I just have to get over my fear of the local SS pulling me over and giving me the riot act, or just executing me on the spot.
 
OH MY GOD....! I can't believe those photo's! We have a 09 CX9 with just over 55,000 on the clock and are still on the original pads. I went in to have them checked and our mechanic let me see them for myself and they looked almost new. Granted, alot of our miles have been on a 5K+ trip each summer's Road Trip, but yours are unbelieably bad, bad, bad!! What kind of driving is your wife doing? Is she two footing it? Lots of hills? Late braking?
 
She just drives my 3 little kids around. We take an occasional road trip and an annual 1,000 mile run down to Florida. Nothing that would cause the rotors to fall apart. I would suspect road salt, but why only the inboard side?
 
Yea, I'm going to keep an eye on that. I've had calipers stick in the past but they've never caused the rotor to rust and fall apart. Also notice that the inboard pad still had plenty of material left on it, which would be unlikely if it were sticking. I think it's case of crappy rotors.
 
I am going through almost the exact same issue, wife's car she works part time drives our two kids around and we use it as a family car. The cx9 is at about 27000 miles. We are about 8 months past warranty.

I am a toyota guy and never seen anything this crappy, change pads around 60000 and reuse rotors.
 
So here are my pics.
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Craptacular!
Also the exhaust heat sheild supports and bolts all rusted through the heat shield is just flapping and rattleing away in some places.

My dad's mazda 3 is also totally rusted through above both rear wheel wells.
Rust buckets both of them.
 
I can't believe what I'm seeing in those pictures. Pulled the tires off today to inspect the brakes on the 09 CX9 and found that my pads have lots of life in them and the rotor surfaces are still smooth. However, the inside of the rotor hat, bolts, and surrounding areas are all rusting. My 07 Honda accord with more miles hardly have any rust on them and we don't even use salt on the roads here. I wonder if it'll be like yours in a year or two? This is really dissapointing.
 
I have 44K miles and bought my CX9 brand new (2009). I am on my third set of rotors!!!!! Mazda does not think there is a problem, even though there are MANY people experiencing the same pulsating pedal issue. WTF!!!!??? Seem to be able to get around 12 - 15K miles out of factory rotors before I start having issues. Need to find a good aftermarket set of pads and rotors. What is everyone using that works?

P.S. I'm new here, so Hi everyone!
 
I changed my fronts over to Centric E-Coated rotors with Centric Posi-Quiet ceramic pads, but have only put like 2k miles on them thus far, but the black coating will prevent rust. I plan to change the back rotors and pads at the end of the year...I have about 95% smooth braking right now, but I want 100%
 
Any other rotor / pad recommendations? The stock ones suck beyond belief. Making me think of just getting rid of it and getting something else. This will be the 4th set of rotors in less than 50k miles.
 
I have the same setup as helbigtw, but replaced front and back together. I have put 33K on the replacement pads and rotors and have zero issues. BTW, I started experiencing pulsating issues at 8K with my original rotors, but the pads were within normal wear.
 
I don't understand how you can have high spots in the middle of the rotor. Is it uneven pressure from the caliper?

Those pics are just crazy.
 
Lindyrect said:
I have the same setup as helbigtw, but replaced front and back together. I have put 33K on the replacement pads and rotors and have zero issues. BTW, I started experiencing pulsating issues at 8K with my original rotors, but the pads were within normal wear.
Click to expand...

Good To hear. I may try the same set up.

Thanks
 
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