Long Term Review - PowerStop Z17 Evolution Plus Ceramic Brake pads - 2nd Gen CX-9

Pack it up pack it in and go to another dealer who is not a scam artist for customer pay. No consumable brake component can cause damage to a brake module. That's just plain moronic and there are laws against voiding a warranty and refusing repair due to aftermarket parts.
 
Virginia has an annual state safety inspection and while the CX-9 was under warranty, I was taking it into the dealership for oil changes.

June 2020 at 40K miles, I had been notified that the rear brakes were reaching the end of their life. I decided to order some upgraded brake pads for the CX-9.
https://www.powerstop.com/product/p...placement-brake-pads/#y=2018&mk=MAZDA&mo=CX-9

Yesterday (April 2021) at 55K miles, they came off the car; the rear brakes were at the end of their life again. I was notified that they were at their end of life, as I had the car in for a transmission flush and rear differential service.

While they did have similar stopping power as compared to the stock OE pads, 15K miles is a VERY short life for brake pads. I believe the short lifespan is due to their low-dust compound.

I did NOT buy again.

I upgraded to the Z23 Evolution Sport brake pads. We'll see how well these pads wear.

I'm still on the OE rotors. I don't believe that upgrading to crossdrilled/slotted rotors will gain me anything. The brakes can already lock up on dry pavement with the Michelin Defender LTX M/S tires that I have on the CX-9. If I need to replace the rotors on the next go-around, I'll be using blank rotors from a reputable source such as "Raybestos" branded ones from RockAuto.com.


NOTE: The CX-9 is VERY hard on rear brakes for an AWD vehicle. Both times I did brakes, the rear brakes were at end of life while the fronts were still at half life.

I decided to do front and rear brakes at the same time both times to match the brake pad compound as well as for convenience. Owing to the electronic parking brake, it takes about 15 minutes per wheel to do brakes on the 2nd gen CX-9.
I had the same issue the first set of brakes wore out around 50K and they said need new rotors and pads. put them on and in 15K needing to replace again. It is being blamed on the control module and they say the part about 500. refuse to use the warranty because I didn't use their brakes.
 
Pack it up pack it in and go to another dealer who is not a scam artist for customer pay. No consumable brake component can cause damage to a brake module. That's just plain moronic and there are laws against voiding a warranty and refusing repair due to aftermarket parts.
The dealer sent in the information to the so-called warranty department. They made me send a receipt of the pads that were placed on the car. Then said they are denying the repair. I am like you this is ridiculous. Do you have a link to the information about laws against voiding the warranty? I don't give up easily. especially when it comes to my money.
 
The dealer sent in the information to the so-called warranty department. They made me send a receipt of the pads that were placed on the car. Then said they are denying the repair. I am like you this is ridiculous. Do you have a link to the information about laws against voiding the warranty? I don't give up easily. especially when it comes to my money.

Absolutely. Here is a link to the Magnuson Moss warranty act for vehicles


Shove that in their face. They CANNOT require you to use OEM parts and you can sue them for breach of warranty.

That dealer is a total A-hole and warranty company sounds like those scam 3rd party companies that they trick people into buying but aren't worth the paper they are printed on. File a BBB complaint against the warranty company as well as dealer and report them to the DOCA and state AGO where you are.
 
Oh boy!! All I want to do is have better rotors because it's my wife's car that I occasionally drive. She drives like the grandma that she is (in a nice way). The OEM on the CX-9 vibrates soooo badly and started doing that at 35K miles so I'm reluctant to replace with Mazda OEM rotors. Hollandog above said that Centric is good; agree?
Thanks for the input!!
have your control module checked? the same thing is happening to my brakes. they should never wear out that fast. mine is also vibrating terribly.
 
Absolutely. Here is a link to the Magnuson Moss warranty act for vehicles


Shove that in their face. They CANNOT require you to use OEM parts and you can sue them for breach of warranty.

That dealer is a total A-hole and warranty company sounds like those scam 3rd party companies that they trick people into buying but aren't worth the paper they are printed on. File a BBB complaint against the warranty company as well as dealer and report them to the DOCA and state AGO where you are.
thank you for that I plan to call them first thing in the morning! Both the dealer and the Warranty company. What is DOCA?
 
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that is what i put on my car. Dealer is saying it is the reason for the e brake module failure and is refusing to replace.
Talk with the service manager, not just one of the service writers. Get the reason why the choice of brake pad will make a difference to the failed part. It can't be just, "They're not OEM." There has to be a reason. As long as the parts are suitable for the car, and what you put on certainly should be suitable, it should not affect the warranty. Wear items are, of course, not covered. That's pads and rotors. The brake module is not a wear item.

What warranty company? Are you relying on a so-called extended warranty? These are legally not a warranty. They are a prepaid repair contract, and both you and the company are bound by what is written in the contract. Read all the fine print. If you're beyond the real warranty and relying on the service contract, you gott'a do what that fine print says. If it says to use only Mazda brand parts, then that's that. Magnusson-Moss does not apply to these repair contracts. If you read it and still think you're covered, contact the company, not the dealership.
 
I don't think dealership is the bad guy in this case. Warranty long past so no obligation to help or good will. The rejection is from the warranty company.
 
**UPDATE**
I contacted PowerStop and got the reply below; I can wait like he suggests

Hi Richard!

Thank you for your interest in PowerStop products!

We do offer a kit for your 2018 CX-9, P/N# K7609. This includes our carbon-ceramic low dust Z23 brake pads, and our zinc-plated drilled and slotted rotors. (Front and rear) No modification is necessary to your stock system for installation, everything is included, and this should provide a nice increase in braking performance for you, while keeping your wheels cleaner. Be sure to break the pads in properly after installation for best performance!

That said, we are currently out of stock on the rotors, fresh inventory should arrive January 29. Some stocking distributors may have inventory, but you may have difficulty sourcing the kit until then (or a couple of days afterwards).

Amazon is fine, but it's usually better to search Amazon by "PowerStop K7609" rather than trying to find it by application. Amazon's automotive parts lookup can be goofy sometimes.

Let me know if I can offer any further assistance!



Thank you,

Eric Schneider
Product Manager
Power Stop, LLC


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I found slotted only rotors. Check out r1 concepts. I'm not affiliated with them in any way. I just want to share the limited options we have.

I ordered a pair as they have 30% off today only.
 
Talk with the service manager, not just one of the service writers. Get the reason why the choice of brake pad will make a difference to the failed part. It can't be just, "They're not OEM." There has to be a reason. As long as the parts are suitable for the car, and what you put on certainly should be suitable, it should not affect the warranty. Wear items are, of course, not covered. That's pads and rotors. The brake module is not a wear item.

What warranty company? Are you relying on a so-called extended warranty? These are legally not a warranty. They are a prepaid repair contract, and both you and the company are bound by what is written in the contract. Read all the fine print. If you're beyond the real warranty and relying on the service contract, you gott'a do what that fine print says. If it says to use only Mazda brand parts, then that's that. Magnusson-Moss does not apply to these repair contracts. If you read it and still think you're covered, contact the company, not the dealership.
Per the Magnusson moss warranty act, nobody can force you to use OEM parts on any repair or maintenance, whether warranty, extended warranty or "service contract". Further, the act provides that if the part that is covered failed and it is being blamed on a non covered part as to the reason for failure of the covered part, then it must be proven. You cannot blame a failure of a covered part on nonsense. It has to be proven that part caused damage to a covered part, which in this case absolutely does not, in any manner shape or form and it utterly preposterous to even claim that it did. The dealer needs to advocate for the customer to the company covering the repair and if they don't then they are making things up to have coverage denied, in which case they are dishonest losers who deserve to be put in the spotlight subject to bad publicity.

Btw, powerstop products suck and have the worst warranty in the industry. Source: personal experience many times over.
 
I just installed Powerstop geomet coated rotors and evolution plus ceramic pads on my 18 Signature with 40k. The rears where just about gone, the fronts had probably 50% left.
I did the brakes early for 3 reasons.
1. the rotors looked like hell, rusted beyond belief, and so did the calipers. The car is garage and always maintained/cleaned, guess its cheap steel and north east Ohio winters, but these are worse by far compared to my other vehicles.
2. There was a shudder in the front brakes, likely the rotors.
3. I had the clicking sound when moving from forward to reverse, and over bumps, there is a TSB for it.

Geomet is supposed to be one of the best coatings for rotors, so will see how the hold up over the winter.
I installed smaller rubber shims behind the front caliper hardware to make sure the pads are tight in the calipers. The Mazda TSB call for a 3m sticky tap that you add behind the hardware. It is terrible, paid $40 for some double sided 3M tape that would do nothing to help the freeplay. My solution with the Powerstop evolution plus pads and new hardware makes zero clicking noise.
I also replaced the slide pins.
At the same time, I used POR15 silver brake caliper paint, and they came out great. Check it out, very cost effective to make the calipers and brackets look really nice.

So far, rotors and pads are nice an quiet, smooth with almost no dust. But the Evolution plus ceramic pads dont have the same bite as OE. I usually buy aftermarket rotors with OE pads, but go the whole kit this time.
Will have to see about the life, these should last longer given they have a little less stopping power.

I think the issue with the rears is, the parking break uses the pads, and, perhaps the G-vectoring primarily uses the rear brakes to create more or less understeer?
 
I think the issue with the rears is, the parking break uses the pads, and, perhaps the G-vectoring primarily uses the rear brakes to create more or less understeer?

The car is also rear-brake biased to reduce the amount of nose dive when braking.
 
Surprisingly they dont do a vented rotor on the rear if thats true, nor larger surface area/pads like the front. Curious what the bias actually is.
I guess the load transfer is still going to be to the front, so thats where you need the bigger hardware.
 
Bump, any updates to this thread? I'm in need of another set of brakes at the 122k km mark. Second set of brakes, the first rotor and brake was done at any 60k kms done by the dealer.

What worked well for you guys??
 
Bump, any updates to this thread? I'm in need of another set of brakes at the 122k km mark. Second set of brakes, the first rotor and brake was done at any 60k kms done by the dealer.

What worked well for you guys??

I'm still on the OEM front pads and rotors. Powerstop drilled/slotted rear rotors and Z23 pads have been great for me for the last 9 months, but if you're looking for a direct OEM replacement, Centric or Raybestos coated rotors with Raybestos pads would be a great choice. You can find the part numbers on RockAuto.com, then compare with local stores to price match.
 
I'm using the Centric rotor and ceramic pads they've been ok. PosiQuiet is the pad name I think but they kind of squeak when wet. Low brake dust.
 
See attached images below: 65k miles on front&rear OEM pads. I could barely put the break calipers back on new pads. Also, the front breaks were making a clicking sound when reverse/stop/drive/stop. After replacing the pads and applying break grease between the shims and pads - it finally stopped. The rear pads were worn out a bit more than front ones.
A dealer quoted me for front&rear - $600+, DIY for OEM pads front&rear - $220 including shipping&tax.
It should last another 50k miles or 4-5 years. My 2 cents: I recommend go OEM - No noise, solid breaking power, low dust and proven durability.
View attachment 321110
 
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