Mike's 2018 CX-9 Signature

[Glaucus]

Did you ever check to see what the rear diff goes for on the used market? I imagine there's a few of those available in the wreckers. I presume that's a CX-9 specific part?

I didn't try to source the rear diff myself. Since I had planned to have a shop do the removal and replacement, I got quotes from them to compare against the quote from Mazda. You and I are local to each other so you might be familiar with the shops I contacted. One was Seven Oaks Transmission, and the other was GW Transmission. Both shops quoted me at $2700-2800 all-in before taxes, and that was with them sourcing the used diff for me. When speaking to the tech at Seven Oaks, he mentioned that typically there aren't many used diffs available, and at the time of inquiry there only seemed to be one used unit available. I did also contact Trans-Tech Industries, but they don't source used components and mostly do rebuilds. They told me that the CX-9 rear diff is "nonrebuildable", which I take to mean as it's not worth the cost compared to buying new.

Ok, good to know.

 

[sm1ke]

Front passenger side LCA bushings are shot. The front passenger strut has also started leaking and making noise. I guess the suspension had finally had enough after 3 years on Corksport springs and the multitude of pothole hits over the last 2 years.

Cost to source locally was ridiculous, so I ordered replacements from Rock Auto. Got two FCS struts and a Beck/Arnley LCA, which arrived earlier this week. I know these struts aren't great, I just need them to last while I rebuild my repair fund lol.

I also picked up a set of lightly used Continental CrossContact LX Sport tires in 275/40/22. Decided to go with this size at first because of the availability, but also because they will give me a bit more sidewall which should help a bit with ride comfort.

The original tires on my summer set are Nexen Roadian HP in 285/35/22. They've been on the car for a little over half the year, every year, since 2019. The remaining tread is still pretty good, but two of the tires have developed slow leaks due to random nails and screws and repairs. They weren't loud on the highway, at least to my ears, but I'm hoping these Continental tires are even better.

Hoping to replace the struts and LCA in the next week or so.

 

[Glaucus]

Do you think Beck/Arnley is a good option? I typically prefer MOOG but I didn't find an LCA made by them for this car. I suspect my LCA was going on my 2017. That or an outer tie rod.

However, some guy tried to cross all 4 lanes of Corydon without looking and smacked my car last month. It's now sitting at MPI lot. I'm fighting with them on the value of the car.

 

[sm1ke]

Do you think Beck/Arnley is a good option? I typically prefer MOOG but I didn't find an LCA made by them for this car. I suspect my LCA was going on my 2017. That or an outer tie rod.

However, some guy tried to cross all 4 lanes of Corydon without looking and smacked my car last month. It's now sitting at MPI lot. I'm fighting with them on the value of the car.

Initially I thought it was my balljoint going bad. I jacked the car up and pushed/pulled the wheel at 12 and 6 to check for play, and there was a tiny bit. When I tried to move the whole wheel by pushing/pulling at 9 and 3, I noticed that the movement was happening at the LCA's bushings.

From the quick research I did, Beck/Arnley seemed to be the best option available, aside from OEM. Crown Mazda quoted over $400 for the LCA. The Dorman brand was the other aftermarket alternative available on Rock Auto, but it was more expensive and didn't review well online. Beck/Arnley seemed to get better reviews overall, and was cheaper, so I went with them.

There is another option local to us from a shop called Axle Auto Parts. They can bring in fairly cheap parts of decent quality and you may also be able to negotiate pricing a little bit, but in this case the LCA was more expensive that the Dorman and I would have had to wait a few weeks for stock to arrive.

Damn, sorry to hear about your CX-9! Hopefully they can offer you a fair payout. My colleague just had to deal with MPI over his son's writeoff a few weeks ago and they gave him a great payout. Hopefully you can get the same (or better).

 

[Silly Wabbit]

Please document the process and take plenty of pictures when you do the replacement! What's your initial impression of the parts quality?

 

[Fawiek]

I'm replacing my original tires finally. Ordered the michelin cross climate 2 from Costco, will get it installed in the next few days. Seems like a really good tire... Hoping the reviews for quiet highway driving is accurate.

 

[Silly Wabbit]

I'm replacing my original tires finally. Ordered the michelin cross climate 2 from Costco, will get it installed in the next few days. Seems like a really good tire... Hoping the reviews for quiet highway driving is accurate.

I got my CC2 from Costco also. No complains

 

[Fawiek]

I got my CC2 from Costco also. No complains

Nice, are they as good as ppl say they are? I was on the fence as I have dedicated winter tires, and the cc2 looks like winter tires too. The highway and quiet driving and the additional grip is the selling point

 

[sm1ke]

New front struts installed with the CS springs, and passenger side LCA replaced. I had hoped to document the process and do the work myself, but I came down with strepthroat last week, so I had my mechanic do it instead. He said it was pretty straightforward, the only part that gave him a bit of trouble was the balljoint on the original LCA.

The car drives much better now, no more knocking noises and weird rumbling. There is a metal scraping sound but I'm pretty sure it's just a brake shoe that I need to adjust a bit.

Next up is getting the new (old) tires onto the summer rims and then swapping them on, plus an oil change.

 

[sm1ke]

Well, my floor jack is still frozen in an inch or two of ice. Should have put it on a pallet instead of leaving it on the ground. I wanted to fix the scraping sound while it was nice out yesterday, so I pulled out the emergency scissor jack and used that. Source of the noise:

Brake shoe making contact with the inside edge of the rotor. Bent it back a bit and the noise is gone.

 

[Silly Wabbit]

Nice, are they as good as ppl say they are? I was on the fence as I have dedicated winter tires, and the cc2 looks like winter tires too. The highway and quiet driving and the additional grip is the selling point

Socal is only 3 season so I can't speak to snow performance, but wet and dry are both great. No real difference to noise and mpg

 

[sm1ke]

Forgot to update, but I did an oil change a week or two ago, and this past Friday I got the new tires on the rims and then swapped the winter tires off. Next up is replacing the rear brake pads. Going with Powerstop Z23 pads again.

Just for fun, here's a comparison of the car from 2019 to 2025.

 

[Fawiek]

Sitting very nice.

 

[sm1ke]

Changed the rear pads yesterday. There's a bit of scoring from the pad wear indicator, but nothing major. It was quite a simple job overall, but I did have two time-consuming hiccups. The first was getting the pads into the clips, and I also had some trouble getting the car out of maintenance mode. What finally ended up working for me was going slower on the last three Start/Stop button presses. Those two things added an extra 40 mins to the job

Anyway, I went for a drive to bed the pads and all is good now. At least until the rear shocks give out, lol

One of the pads wore a bit quicker than the rest, and almost went down to bare metal. It's a good thing I took care of this right away.

 

[GFrosty]

Changed the rear pads yesterday. It was quite a simple job overall ...

That pad was down to its last breath, that's for sure. Surprised it was still doing the job.


I envy you folks who can still crawl around underneath a car to get the brakes and suspension jobs done. Aging has caught up with me, so the shop takes care of those little things. Sold off most of the auto "shop" tools more than a dozen years ago..

Have the brakes coming up within the next month or two, myself.

 

[sm1ke]

I plan to be working on my cars/house as much as I can, as often as needed. I'm not ready to give up that sense of satisfaction from a completed DIY job lol

 

[HyFlyer]

One of the pads wore a bit quicker than the rest, and almost went down to bare metal. It's a good thing I took care of this right away.

Haha ... That pad doesn't owe you anything ... I'd say you got 99.9% use out of that puppy.

 

[Fawiek]

Haha ... That pad doesn't owe you anything ... I'd say you got 99.9% use out of that puppy.

And worn damn even too.

 

[Fawiek]

Changed the rear pads yesterday. There's a bit of scoring from the pad wear indicator, but nothing major. It was quite a simple job overall, but I did have two time-consuming hiccups. The first was getting the pads into the clips, and I also had some trouble getting the car out of maintenance mode. What finally ended up working for me was going slower on the last three Start/Stop button presses. Those two things added an extra 40 mins to the job

Anyway, I went for a drive to bed the pads and all is good now. At least until the rear shocks give out, lol

View attachment 336290

One of the pads wore a bit quicker than the rest, and almost went down to bare metal. It's a good thing I took care of this right away.

View attachment 336291

I too struggled to get the pads into the clips. Had to walk away, maybe why it's easy to get frustrated and get it in bent. Once it goes in it's clear that it's in.

Are you reusing the rotors, new pads?
Did you machine finish or just simple replacement?

 

[HyFlyer]

... but I did have two time-consuming hiccups. The first was getting the pads into the clips, ...

... I too struggled to get the pads into the clips ...

Could you be experiencing some rust jacking of the caliper bracket metal under the clips? Do you replace the little metal clips or reuse the old ones?

My routine is pop the clips out, (mechanically) wire brush the bracket where the clips reside and then a light file to remove any remaining corrosion. Coat the fresh metal with some anti-seize or grease and install new clips (or your old ones if your kit doesn't supply new hardware)

I learned about rust jacking after struggling to get new pads into the brackets of a Ford focus many years ago.