So the rear brakes are pretty bad

mrtealeaf

2019 CX-5 GT AWD
:
California
New-ish Mazda owner here, purchased a 2019 CX-5 GT AWD brand new at the end of 2019, I love the car. Had been eyeing it for a long time and my BMW finally died so the opportunity to buy one popped up and I went for it. Perfect car for the right time in my life.

Anyhoo, so the rotors rusted out on all 4 corners at 6,100 miles. The Mazda service center confirmed that it was indeed dangerous and needed to be replaced, but not definitely covered :ROFLMAO: I won't get into that whole mess. A little surprising given that its not even 2 yrs old yet and I do make it a point to drive the car at least weekly even during the Covid lock down times.

I picked up non-Mazda, Brembo rotors and Akebono ProACT pads to replace everything. My thinking is it OEM rusted out like this at this rate no way was I replacing it with the same thing. The swap out was uneventful, coming from a BMW I did brakes a lot so I have plenty of experience, made sure to lube the pins with rubber safe SilGlyde, EPB maint mode, the works.

I did notice that the rear brakes are significantly cheaper made than the front ones. Even down to whatever anti-rust coating they put on it. The fronts had zero rust, the rears had a good amount of it. There was scrubbing that needed to be done under the hardware, the caliper bracket had rust on it. Pins were not stuck at all and were gliding even before I re-lubed but the pads still wore very uneven. The inner pads were pretty much done, outers were much newer. Front brakes were even and looked very new as expected.

I'm hoping Brembo + Akebono hold better than whatever was going on back there.
 
New-ish Mazda owner here, purchased a 2019 CX-5 GT AWD brand new at the end of 2019, I love the car. Had been eyeing it for a long time and my BMW finally died so the opportunity to buy one popped up and I went for it. Perfect car for the right time in my life.

Anyhoo, so the rotors rusted out on all 4 corners at 6,100 miles. The Mazda service center confirmed that it was indeed dangerous and needed to be replaced, but not definitely covered :ROFLMAO: I won't get into that whole mess. A little surprising given that its not even 2 yrs old yet and I do make it a point to drive the car at least weekly even during the Covid lock down times.

I picked up non-Mazda, Brembo rotors and Akebono ProACT pads to replace everything. My thinking is it OEM rusted out like this at this rate no way was I replacing it with the same thing. The swap out was uneventful, coming from a BMW I did brakes a lot so I have plenty of experience, made sure to lube the pins with rubber safe SilGlyde, EPB maint mode, the works.

I did notice that the rear brakes are significantly cheaper made than the front ones. Even down to whatever anti-rust coating they put on it. The fronts had zero rust, the rears had a good amount of it. There was scrubbing that needed to be done under the hardware, the caliper bracket had rust on it. Pins were not stuck at all and were gliding even before I re-lubed but the pads still wore very uneven. The inner pads were pretty much done, outers were much newer. Front brakes were even and looked very new as expected.

I'm hoping Brembo + Akebono hold better than whatever was going on back there.
Your fighting mother nature.

If you bought brembo and akebeno that's not painted, your still going to have the same problem.

Uncoated stuff will rust quickly. The coated stuff is a waste of $$$ especially if in the American snow/rust belt or Canadian salt belt as they will also rust, albeit not as quickly but still quick enough. Once you start winter driving on your salted roads, they're gonna rust.

For surface rust, buy a good pair of painted calipers, painted rotors and painted pads, or paint them yourself. Don't paint the rotor/pad contact areas.

As far as freezing calipers, there's only three(3) solutions.

1. Store the car in a climate humidity controlled garage and don't drive during winter.

2. Keep buying new calipers when they freeze, which if your not driving it that often will be all the time.

3. Drive it more.

Weekly driving isn't enough to keep the battery charged , nor the calipers and alternator from rusting/coroding/freezing.

Guaranteed your alternator is going to be the next thing you replace.

Enjoy the car, take it for some leisurely spins.
 
that definitely should have been covered under warranty. having a rear pad be that worn at only 6100mi isn't normal.
Not sure how it is everywhere else but the drop-off in the quality of service, niceness of people, etc - has been drastic post Covid here in the SF Bay Area. Mazda Customer Service was trying to coordinate with the dealership but the dealership really gave zero 💩's and kept hanging up on the CS agent I was working with. It's ok though, I enjoy working on the car and the parts are cheap.

I took a Subaru to the dealer for an intermittent brake squeak and they replaced the pads at like 25,000 miles without me even asking so Mazda not replacing the brakes at 6,100 miles soured the ownership experience so far.

I still do love the rest of the car though. It's fantastic aside from questionable rear brakes.
 
Not sure how it is everywhere else but the drop-off in the quality of service, niceness of people, etc - has been drastic post Covid here in the SF Bay Area. Mazda Customer Service was trying to coordinate with the dealership but the dealership really gave zero 💩's and kept hanging up on the CS agent I was working with. It's ok though, I enjoy working on the car and the parts are cheap.

I took a Subaru to the dealer for an intermittent brake squeak and they replaced the pads at like 25,000 miles without me even asking so Mazda not replacing the brakes at 6,100 miles soured the ownership experience so far.

I still do love the rest of the car though. It's fantastic aside from questionable rear brakes.
My rear brakes made noise and the dealer tried to address it under warranty. They said its covered for something like the first 12K miles. I'm surprised at 6100 miles and in warranty time window, they didn't address it.

I wound up replacing all four corners myself, because there was still occasional noise from rear, and I'd read all the complaints about short life. I think one of my dealer visits they also called out it as something to watch, I couldn't find it after.

Anyway, replaced around 35K miles I think. The rear pads were about half done, and the fronts 1/3 or less. Could have probably easily reached 70K on rear and 100K on front. New rotors are Geomet coated and look much better. Zero noise. Aftermarket Powerstop Z23 with coated blank rotors. About $200 for parts all around. I replaced the brake fluid while I was at it.
 
Any idea if that is fixed in currently produced cars (just got '21)?

I had to deal with exact same issue on my '16 CX5, rotors had to be replaced every 10k mi Brake/Caliper Corrosion on 2016 CX-5

At one point mazda was going to (try) fix it by using better pads, no idea if that helps.

Not sure I want to replace new rotors, so would replacing just pads help save the rotors or that doesn't make sense?
 
Anyhoo, so the rotors rusted out on all 4 corners at 6,100 miles. The Mazda service center confirmed that it was indeed dangerous and needed to be replaced

Is your car parked outside? I think it has to be a manufacturing defect, I never heard of rotors rusting out by 6,100 miles to the point of being dangerous.
 
Just to add to this conversation, as some may be aware, my rear rotors rusted badly as well within the first two years of ownership, and the car had less than 12,000 miles on it when I complained to the dealer. It was also not driven in the salty winter conditions that we have here in Ottawa. The first winter I was in Florida. The second winter it was garaged in bad weather.
Two different dealers blew me off like I was a nothing more than a nuisance. I also contacted Mazda Canada, and they said tough s..t. It's your problem. Not even an offer of a little discount to replace the rotors and pads. I was, and still am not, impressed with Mazda corporate and their customer service. I've dealt with 3 different Mazda dealers here, and two of them don't give a crap about after sale customer service. Once you buy the car, they don't want to see you or deal with warranty issues. The third dealer is a little better, and helped me resolve the premature rust spots showing up on the roof. At least there's that.
As for the rear brakes, I decided to heck with it, and left the rear brakes as is. I'm not giving Mazda my money. They are currently almost useless, and I don't give a crap anymore. The rotors are rustier than ever, and scored etc. I'll run them until they are close to complete failure, and then maybe I'll replace them (not Mazda parts either). The fronts work fine, and the car is not unsafe. What's funny is, the EPB still works fine. Not sure when and if I'll ever trade this thing in, but my next car will not be a Mazda.
Thanks for letting me rant a little. I feel marginally better.
 
Once you buy the car, they don't want to see you or deal with warranty issues
My experience is the opposite. While dealers don't get paid the same rate on warranty work, my dealers love finding extra stuff to fix as they know I'll approve it since they charge the manufacturer. - The dealer is not Mazda corporate. It is not unusual at all for a dealer service shop to go to bat with the manufacturer for my warranty work. YMMV
 
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