Brake Setup on your CX-9

Hello everyone,

My wife has a 2011 CX-9 that has served us well, but at a shade over 72k I think it's time for some new brakes. She has a slight vibration on the front end under braking, likely a warped rotors, but I have decided to just upgrade the brake system while I am doing the work.

The rotors I am looking at right now are the EBC Drilled and Slotted, probably EBC redstuff pads.

http://www.carid.com/2011-mazda-cx-9-brakes/ebc-3gd-series-slotted-brake-rotors-4033692.html

What set ups have y'all run on these, any complaints with what you have used, recommendations?

You've probably already seen this tread, but if not:

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123808909-Removing-rotors-on-CX-9 How to remove the rotors.

As for recommendations, mine is a '14 so I'm not there yet. Hopefully someone chimes in though for ya!

I have same the problem like you did, im looking for a good rotors as well.. Im planning to get a Brembo brake 380mm.. Any better suggestions?

I'm running PowerStop slotted/ Cross drilled Rotors and matching pads all the way around. Did a complete brake flush. I have to say it made a nice difference having stopping power again w/o the pulsating in the pedal. DW 9 has 65K on the odometer and pads were due (we tow).
Rotors still had thickness on them to get them turned, but I said the heck with it and went new all the way around.

R1concepts brakes works for me.

I have Centric e-coated front rotors on my CX-9 with ceramic pads.... the squeal is simply driving me nuts when backing out of the garage. That's the only time they squeal, but the noise is horrifying. It may have something to do with me removing the factory thin "hardware kit" to eliminate the "clicking" noise when coming to a stop, not sure. I'm looking at these powerstop kits on amazon, but I don't want the reverse squeal problem with ceramic pads that I currently have.
Tonyj, you have any brake squeal in reverse? Powerstop seem to be better than oem for stopping power?

Unless you're going REALLY high end drilled/slotted rotors are nothing but a gimmick and are actually going to make your brakes worse.

I regularly run a 2005 Pontiac GTO at track days, five or six 20 minute sessions of threshold braking from 120 MPH to 40 MPH at the end of one straight, and 100 MPH to 50 MPH at the end of another straight and run nothing but high quality solid blanks, ATE TYP 200 brake fluid and Carbotech XP12 pads. Talk to any track day guy and they'll tell you nothing beats a good quality blank rotor. For street duty on the GTO and on my SUV that sees towing duties (An Expedition, then Murano, and now CX-9) I just run Centric Premium rotors and a high quality ceramic pad. NAPA makes a great ceramic, as does Akebono. Most recently I'm experimenting with the Centric premium ceramic pads on the GTO but I haven't had them on long enough to put my stamp of approval on them yet. The GTO just went back on it's summer tires so I'll be doing some spirited road testing soon and will report back if anyone is interested.

If you want fancy looking rotors, fine, get the drilled/slotted, but realize you're just going to eat brake pads faster, generate more dust and decrease the friction area due to less surface area for the pad to make contact. Plus as the rotors age they'll likely develop cracks that connect the drill points because unless you're buying GT3 Porsche rotors at 5k a pair the one you got for your Mazda were just drilled after being cast and it weakened the rotor.

Bottom line, even if you're pushing your CX-9 like this, stick to solid rotors:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRvZmJd_gHg&ab_channel=eskimo2k

helbigtw said:

I have Centric e-coated front rotors on my CX-9 with ceramic pads.... the squeal is simply driving me nuts when backing out of the garage. That's the only time they squeal, but the noise is horrifying. It may have something to do with me removing the factory thin "hardware kit" to eliminate the "clicking" noise when coming to a stop, not sure.

Click to expand...

That's definitely why it's squealing. Or since you removed a critical component to stopping brake squeal (the anti-squeak that goes between the pad and the caliper) I'm guessing you didn't properly clean and grease all the contact points either.

I've had my Centric rears (pads and rotors) on my GTO for about 6 months now and it's been totally silent. The fronts have only been on about 2 weeks but silent there as well.

Although the rotors on the CX9 are hardly what you'd call high performance, they're adequate even when towing light loads. Seems warped rotors are a common problem on the CX9. My rotors went during the warranty period 2 years in, so the Mazda dealer in their wisdom replaced them without getting to the root cause of the problem (just assuming the rotors were the problem). Sure enough, 2 years later they warped again. This time I looked into it myself. Long story short, I dealt with a brake specialist. Their advice was that even some cheap Chinese steel rotors are usually good enough if the brake pads are good quality. That is, the brake pads are designed to absorb the heat, not transfer the heat into the rotors/discs. So on their advice I had my newly warped rotors shaved and quality European pads fitted all around. Surprise, surprise, the CX9 now stops better than it ever has and almost two years down the track there's not a sign of rotor warp. I went with TRW brake pads.

Apparently when asbestos was removed from brake pads (by legislation), the heat absorption capability of the pads generally was greatly diminished . So many brake pads these days don't absorb heat like they should/could, pushing it back into the rotor which causes heat warp. So it's not the quality of the rotors that's the problem, but the quality of the brake pads.

Unless you're after a track racing performance edge from slotted/ drilled rotors, and/or just want to upgrade to smashing looking rotors (there's nothing wrong with that), a street car like a CX9 will not measurably benefit from slotted/ drilled rotors (you just can't possibly work them like they're designed to be worked... on the track). So a cheaper and just as effective option is to get quality pads. Food for thought. Look into it.

Cheers.

eskimo0101 said:

Most recently I'm experimenting with the Centric premium ceramic pads on the GTO but I haven't had them on long enough to put my stamp of approval on them yet. The GTO just went back on it's summer tires so I'll be doing some spirited road testing soon and will report back if anyone is interested.

Click to expand...

Since the thread got bumped I'll update this. I've put enough miles and hard stops on the Centric ceramic pads to say they're a good pad.

CX9 Brakes

eskimo0101 said:

Since the thread got bumped I'll update this. I've put enough miles and hard stops on the Centric ceramic pads to say they're a good pad.

Click to expand...

Yeah I'm shopping them now too. Our CX9 is a 2010 with 77K on it and they are getting bad. They've been pulsating a bit for about 10K miles and now they are just about toast. Still OK but getting unsafe at higher speeds, pulsating and fading badly on highway stops.

Anyone have good vendor sources? I'm looking at Tirerack for the total package rotors and pads all the way around. Centric ceramic pads and their standard rotors. I've done my share of brake jobs. Not looking to do anything with the fluid or needing to bleed them unless somebody has a reason otherwise. Just open the reservoir when spreading the calipers to install new pads.

Putting together my parts list now and need to pull the trigger soon.

TIA for any tips.

Update: oem ditched at 32k or so for Centric e-coated rotors with Centric posiquiet ceramic. Now at 83k and the Centrics are done...lots of pad transfer. Zero towing involved on the Centric. I'm done with this brake setup. But I can't seem to find anyone who makes a compatible big brake upgrade (larger caliper and rotor).

CX9 Brakes

helbigtw said:

Update: oem ditched at 32k or so for Centric e-coated rotors with Centric posiquiet ceramic. Now at 83k and the Centrics are done...lots of pad transfer. Zero towing involved on the Centric. I'm done with this brake setup. But I can't seem to find anyone who makes a compatible big brake upgrade (larger caliper and rotor).

Click to expand...

So you got 61K out of the Centric setup. That's interesting. Sounds to me like you should maybe consider the Hawk HPS or something more aggressive from EBC.

I just put that Centric rotors and pads setup on our CX9 last Saturday. Took me 6 hours and I haven't done a brake job in years but it was pretty easy.
Drilling out those screws in the front rotors took some time. I didn't even bother trying to unscrew them after reading posts here. I was careful and took my time with the job.

The car stops great now but I have a question about some small clips on the front, inside pads. The OEM brake pads had a small, angled, stainless steel spring clip that was on one ear on one side of the inside pad. I neglected to check what way it went on the ear, and if it was installed at the top or bottom of the caliper. This clip slides in the track of the stainless clips that Centric gives you in the kit which go into the caliper brackets. I suspect I should just remove it because now I hear a faint, very high pitched squeal and I think it's contacting the rotor under braking. If anybody can confirm this for me I would appreciate it.

Our CX9 is my wife's car and she drives it in a VERY un-aggressive manner. She's like super careful driver.
We drove it across the country once and on a couple other long trips. In other words, lots of highway driving and taking it easy on the car unless I'm behind the wheel.
After installation I checked the odometer so I could document the parts replacement for future sale of the car.
Almost exactly 78K on the odometer and inspecting the OEM brakes, the rears were probably 60% worn and the fronts 85%. The inside pad was worn more than the outside on both sides of the car. The outside pad had yet to wear past the center grove in the pad but did not have far to go.
I expect to get another 80K out of these Centrics but I will sell the car well before I get there.

TIA guys