Wow! CX-5 Short Break Pad Life!

I will grant that I descend 13 kilometers of mountain road daily
Maybe you want to use more engine braking than friction braking when going down hills.

I have a 46K miles '16 Mazda6 GT. Pads have not been replaced.
(note: i-Eloop has energy recouping braking... pads wear more slowly like most hybrids)
Last time at my local dealer, the advisor told me to replace the front for $500.
"Thanks, but no thanks."
30 miles away another dealer quoted me $221.
I went to an indie shop I know for a long time.
He checked my pads and said, "Come back after another 10K!"

If you don't hear metal grinding sound, better get a 2nd opinion or look at them yourself.
A new pad has only about 10mm thickness.
Replacement is recommended for 3mm or less.
 
As I mentioned in my original post the morning I drove to my Mazda dealership for the 15000 kilometer service I noticed that at stoplights along the way the brake peddle was slowly descending while I had my foot on the brake peddle almost like it was losing brake fluid. This was a first since I purchased the car. I figured something was fishy so wasn't surprised they told me I needed new pads. But I am hard put to explain why the pads were worn out at the equivalent of 9300miles down hill drive or not. As a poster above mentioned the original pads as well as the car came from Japan. Nothing to do with Mexico where I believe the Mazda 2s sold here are assembled.

Also I can easily imagine that if I replaced the pads with non Mazda components the 3 year warranty would be in jeopardy. I know there is some flexibility with warranty rules up there but not here, different country. Add to that it's very unlikely that upgrade, non Mazda pads are available anywhere here except maybe, just maybe Bogotá.
 
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pads and discs are not warranted for wear. they are wear and tear.
mazda warranty should be ok as long as you go with proper pad specs.
but if you wish to get oem and change next year again nobody is stopping you.

from what I can guess the constant hill decent and probably steep too and hot weather, wears them out. a solution to that is high heat and better suited pads and discs for extreme conditions.
as I mentioned before mazda oem pads are meeh...
 
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All CX-5’s are assembled in Japan, hence all brake pads should carry the same part numbers, presumably are made in Japan too like we see in the US.

Not true at all.

There's a plant in China that produces CX-5s for China, a plant in Russia that produces CX-5s for Russia, a plant in Malaysia that produces CX-5s for Southeast Asia, etc.

The Japanese plants do export worldwide, which includes South America. I just wanted to know if the Mexico plant, which exports to North and South America, as well as Europe, also produced CX-5s. I thought that if they did, it may just be that the South American market gets different brake pads. But it seems that the Salamanca plant only produces Mazda2s, Mazda3s, and CX-30s.

I probably should have just googled this info in the first place.


As I mentioned in my original post the morning I drove to my Mazda dealership for the 15000 kilometer service I noticed that at stoplights along the way the brake peddle was slowly descending while I had my foot on the brake peddle almost like it was losing brake fluid. This was a first since I purchased the car. I figured something was fishy so wasn't surprised they told me I needed new pads. But I am hard put to explain why the pads were worn out at the equivalent of 9300miles down hill drive or not. As a poster above mentioned the original pads as well as the car came from Japan. Nothing to do with Mexico where I believe the Mazda 2s sold here are assembled.

Also I can easily imagine that if I replaced the pads with non Mazda components the 3 year warranty would be in jeopardy. I know there is some flexibility with warranty rules up there but not here, different country. Add to that it's very unlikely that upgrade, non Mazda pads are available anywhere here except maybe, just maybe Bogotá.

Regarding the issue you brought the car in for (brake pedal sink), I don't think it is pad-related. It could be related to a brake fluid leak or master cylinder leak.

If your warranty explicitly states that you cannot use non-Mazda pads, I guess the only solution if you want to keep your warranty intact is to use more engine braking. If you are able to upgrade the pads, I would do that considering your daily commute, but I understand how difficult it may be to find/get them.
 
Just clarify my car was shipped to Colombia from Japan. Odd logistics though. It arrived at the Pacific coast seaport of Buenaventura, a two hour drive from Cali where I bought it then trucked up to Bogotá a good ways away then trucked back down to Cali.

It will be interesting to see if the replacement pads last the same, more, or less than the originals. It wouldn't surprise me if they come from some where other than Japan.
 
they may come from japan but where they are made and by who is another story :)
If you dont have much choice, I guess try it out and see how it goes. Good luck.
 
My rear brakes were making noise below 10K miles in the 1st year. I took it to the dealer and they serviced the brakes. I believe they lubed the pins and may have conditioned the surface or something, they weren't specific and I didn't sweat it. I think they said to let them know soon if there was further issue because brakes were only covered for the first 12K miles or something like that.

I wasn't too concerned with it because brakes aren't that expensive as parts, noise isn't usually a functional problem, and I can do them myself when the time comes. On subsequent service visit, perhaps for Android Auto, or the cylinder deactivation recall, I believe they said the rear brakes were getting low. That was probably before 20K miles but I don't recall. I'm at around 33K miles now, haven't hit the squeal tabs yet or metal on metal :) I'll take a look when I switch over to winter tires, probably next month and if needed, either replace the rear rotors and pads, or all 4 corners.

Haven't been driving much since Covid19. I may hit the 12month oil change prior to getting to the 7500 miles.
 
I brought my 2020 CX-5 Signature purchased in August of last year in for it's 15,000 kilometer service today. I actually noticed at stop lights on the way to the garage that the break pedal slowly descended as I waited for a green light.
This’s the alarming issue more serious than you need new brakes on all 4 wheels. Like sm1ke said, you may have major issues with some internal or external brake fluid leak、the failure of brake master cylinder, or worse, the ABS module failure. It’s also possible after the continuous brake usage on the long downhill, you boiled the brake fluid which of course is highly unlikely. You should raise this serious and dangerous issue to your Mazda dealer asking for warranty service.

The upshot is they said the break pads front and rear had to be replaced. For you Northerners we're talking about 9,300 miles. I'm astounded. I will grant that I descend 13 kilometers of mountain road daily and that emergency breaking here in Colombia in the cities is probably more frequent but holy moly! My car before this was a Renault Duster 4x4 and it got well over 30,000 kilometers out of the front brake pads on the same drive. Has anyone else experienced short brake pad life on their CX-5? Also parts price for four pads about $272.00 US. How does that compare with US Mazda prices?
Everything is comparative. If you can get 30,000 kms out of the front brake pads from a Renault Duster 4x4 on the same drive, there’s no reason not to be upset about the very short life of brake pads from the Mazda CX-5.

Here are links with part numbers and US price info for front and rear pads and rotors on your 2020 CX-5 Signature:

Front:

Brake Pads - Mazda (TKY8-33-28ZA)

Rotor - Mazda (TK78-33-251B)

Rear:

Rear Pads - Mazda (KAY0-26-48Z)

Rotor - Mazda (K011-26-251C)
 
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Our 2017 CX-5 GT had rear pads and rotors changed at 35,000 km's, totally worn . Fronts are not as bad but will need replacing soon. Of course the dealer says it's because we didn't pay for yearly brake service of around $200, apparently "all Japanese cars need this"...I called BS on that, our 2013 Ford Escape barely had any wear on pads and rotors after 75,000 km's
 
Of course the dealer says it's because we didn't pay for yearly brake service of around $200, apparently "all Japanese cars need this"...I called BS on that, our 2013 Ford Escape barely had any wear on pads and rotors after 75,000 km's
What kind of service can they do on disc brakes, other than spray a little WD-40 on the caliper pins?
$200 for a quick lube job, and a built in excuse for early replacement of crappy brakes if you don't get it done.
Let's be honest here folks, Mazda brakes are built to a low quality standard. Cheap is the word.
 
What kind of service can they do on disc brakes, other than spray a little WD-40 on the caliper pins?
$200 for a quick lube job, and a built in excuse for early replacement of crappy brakes if you don't get it done.
Let's be honest here folks, Mazda brakes are built to a low quality standard. Cheap is the word.

My brakes are perfectly fine after 48000 kms, daily driven all year long, in a city that salts the roads pretty heavily. Plenty of pad/rotor life left.

I understand your frustration at the situation, but blanket statements like "Mazda brakes are cheap" don't do anything to help your situation. Further, if you were to say "Mazda6 brakes are cheap", even that would be difficult to validate because we've got many Mazda6 owners who are happy with their brakes. What happened with your brakes sucks, but as far as I've seen, it doesn't seem to be the norm. Can you post a pic of your brakes, just for reference?

Also for the record, WD-40 is a solvent and should not be used as a lubricant. Sil-Glyde brake lubricant is perfect for caliper slide pins.
 
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Also for the record, WD-40 is a solvent and should not be used as a lubricant. Sil-Glyde brake lubricant is perfect for caliper slide pins.

Correct.

Heck there is a whole thread dedicated to the caliper pins

I think driver vehicle operating behavior influences brake pad life heavily. Short stopping, downhill commute, leaving the foot on the brake while driving (dragging the brake) all these and more contribute to pad / rotor where prematurely. I am with @sm1ke if there was a systematic problem with the quality of the pad/rotors this forum and all other Mazda forums would be flooded with complaints. Not to say everyone with premature brake part wear are posting on the internet, but those looking for answer or curious if others experience the same problem are posting (like OP) and discussing.
 
Also for the record, WD-40 is a solvent and should not be used as a lubricant. Sil-Glyde brake lubricant is perfect for caliper slide pins.
Oh come on now, do you think I was serious when I wrote WD-40 on caliper pins? I know better than that.
It was (I admit) a cheap shot at the dealer's brake service.
I'm also happy for all the owners who got a lot more mileage out of their brakes. My situation is probably the exception more than the rule.
However, after reading three years worth of posts on this site from all types of people about Mazda's brakes and their issues, I'll stick with my unscientific conclusion that Mazda's brakes are not the best out there.
 
Oh come on now, do you think I was serious when I wrote WD-40 on caliper pins? I know better than that.
It was (I admit) a cheap shot at the dealer's brake service.
I'm also happy for all the owners who got a lot more mileage out of their brakes. My situation is probably the exception more than the rule.
However, after reading three years worth of posts on this site from all types of people about Mazda's brakes and their issues, I'll stick with my unscientific conclusion that Mazda's brakes are not the best out there.

I figured you weren't serious when you wrote that considering your experience, but I thought it best to clarify for others reading your post, in case they thought you were being serious. I know it was a little jab at the dealership techs.
 
I suppose I should issue a challenge: anyone want to beat my record of all four pads replacement at 9,300 miles? Anyway I am resigned that ongoing I will need early replacements but obviously I will never recommend the 2020 CX-5 for brake life.
 
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Interesting variation of experiences! I have a 2013 CX5, 6 speed automatic with 130,000 kms of mainly city driving in Australia. The rear brake pads were changed at 110,000kms and the front pads are still original from new! Driving technique plays a major part in brake wear and tear I would suggest. Also using engine braking on downhill drives pays dividends.
 
I suspect a daily 13 kilometer descent down a mountain plays a role. I wish the engine breaking available from the automatic was as effective as on a manual. Was able to compare recently when I had to rent a car while the CX-5 was in the body shop. Rented car was a manual.
 
I’m under contract for a mountain top home and I’ll have to do some engine braking for the ~1.5 mile ~400ft elevation change. Both my ‘13 CX-5 and ‘19 RAV4 seem to handle it fine with the trans downshifted, but I’ll have to start paying closer attention to oil level. Hopefully oil consumption doesn’t become a major factor : )
 
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