Sh*tty Ford Brakes

Red2

Member
:
2011 Mazda2 Sport
Not sure who else has noticed, but our 2s have FoMoCo calipers on them. I just became horribly disappointed in Mazda, and my local dealership, after with about a month on new brake pads I was getting shake, shimmy, and diving under braking (all coming from the right hand side). Just over a month ago, when I had less than 500 miles of warranty left, I had to replace the brake pads, no big deal other than the fact that my right side pad from the inside of the caliper was worn WAY worse than the other 3 at an angle. I took the car to my dealership to inquire about getting the caliper checked for warranty and they pulled the caliper, looked at the pads and said it's normal and nothing a fresh set of pads won't fix. They then tried to get me to spend $170+ to have them put pads on (with a 5 day wait for them to get the pads into the shop) and I declined to replace them myself. Fast forward to this week when my brakes started acting up and I pulled the calipers again, found excessive amounts of brake dust inside the right hub cap and, big surprise the caliper is dragging and now I'm stuck with it because of a shady service advisor. Cleaned everything up with brake cleaner, a stainless brush, and compressed air, put the car back together, hoping that the cleaning might have put the caliper right and took a test drive. Now the car dives left on hard braking, the ABS doesn't engage (slid all over the effing place on a panic type stop from 40 mph) and I'm stuck with the effing bill because I was a dumbass and listened to the service advisor at Woodhouse Mazda. I sent a b****y email to their "customer care" department, along with a b****y email to Mazda about Ford parts on a JDM vehicle. I was under the impression that the JDM Mazdas were actually Mazdas, not rebadged Fords. Had I known there were Ford parts on it, I never would have bought it. Rant off...just had to get it out to a crowd that may just understand where I'm coming from...
 
Ford may not hold a huge percentage of Mazda anymore, but they still share platforms and a lot of parts. What did you expect when buying a Mazda even if it did originate from Japan. That doesn't mean all the parts did too. As far as your brake complaint. Did you clean then grease your caliper slide pins? Sometimes the pins get build up on them and dont slide as well causing problems like what you're describing. The shake and shimmy could be a rotor issue. When you replace your pads, did you replace your rotors or have them resurfaced? I know you said you're out of warranty, but since you took it to the dealer prior to your warranty expired, they should have documentation showing that you had this complaint prior to warranty running out. Most places should provide some sort of good will or just cover it under warranty since the complaint was brought up prior to warranty expiration. But if the new pads you installed aren't OEM, you may run into problems since the pads aren't OEM. They may use that as a cop-out and say they're the issue, which we both know isn't true.
 
Slide pins were cleaned and greased with appropriate grease, rotors were resurfaced with new (non-OEM) pad installation. I also wire brushed all surfaces, made sure that the piston surface was shiny clean with 0000 steel wool, and made sure that all dust and particles were blown out with compressed air. I've spent the past 20 years maintaining my vehicles and don't cut corners when I do a job (didn't mean that to sound b****y, just making a point). Thanks for throwing out the suggestions to check, unfortunately I have already checked them all. I'm waiting to see how the dealership responds to the issue, and you're right, I shouldn't be surprised at the inclusion of Ford parts...and I'm not really surprised, just horribly disappointed. And yeah, non-OEM pads, so I'm likely completely screwed on this one. I can't really afford to trade out of it, but I'm strongly considering doing just that because I'm completely disenchanted with the car after this...severely missing my 02 Protege...
 
[video]http://ezinearticles.com/?Ford-And-Mazda:-A-Strong-International-Relationship&id=81618[/video]
 
I knew that Mazda and Ford shared, and I realize that most if not all of the Mazda cars have Ford parts on them. My disgust with this stems from the horrible quality of the units on my car and the refusal by the dealership where I bought the car to do anything about it. I had it in this morning and the service adviser was condescending about the issue, blamed me for doing shoddy work (before ever looking at the car to see that it's all put together right) and then passed the buck onto the non-OEM pads. I told him I would have put Mazda pads on it if they would have been able to get them without a 5-8 business day delay and had to go with the pads on there because no one else had them. They did a very quick inspection, drove it for 1.5 blocks around the perimeter of the building, without ever braking hard, and told me there's nothing wrong and they wouldn't do anything else about it. On the drive home the pull under hard brake is as evident as ever, and under extreme braking the ABS still isn't engaging and the car is entering skid. I'm getting set to order pads from Corksport as a last ditch effort see if this is just bad pads from NAPA, or if the dealership I've gone to for the past 10 years because of their quality and integrity has gone to s*** (I expect the latter).
 
All the press made a big deal about how the 2 only shared 4 parts with the Fiesta, but notice FoMoCo stamped on almost everything. WTH?
 
Sorry to hear about your bad experience , I'm sure if you replace rotors and pads it will go away. It might sound overkill but you will eleminate the mechanical aspects of the brake system. If it still does it you may have a blown o-ring in master cylinder plunger stem allowing only one side to clamp rotor correctly and otherside not release in time resulting in an unbalanced braking and causes a hard pull left or right depending on the problem side. Ive had to slam brakes before on other cars I've owned an it always turns out as such.
 
All the press made a big deal about how the 2 only shared 4 parts with the Fiesta, but notice FoMoCo stamped on almost everything. WTH?

Seriously. Suspension parts, brake parts, electrical parts, brake reservoir, everything else...lol
 
All the press made a big deal about how the 2 only shared 4 parts with the Fiesta, but notice FoMoCo stamped on almost everything. WTH?

"Shared with the Fiesta" is the key statement there. Never said that they didn't use other crappy Ford parts instead of Mazda parts...I'm going to look at some VWs this afternoon. 0% financing for up to 72 mos on some of the models, and my trade value should be about equal to my pay off...
 
While I personally haven't had any negative brake issues with my 2, there has been a lot of discussion about that on the forum. I doubt that it is truly a "crappy Ford" issue, so much as some sort of supplier/pad or rotor build/material, or assembly problem since only *some* people seem to experience this issue. If you think about the pretty mind-boggling amount of orchestration it takes to turn a dependable car off the end of an assembly line, it's not surprising that there will be an issue occasionally. With problems like this, I think it's always a good idea to go to a completely different third or fourth party, and let them attempt to diagnose on their own. Often times I find that different work eco-systems develop very interesting, sometimes opposing, angles from which to look at a problem, and that often leads to unconventional thinking that discovers the real underlying issue. It's worth a shot...
 
While I personally haven't had any negative brake issues with my 2, there has been a lot of discussion about that on the forum. I doubt that it is truly a "crappy Ford" issue, so much as some sort of supplier/pad or rotor build/material, or assembly problem since only *some* people seem to experience this issue. If you think about the pretty mind-boggling amount of orchestration it takes to turn a dependable car off the end of an assembly line, it's not surprising that there will be an issue occasionally. With problems like this, I think it's always a good idea to go to a completely different third or fourth party, and let them attempt to diagnose on their own. Often times I find that different work eco-systems develop very interesting, sometimes opposing, angles from which to look at a problem, and that often leads to unconventional thinking that discovers the real underlying issue. It's worth a shot...

+1
 
No longer an issue, traded the 2 for a 2012 Beetle. Thanks for the great community here everyone!
 
Yep, I'm not an AutoX guy and wanted something with a bit of refinement, more usable power on the street, and something more comfortable for the longish commute every day. The Beetle fit the bill nicely, and I really like the new design of the car. The interior, solid feel of the car, clutch, power band, and everything outside of the cornering and whipability of the car were much more appealing to me than the 2. Plus the additional cargo room is a huge plus for an Art teacher who hauls student work around at least 6 times a year setting up shows.
 
Interesting transition....but I've seen much weirder (acquaintance of mine went from a prius to a slightly used 911 turbo a couple years ago). Anyways...I actually like the new beetle design. Hopefully you'll have better luck with it than the 2. Over the years I've come to the conclusion that either the car likes you, or it doesn't. And if it doesn't, the sooner you can get rid of it the better. My last DD didn't like me...and I ended up upgrading/replacing pretty much everything and then decided to sell it when there was nothing left to break.
 
Congratulations on your Beetle pushase Red2. My girlfriend (who as a fiesta) wants one too ;)
 
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