How long did your brake pads last?

Force distribution wears out first the rear brakes, not the ABS. There is more force applied at the rear, than at the front.
 
Just hit 56,000 on my '16 GT. Had it in for an oil change yesterday and they mentioned the rears are close to the indicator and should be done. Fronts are still okay. Currently deciding which pads to replace them with as I always do them myself. (And yes, I know about the EPB maintenance procedure.)
 
Just hit 56,000 on my '16 GT. Had it in for an oil change yesterday and they mentioned the rears are close to the indicator and should be done. Fronts are still okay. Currently deciding which pads to replace them with as I always do them myself. (And yes, I know about the EPB maintenance procedure.)
Go with OE replacements. Mazda always does a good job developing pads that offer balanced performance. They're a little pricey, but worth the $$.
 
Just hit 56,000 on my '16 GT. Had it in for an oil change yesterday and they mentioned the rears are close to the indicator and should be done. Fronts are still okay. Currently deciding which pads to replace them with as I always do them myself. (And yes, I know about the EPB maintenance procedure.)

OEM pads (TRW) are good But the stock rotors are s***. Try EBC/Centric, and dont cheap out if you like the way your brakes feel.

Alternatively, I recommend German OEM pads and rotors such as Textar, Pagid, Ferodo or Jurid pads which are dusty but smoother on your rotors for better wear. Theres a thorough thread on brakes and why german is better over OEM here:

https://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123861722-Brake-Upgrade



Mazdas OEM rotors warp easily and are not this shiny material you want like EBC/Centric, or even better yet Zimmerman rotors.. hands down the best all around street rotors you can get. If you manage to warp a set of these I will personally congratulate you for thoroughly track testing your car whether it was on the street or an actual track. These rotors are track-proven as long as you can get sufficient cooling through the front bumper, where your fog lights are/should be.

What Im trying to say is, all you really need to do is upgrade the rotors to better quality ones during your brake replacement. but if you want to go the extra distance and buy some quality German brakes, you will benefit regardless of whether you are a conservative driver or push your vehicle to the limit.

Oh, and if you do not brake hard often, be sure to do a firm stop (hard into the pedal, but still short of ABS where your tires start to lock) once in a while. This will evenly wear your pad and ensure a smoother contact to the rotor.
 
Last edited:
For CX-5 we have to add 2 additional factors:

1. Sticking caliper pins due to lack of lubrication from factory.

2. Sticking rear calipers with Electrical Parking Brake due to improper tolerance on rear calipers with EPB.

These 2 are well known issues on CX-5 which will make your brake pads wearing out really fast!

I'm at 14,000KMS (not miles!) and the rear brakes are squealing. I'm thinking I have an issue with one of those 2 items you listed. That said, with all the safety functions (pre-collision for example), is it expected for the brake pads to wear out quicker?
My next oil change is coming up so I'll check with the dealer.
 
I'm at 14,000KMS (not miles!) and the rear brakes are squealing. I'm thinking I have an issue with one of those 2 items you listed. That said, with all the safety functions (pre-collision for example), is it expected for the brake pads to wear out quicker?
My next oil change is coming up so I'll check with the dealer.
Squealing brakes are not the same thing as worn out brakes (unless there's something wrong back there) and definitely not at 8400 miles! Get your dealer to check them out.
 
I swapped my winters yesterday and again noticed the rear pad are getting down there. Fronts are fine. I ordered some OEM pads for the rear and will replace.
 
My stepdaughter has 70k miles on her front brakes with her 2014 cx5, got her rear brakes changed at 35k. My fronts on my 2014 had some pad left when I took them out at 60k, also changed my rears at 32k.
 
Rears needed to be replaced at around 53k-54k (dont recall exactly) miles.

I'm at 63k now and fronts are still fine.
 
How long did your front and rear brake pads last? Just curious what the average experience is, and what to expect.

My rear pads were just replaced at 33,000 miles (worn to the point of squealing when backing up), which seems early to me. I showed them the TSB about the rears binding and causing premature wear, but they claimed the wear pattern didn't match the TSB.

My front pads were down to 5/10 (which was fine), but I replaced them anyway because for some reason my front rotors were badly gouged (saw them, they really were) and had to be replaced.

Just curious if this is what I can expect to be doing every 33,000 miles?

Any guesses as to why both front rotors were gouged even though the pads were only 1/2 worn? Road salt from the winter not being washed out often enough maybe?

79k miles now. My rear pads are down to 3mm, but have been measuring 3mm for the last 10k+ miles. Dunno when it will die and need replacing, but not yet.

I believe front are 5 or 6mm. Front rotors are badly warped though. A couple of repeated stops and the wheel is shaking.
 
I'm surprised so many rear brakes are wearing out before the fronts. I always thought that the fronts work harder, therefore wear out faster, due to weight transfer and greater weight on the front axle. Remember when cars had discs on the front and drums on the rear? And they often [usually?] have larger discs in front than back [but only 0.2" difference on CX-5, larger in the back].

Does anyone know why this is happening? Force distribution maybe, but why? There should normally be LESS force applied to the rears, no?
 
I'm surprised so many rear brakes are wearing out before the fronts. I always thought that the fronts work harder, therefore wear out faster, due to weight transfer and greater weight on the front axle. Remember when cars had discs on the front and drums on the rear? And they often [usually?] have larger discs in front than back [but only 0.2" difference on CX-5, larger in the back].

Does anyone know why this is happening? Force distribution maybe, but why? There should normally be LESS force applied to the rears, no?

Yes, quite right. On a one for one basis (considering only the size of the pads and the design forces of the calipers), the pads should wear out evenly. However, as the weight during a stop is always transferred to the front and that is constantly variable, the fronts get hotter and they wear out quicker. How fast the friction material wears is directly apportioned to heat and it is a non linear relationship, in other words, what ever the wear is at 300F isn’t doubled at 600F, it might be tripled or quadrupled. Pads need heat to make them work properly so low duty will make them sleep and high duty will excite them and make them perform best but wear quicker. Friction has nothing to do with area so you could literally cut an inch off each end of the pad and they will work exactly the same (more pressure per unit of area) but they will get hotter and in that case wear quicker.

So back to the original question. If the rears wear quicker, it could be that the vehicle often has weight in the rear, the fronts aren’t doing what they should (maybe need servicing) and therefor push the work done to the rear or something is causing the rears to get hotter than they should like the calipers sticking slightly and they are dragging. There isn’t necessarily a fault though. It might be that the rear calipers have a lower threshold than the fronts (this is the amount of fluid pressure actually needed to bring the pads in contact with the disc) and they just apply marginally quicker but balance under heavier load. There may be slight differences on the pad compound (friction level). There is also a solid disc which may run slightly hotter than the vented one at the front - remember the fundamentals - the hotter the friction material, the quicker it wears. You can buy these point and read digital thermometers real cheap theses days that can tell the tale and they are very good for fault finding.
 
I'm surprised so many rear brakes are wearing out before the fronts. I always thought that the fronts work harder, therefore wear out faster, due to weight transfer and greater weight on the front axle. Remember when cars had discs on the front and drums on the rear? And they often [usually?] have larger discs in front than back [but only 0.2" difference on CX-5, larger in the back].

Does anyone know why this is happening? Force distribution maybe, but why? There should normally be LESS force applied to the rears, no?

My bet is it's part of the stability control. The rears get used far more than you think. Just a guess.
 
I think stability control as well and/or the EBD. My Infiniti wears more on the rear as well.
 
My bet is it's part of the stability control. The rears get used far more than you think. Just a guess.

That's a good bet, I'll bet.

Yes, quite right. On a one for one basis (considering only the size of the pads and the design forces of the calipers), the pads should wear out evenly. However, as the weight during a stop is always transferred to the front and that is constantly variable, the fronts get hotter and they wear out quicker. How fast the friction material wears is directly apportioned to heat and it is a non linear relationship, in other words, what ever the wear is at 300F isn’t doubled at 600F, it might be tripled or quadrupled. Pads need heat to make them work properly so low duty will make them sleep and high duty will excite them and make them perform best but wear quicker. Friction has nothing to do with area so you could literally cut an inch off each end of the pad and they will work exactly the same (more pressure per unit of area) but they will get hotter and in that case wear quicker.

So back to the original question. If the rears wear quicker, it could be that the vehicle often has weight in the rear, the fronts aren’t doing what they should (maybe need servicing) and therefor push the work done to the rear or something is causing the rears to get hotter than they should like the calipers sticking slightly and they are dragging. There isn’t necessarily a fault though. It might be that the rear calipers have a lower threshold than the fronts (this is the amount of fluid pressure actually needed to bring the pads in contact with the disc) and they just apply marginally quicker but balance under heavier load. There may be slight differences on the pad compound (friction level). There is also a solid disc which may run slightly hotter than the vented one at the front - remember the fundamentals - the hotter the friction material, the quicker it wears. You can buy these point and read digital thermometers real cheap theses days that can tell the tale and they are very good for fault finding.

OK then, too many variables to generalize. That would also account for the minority reporting faster wear on the fronts.
 
I'm gonna throw a new hardware kit on the rear as well. OEM only about $14

PN: K0Y12649ZA ('13-'15)

s-l1600.jpg

s-l1600.jpg
 
Last edited:
Back