'14 CX9 performance brakes compatibility?

dragosdor

Member
:
2014 CX9 GT Tech
Hi everyone, I am looking for a better option for brakes on my '14 GT FWD. I had the front rotors resurfaced at the dealership, under warranty, at around 25k miles, now I'm at 38k and they are going back to the same warping issue, where I get moderate vibration at high speed braking. I really like the pads grip, but the rotors are just not that great.

I was looking for performance pads/ rotors at tirerack and unfortunately nothing is available for this car. Again, I am not trying to make it a race car, but most of the times you can find options like Akebono, Stoptech, Brembo OEM... This car? NOTHING!

Therefore I was wondering if anyone retrofitted pads/ rotors from the Ford parts bin, knowing that this is a CD3 platform, used for so many other Ford/ Mercury products
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_CD3_platform

Does anyone know which model and trim I can successfully use on a CX9? (eg 2009-2014 Edge SEL)

Thanks!
 
It's not a sports car, just put a quality rotor on with quality pads and make sure who ever is putting the wheels on is using a torque wrench so the lugs are all equally torqued. More than likely the dealership is just ripping them on with an impact leading to uneven torque across the wheel and uneven rotor wear. I've been autocrossing and running track days for years, most recently hauling a 3800lb GTO down from 120mph lap after lap for five 20 minute sessions and know what fancy rotors I was using? What ever quality blanks I could find for a good price (Centric Pro, Brembo blanks, Napa Premium etc). They'd get so hot that my factory red calipers were a dark maroon and the one time I forgot to remove my little front center caps they melted. No "warping" or pulsating though. Going around the pits talking to the track regulars running in the A group (fastest drivers) and every one of them does the same. It's also fun to walk around and talk to the C group newbies with their ricer drilled rotors that start showing cracks between the drill holes after their first session of really using the brakes.

Don't believe me? How about hearing it right from the experts:
http://www.hendonpub.com/resources/article_archive/results/details?id=1787

The other problem was getting the rotors turned. I haven't seen a rotor in the last 10 years that was worth having it turned when it already started pulsating. By the time you take off enough material to clean up the uneven pad deposits and/or uneven wear that was causing the pulsing you've taken off enough to almost guarantee a problem not long down the road. Dealerships love it because it usually lasts long enough to get them past the warranty period and takes them 10 minutes to do with their on car lathe. Then they zip the wheels back on with an impact and pretty much insure the shake is going to return. The joys of dealership book rate vs a good independent mechanic who charges by the actual hours a job takes. If you pay a tech X dollars no matter how long the job takes and they make much more money if they fit more jobs in per day you can bet it won't take long for them to start doing things the fast way instead of the right way.
 
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MPVUE
Having worked in a machine shop for 25 years, I disagree. 100% of rotor pulsating is rotor related. We measure run out before turning rotors. Everyone I've turned was out of specs for true.
 
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