replaced the brake booster myself...OMG, SIX HOURS!

we were getting the typical spongy brake and hissing noise issues, I diagnosed it as a faulty booster. I didn't think to take it to the dealer, as I thought I had read that the warranty extension only went up to 2011...

anyway,
it's a big job. the wipers have to come off, then the cowl panel, wiper motor, air intake, battery all are in the way. you have to disconnect the brake lines from the master cylinder to get it out of the way, AND loosen a bracket on the firewall to move the heater pipes out of the way... then after you put it all back together you need to bleed the brakes, since the lines were removed.

what a PITA.

I replaced it with a lifetime warranty rebuilt from Advance Auto; with the 30% online code (TRT30) it cost about $110.

now that I know about the extended warranty, I'm going to call Mazda to see what they have to say.

Ooof, with all that work to replace definitely not a part I would have gone with an Advance Auto "lifetime" part. Know what their definition of lifetime is? You'll spent the rest of the car's life replacing it once a year until you get tired of it and replace it with a better built part.

eskimo0101 said:

Ooof, with all that work to replace definitely not a part I would have gone with an Advance Auto "lifetime" part. Know what their definition of lifetime is? You'll spent the rest of the car's life replacing it once a year until you get tired of it and replace it with a better built part.

Click to expand...

thanks for your insight, but I've been working on cars myself for 30 years, it's not my first rodeo.

mpvue said:

it's a big job. the wipers have to come off, then the cowl panel, wiper motor, air intake, battery all are in the way. you have to disconnect the brake lines from the master cylinder to get it out of the way, AND loosen a bracket on the firewall to move the heater pipes out of the way...

Click to expand...

adding to this as i am in the middle of doing this. there are two heater hose bolts holding the heater pipes brackets to the firewall. i removed the one holding the biggest bracket when i followed line but that did not allow enough room for me to remove the booster. it wasn't until grabbed my crow bar to bend the pipes a little further that finally saw the second bolt. Once i removed that removing the booster was cake...

Deffinitely sounds like a pita. I put one on my wife's Solara back in the day, fortunately had plenty of room in the bay on that car. First one I put in was aftermarket from one of those sites, autopartswarehouse or something. It was more difficult to push the brake pedal than the oem. Took it off, returned it. Toyota wanted 800 part price, I got one from the scrap yard for 90 bucks and it worked beautifully for years until we sold it. Hope its covered under extended brake booster warranty if mine goes out in my cx-9 fingers crossed. Bleeding brakes is just not very fun. Necessary evil.