Brake Upgrade

Heritage07 said:
My OEM rotors on my CX5 have warped twice in 60,000 miles. My brother has a 2015 with 28,000 miles and his just went. My son had the same issue on his 2015 Mazda 3 and ditched the OEM and bought aftermarket, which in 30,000 seems to have cured this issue. I forgot to ask him what he bought, but will post when I find out. Mazda OEM rotors and pads seem to employ weight saving skyactive technology by making them a lot thinner compared to my OEM BMW brakes which not only have never warped, but lasted 3 times longer. Makes sense that thicker pads should last longer, but my question is do thinner rotors warp easier? Have those of you that switched to aftermarket eliminated your warping issues?
Click to expand...

Hmm, well I looked at the disc thickness on the 2016 Cx-5 and it is 28mm. Not sure which BMW you have but not found one that thick. I don’t know how thickness would effect warping. How do you know they were warped?
 
Anchorman said:
Hmm, well I looked at the disc thickness on the 2016 Cx-5 and it is 28mm. Not sure which BMW you have but not found one that thick. I don’t know how thickness would effect warping. How do you know they were warped?
Click to expand...

I've seen first hand that the stock CX-5 rotor is thicker and heavier than some aftermarket rotors. I don't think Mazda employed weight savings there. I did at one point until I did actual comparisons.

Going back to the warping, just to clarify for folks that mention warping are you guys meaning grooves...like physical grooves? Like a an old school record? My research suggests they can be formed by small rocks or chunks of the pad getting caught between the pad and rotor. In the case of chunks of pad....they leave behind deposits on the rotor. You brake hard a few times to remove those deposits. Or get them turned. That said, I'll report my aftermarket rotors (thinner and lighter)after 20k miles of usage if it has warping/grooves. So far they are keeping a smooth surface :).

My research also indicates: Pads are made in Japan. Caliper in Chine. Rotors....I suspect China. My aftermarket thinner/lighter rotors are made in the UK. They seem to hold up better but too early to tell. Will report next year.
 
Last edited:
Unobtanium said:
....and yet we have a brake engineer in this thread posting that some pads require your rotors be just shy of glowing red before they actually work optimally. You see any issue with the logic of a 70 to 0 stop overheating and warping a rotor yet?
Click to expand...

.... did you read his post clearly? He mentioned high performance brakes operate like that. Your Mazda doesnt have no high performance brakes, its temperature range for ideal operation is much, much lower then that. If you managed to get them glowing hot or even near there, youve permanently lost braking performance and your brakes are going into the garbage because some stock everyday Mazda brakes arent built for punishment like this.

Yes, I still think that intentionally doing 70-0 stop is completely moronic and terrible for your brakes. The quickest way to uncecessariky wear them out while warping your rotors in the process.

CX-5um said:
I've seen first hand that the stock CX-5 rotor is thicker and heavier than some aftermarket rotors. I don't think Mazda employed weight savings there. I did at one point until I did actual comparisons.

Going back to the warping, just to clarify for folks that mention warping are you guys meaning grooves...like physical grooves? Like a an old school record? My research suggests they can be formed by small rocks or chunks of the pad getting caught between the pad and rotor. In the case of chunks of pad....they leave behind deposits on the rotor. You brake hard a few times to remove those deposits. Or get them turned. That said, I'll report my aftermarket rotors (thinner and lighter)after 20k miles of usage if it has warping/grooves. So far they are keeping a smooth surface :).

My research also indicates: Pads are made in Japan. Caliper in Chine. Rotors....I suspect China. My aftermarket thinner/lighter rotors are made in the UK. They seem to hold up better but too early to tell. Will report next year.
Click to expand...

I think they are talking about when the rotors physically warps from the heat (from putting the hot pad into the rotor while stopped after a hard braking incident for example) and this causes your front axle to vibrate while braking at high speeds due to the warpage
 
GJ-Molestor said:
.... did you read his post clearly? He mentioned high performance brakes operate like that. Your Mazda doesn’t have no high performance brakes, it’s temperature range for ideal operation is much, much lower then that. If you managed to get them glowing hot or even near there, you’ve permanently lost braking performance and your brakes are going into the garbage because some stock everyday Mazda brakes aren’t built for punishment like this.

Yes, I still think that intentionally doing 70-0 stop is completely moronic and terrible for your brakes. The quickest way to uncecessariky wear them out while warping your rotors in the process.

So what are these magical rotors made of that you would use with these pads? Hmmm?



I think they are talking about when the rotors physically warps from the heat (from putting the hot pad into the rotor while stopped after a hard braking incident for example) and this causes your front axle to vibrate while braking at high speeds due to the warpage
Click to expand...

Rotors don't warp from heat, unless stresses pre-exist.

http://www.hendonpub.com/resources/article_archive/results/details?id=1787

What I have been saying all along...

The root cause of the uneven wear is one of two things: either the rotor was installed out-of-true with the hub, or the tire was improperly torqued to the hub during the last tire change.
Click to expand...

The unevenly torqued rotor, even with the correct amount of torque, will not be bent when the rotor is cold. However, as the rotor heats up in normal use, it will expand unevenly.
Click to expand...


Kindof EXACTLY what I am saying happens...maybe I know WTF I am talking about...just maybe...
 
Gonna change the brake pads soon for the CX-5 for the first time after 74k miles. The rotors are still smooth. Not going to turn them. What grit sand paper do you guys suggest for me to sand the rotors?
 
CX-5um said:
Gonna change the brake pads soon for the CX-5 for the first time after 74k miles. The rotors are still smooth. Not going to turn them. What grit sand paper do you guys suggest for me to sand the rotors?
Click to expand...
If the discs are bright and shiny, don't touch them. If there are dark patches, 400 grit emery will take it off.
 
Anchorman said:
If the discs are bright and shiny, don't touch them. If there are dark patches, 400 grit emery will take it off.
Click to expand...

Is there any point in using BMW OEM Stuff in your Mazda like Textar pads and Zimmermann rotors or should I just stick to the common stuff like EBC, Centric TRW
 
GJ-Molestor said:
Is there any point in using BMW OEM Stuff in your Mazda like Textar pads and Zimmermann rotors or should I just stick to the common stuff like EBC, Centric TRW
Click to expand...

Not sure Textar makes pads for current mazdas? TRW makes suspension component stuff for BMW and pads for Audi. Per reading the EVO forums whose stock pads are performance based like the Ferodo DS2500's from Brembo. Of the cheap pads for daily driving (non track )they give a thumbs up to the StopTech semi-metallic made by Centric. Hence why I ordered the StopTech semi-metallic pads for the CX-5.
 
Anchorman said:
If the discs are bright and shiny, don't touch them. If there are dark patches, 400 grit emery will take it off.
Click to expand...

Light glazing easily came off with some brisk driving. Shiny once more :) I think I'll pay attention to the pins, the slider thingies, and brake grime. After 74k there should be some grime. Brake fluid changed just a couple months ago.
 
murky said:
Anchorman, does that hold true, even if using a different pad material?
Click to expand...

Yes. A new pad will resurface to an existing rotor.

CX-5um said:
Light glazing easily came off with some brisk driving. Shiny once more :) I think I'll pay attention to the pins, the slider thingies, and brake grime. After 74k there should be some grime. Brake fluid changed just a couple months ago.
Click to expand...

You live in a hot area so youre good, but my rear brakes on the BMW were in poor shape due to the salt snow and s*** we get in Canada. the caliper needed to be serviced and pins regreased. Stopping power and pedal feel was greatly improved from high speed after this.

About the glazing - its good to occaisonally use hard pedal effort (short of ABS) to ensure the pedal wear nice and evenly.

However, if your rotors were put on crooked by an imcompetent mechanic, you will notice that the outer part of your rotor will start to wear first while the rest of the brakes appear to be okay. They should always wear evenly.

Those of you living in cold areas particularly where salt is used, lubing the caliper pins is important.
 
Last edited:
murky said:
Anchorman, does that hold true, even if using a different pad material?
Click to expand...

CX-5um said:
Not sure Textar makes pads for current mazdas? TRW makes suspension component stuff for BMW and pads for Audi. Per reading the EVO forums whose stock pads are performance based like the Ferodo DS2500's from Brembo. Of the cheap pads for daily driving (non track )they give a thumbs up to the StopTech semi-metallic made by Centric. Hence why I ordered the StopTech semi-metallic pads for the CX-5.
Click to expand...

I posted a link from the Textar website for Mazda 6, and they had stuff for it. Im not sure if the pads were akebono or Textar though. Appears that the rears were akebono which is a rather brilliant idea, because you dont need good stopping power on the rear axle so may as well use a low dusting ceramic. The fronts should ideally be semi-metallic however.
 
Anchorman said:
Hmm, well I looked at the disc thickness on the 2016 Cx-5 and it is 28mm. Not sure which BMW you have but not found one that thick. I don’t know how thickness would effect warping. How do you know they were warped?
Click to expand...

Every time I hit the brakes the front end would pulsate terribly. The harder I hit them the worse the vibration. I am beginning to think the dealer monkeys are over torquing the wheels? I backed off the bolts and torqued them this time so I will see if this changes anything.
 
Heritage07 said:
Every time I hit the brakes the front end would pulsate terribly. The harder I hit them the worse the vibration. I am beginning to think the dealer monkeys are over torquing the wheels? I backed off the bolts and torqued them this time so I will see if this changes anything.
Click to expand...

Warped rotors have nothing to do with over torqueing the bolts, it happens when you do aggressive high speed stops (especially repeatedly and then coming to a stop, searing your hot pad against the rotor.

Its ekther you resurface the rotors or just get tougher ones and be a little easier on them. At least put the car in neutral or pull the e brake when coming to a hard stop from high speed to not ruin the front rotors.
 
Anchorman, can you just answer and resolve this once and for all? Where did all these people get these misinformed ideas about warped rotors?
 
GJ-Molestor said:
Warped rotors have nothing to do with over torqueing the bolts, it happens when you do aggressive high speed stops (especially repeatedly and then coming to a stop, searing your hot pad against the rotor.

It’s ekther you resurface the rotors or just get tougher ones and be a little easier on them. At least put the car in neutral or pull the e brake when coming to a hard stop from high speed to not ruin the front rotors.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but I beat the snot out of my bmw brakes and never had any issues with them. Brakes are made to stop under any circumstance, please don’t spread your BS that I have to baby the CX5 to prevent warped brakes from happening, it just exposes that this car has the most inferior brakes of any car I’ve owned and your relentless babble defending it is getting old. 3 Mazda’s in our family and everyone of them has the same issue.

https://www.vehiclehistory.com/repo...ts.php?make=mazda&model=cx-5&year=2014&page=3
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Heritage07 said:
Sorry, but I beat the snot out of my bmw brakes and never had any issues with them. Brakes are made to stop under any circumstance, please don’t spread your BS that I have to baby the CX5 to prevent warped brakes from happening, it just exposes that this car has the most inferior brakes of any car I’ve owned and your relentless babble defending it is getting old. 3 Mazda’s in our family and everyone of them has the same issue.
Click to expand...

BMW OEM brakes are far superior to the rotors fitted in your Mazda.

ask me how I know... I have both cars. there is no comparison.
 
Please log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

B
CX-5 Brake noise after replacing rotors and pads
2 3
Replies
53
Views
7K
yrwei52
yrwei52
L
2019 CX-5 Rear brake pad uneven wear
Replies
9
Views
874
LeSheep
L
B
Replacing my CX-5 front brake rotors
Replies
8
Views
2K
madar
M

Latest posts

Back