Can you believe it, pick the car up from having the passenger rear axle boot replaced to find out I have a crack in the passenger front and drivers side rear brake rotors.

Now I have to friggin try to source new rotors before the nationals in 2 weekends. Unbelievable! I do not want to pay Mazda's extreme price on rotors so I can only hope DBA has some on the shelf.

Not happy though, this car is having a lot of failures on what Mazda states is wear & tear items at 35,000km. Especially when the km's have mostly been done to and from work at legal speeds. Considering a lot of cars here have done far harder work than mine it's very annoying!

No new rotors means no Wakefield, and no wakefield and I think this car and myself will part ways. So frustrated

 

This is the first report I've ever seen of cracked rotors. Are they sure that they're cracked? It's not just a pad imprint? Solid rotors rarely crack. What pads do you have in there?

 

Yes they are cracks. Tried the light sanding to clean the area and its still there. I am using the standard Mazda pads that come with the car. My car is becoming infamous for firsts. Frozen caliper (and this was not on one of the cracked rotors), axle boot failure, cracked rotors and others but I canno say because of a deal that was agreed too!

 

You going to try a warranty claim? I know pads and rotors are wear items not usually covered, but this is an odd one....

 

That will be my first port of call on Monday. After the way thet acted with the boot failure I am not holding my breath!

 

Geez mate... you been walking under ladders or something?

Hope you can get it sorted in time.

 

I think I must have been sleeping under one with a dozen black cats

I bought the car at 6000km. It was supposed to have been the dealer Principles car and not used for demo's. I am starting to think the dealer principle may have lied to me. I feel like this car must have had 6000km of abuse before I purchased it as it's the only real explanation I can think off.

As I said there is other stuff I cannot say here that's far worse so really this abuse theory is really looking to me to be on the money

 

I haven't done a search, but I swear I have never seen anyone post photos of cracked rotors. Maybe there is some history of this sort of defect in the racing section of the forum. If it was going to show up anywhere, those guys would see it first.

 

The more I think about this, the weirder it seems. You have a crack in one of the rear rotors? They account for what....30% of your braking? To crack a rear rotor some severe sort of abuse has occurred.

 

ILIV48,

You have my upmost sympathy.

I've bought ex-demo cars before (my SP20 and our current Premacy being examples from Mazda). However, there was no way I would have contemplated buying an ex-demo or staff/dealer principle RX-8. Just too many unknowns especially for the critical running-in phase.

As others have said take it up as a warranty issue - it's either abuse (which may end up with the finger pointed at you as well) or a defect. I would be looking at going to Mazda Australia too with this issue. Raise it under the guise of safety and warranty and see how you go.

 

If they are holding you to secrets, you should be expecting to get looked after warranty wise in retrun. No way is cracked rotors normal wear and tear.

You should at least be given the benefit of the doubt, regarding the claims of abuse, and the fact you were not responsible for the first 6,000 km and they were. Abuse... FFS, it is sold as a sports car, and the marketing material even states how it can be used to drift.

Good luck.

Cheers,
Hymee.

 

Well I will certainly be giving it one hell of a shot. The money I have been saving I would much prefer to spend all with you know who... Cough, Cough Hymee , rather than dig into it for some rotors. Besides time here is an issue as I only have 2 weeks and I do not want to miss the blown by Hymee experience. I hear it is very memorable! :D

 

Sorry to burst your bubble, but you no longer have two weeks... 9 working days tops.. The Nats starts on Friday afternoon (Thursday morning for the Queenslanders)...

 

I think your initial thoughts that most of the 35000 km have been at legal speeds going to and from work have been your problem. Obviously you should have been going much faster to provide the cooling air that the brakes need to reduce the thermal stress.
I will now duck ..... :D

 

Roflmao!!!

 

It is such rotten luck, Stu!

Hopefully it will be sorted out by the fortnight.

I better check my rotors tomorrow. :o

 

Have someone with brake experience look at them.Discs can develop surface or hairline surface cracks that are really not a problem.I haven't heard of any cracking problems with these brakes.They run fairly low temps even on the track.
DBA do good replecement discs if you really need them.
If you get stuck and can't get front discs I may be able to help.

 

Having test driven a "Dealer Principal's" car I can safely say that it had been abused, not by me of course! :D From memory it had 10,000 k's on the clock. Not only had it been flogged, but the interior was pretty shabby as well. Scratches on the inside of the windscreen right in front of the driver?!

It was also used as a wedding car on one weekend. Probably explains the sticky stains in the back (Champagne!)

The point being that even if it was a Dealer Prinipal's car does not mean that it wasn't available to be test driven. A sale is a sale.

I'd push them for some sort of explanation as to why they think the rotors would develop cracks so early.

Hope you get a result in time for the Nats

Cheers

 

Well spoke to Mazda on the phone and have organised to bring the car in Tuesday morning. Over the phone they just said they cannot even remember this happening before and would suspect it is a fault in the metal itself. So hopefully they should be replaced under warranty. Fingers crossed.

If they turn around and say it will be at my cost then I definately will try to get a full set of DBA's instead. But that shouldn't be needed!

 

Thanks mate. If I get stuck I will keep it in mind.

Cheers

 

I have upgraded mine to DBAs already, if you want some cheap genuine front rotors from mazda you can have em both for $100. I have 20,000km of mostly highway driving on them before upgrading.

Cheers

 

Fingers crossed for you Stuart.

Should you cop any BS from Mazda, run it by me and I'll see if I can assist.

Dave

 

Just picked up the car. Rotors replaced under warranty. Phew. Nationals here I come :D :D

And to all the guys who made offers of assistance a big thank you!

 

Excellent. Just the two?

 

Just those with the cracks only!