Kudos to MAZDA and the new Front Brake Pads
 

Kudos to MAZDA. Had my front brake pads replaced under TSB 04-006/04. Excellent stopping power. 95% reduction in brake dust. No squeal.

Well done MAZDA!

I'm glad you got the GOOD pads.. I also got mine replaced.. the squeak is even louder (if you can believe it) so it's back at the dealership again...

My parts are on order... Looking forwad to the silence...

I wish I had the squeal so I could eliminate all the brake dust...man that is annoying!!!

was this covered under your warranty? because im schedualed have this done and its costing me a fortune, they also mentioned they have to put new rotors on with the new pads...im looking at around $500 after labor

how much is it to replace the pads?

Should be free for 18 inch rims. Some members said that they did not have to resurface the rotors. My dealership lightly resurfaced mine free of charge. Bring them this document, although they will test drive your car to see if there is actual squeal in order for the tsb to be "free":

http://www.finishlineperformance.com...cs/04-006.html

Yeah ... no charge ... no resurface ... covered under warranty.

we'll see what happens with mine..., I drop her off wednsday morning. They're giving me a mazda6 to play with for the day, I'm gonna drive it like I stole it.

i got the new pads friday but the squeak just started again.... I'm going to try a rigorous bed-in procedure but after that probably total frustration

Had mine replaced 1 month ago.

Squeel was gone for 2-3 weeks, but now is back and just as load as it was before.

Will have them replace them again at some point.

we will see how good the pads are in the future magazine tests...

after a bit of "discussion" i got new pads and rotors which are working very well :)

~oh yea they have verified that theres a squeal.. i've brought it there a couple times complaining about it, and they've tried just cleaning them....but on my last oil change they said their squealing bad, and i have 50% of my pads left...but i dont think i should pay for new pads and rotors...they've been squealing long before my pads wore down...you still think i should show them this service bulletin?

Yes, the service bulletin was just issued recently. I'd bring it in and escalate to the service manager if there's a probem with the initial service rep. And I believe one replacement due to the squeel is good up to our warranty 4 years or 50k miles, so there should be no problem. Just print and bring in the tsb just in case.

I talked to my mazda dealer, I'm scheduled to have the pads replaced and new headlights installed on Friday.

The current headlights have stuff on the inside of the lens that cannot be cleaned.

where Jham?

ferman mazda in tampa.

I've had the new brake pads for 2 weeks. Went from squealing like a stuck pig to total silence immediately. Haven't had a problem since. The brake dust is less, but it sure didn't go away. It was all covered under warranty. While it was in for the brakes they also replaced the rear part of both front seats and gave me new seat belt tensioners. The originals make the seat belt buckle smack the seat back and scratch it up. Totally unexpected. The weird part is that the new seat backs don't have the pocket in them. The dealer complained to Mazda and were told that new seat backs would be sent as soon as they were available. One year and one month driving this little beauty and I am a very happy camper. I am gonna hold out for another week or two and then switch to my snow booties. The gas mileage is even coming up (sloooowly!).

mm

positron, you have leather? So they replaced the plastic back of your seats? Did you have scratches all over, or did they do it to prevent future damage?

I'd like to get new pads just for the reduction in brake dust even though my brakes don't squeel.

Jason- what was it you had inside your headlights? I have some issues as well. It looks like condensation, which means the lights are not sealed completely.

After 9 months of bitching about my brake sqeaking to Mazda, I saw the service bulletin. I went down to my dealer at Great Neck Mazda NY, and they replaced the pads, no problem. Kudos to Mazda for the fix, I got new pads after 17k miles and they haven't sqeaked once since I've had them, (1 month now). :D :D :D

That sounds about right, just random crap on the inside of the lens. The service guy was telling me how the unit wasn't sealed and it lets in air.

FWIW, most headlights on most newer cars do get condensation inside the lenses as the assemblies are not sealed. In normal use the condensation will disappear after a few minutes of headlight use as the air inside the headlight warms.

the stuff on the inside of my lens have been there for months. not getting worse, not getting better. i like to drive with my lights on because i want to make sure the cars around me see me. i've had too many accidents where people rammed me.

It's funny you guys bring this subject up. I was at a car show on Sunday and I saw a Corvette there, it had a headlight fixture conversion on it. The headlight no longer flipped up, they were just solid like ours, but it had a fan on the floor of each headlight, (couldn't find a picture for the life of me) that sucked any condensation out of the headlight compartment. Not that this helps us out, but maybe Mazda should think about making a conversion to trouble shoot this problem. I personally do not have this issue with my 8 but for those that do, Mazda should consider a fix for it.

anyone have a link to the TSB?

thanks

I got my passenger seatback replace when I got the new brakes too... they said it took them forever cause they put the pocket fixture from the old seat into the new back... didn't bother getting the driver's side replaced... didn't have any scratches.

Rosenthal Mazda's list of TSB's and recalls is stickied at the top of the Tech Forum.

I gave praise too soon. I got the TSB brakes last week. Starting yesterday they started squeeling a very high pitch noise, totally diffrent than the sound the original pads made. The original brakes made noise during a certain speed range (25-40MPH) but the new brakes squeal as soon as I hit the pedal.

I wonder if the tech who installed them didn't lubricate the appropriate parts necessary to avoid the problem your having?

Agreed. I have been thrilled with the new pads for almost 2 weeks now. Hardly any dust, and very good stoping power. The squeal is gone....its like having a new modification! If anyone has not had this done, complain to your dealer even if there is no squeal!

Wayne

should've resurfaced rotors too
 

Yeah, Kudos to Mazda for the replacement pads.... but I think they should've included rotor turning too.

I think it was CHEAP that Mazda didn't include the cost of resurfacing rotors.

If your dealership's service dept. resurfaced your rotors and didn't charge you (they absorbed the labor), I'd stick with em!!!!!

Does anyone know if the original compound pads are still available or does the new compound replace the old ones?

...maybe i should visit the dealer and see if he has any half used RX8 brake pads laying around that i could take off their hands

You might be better off just buying an aftermarket pad or the Mazdaspeed pads. Especially if the dealer is going to charge you for another set.

Got mine done Monday and am very pleased so far. No squealing at the moment. Hope it doesn't come back! The pads seem to work as well as the originals.

Hey, even if the squeal comes back, at least I got new brake pads at 25000 miles. Can't beat that.

Great thread, thanks guys!

My car is still very new, it has only 1500 miles on it with no squealing. Tons of brake dust, but the thing stops like there's no tomorrow. :)

I'd be concerned that the new pads lessened performance. Anyone who drives fairly aggressively or autocrosses have input on that? I can deal with squeal and dust, I can't deal with lower performance.

My pads didn't start making noise until around 6500 miles. It's progressively gotten worse.

OK, got it done. It's been a few days now. Usually they would rust over every night. They replaced the pads and evened out my slightly-warped rotors. It's been four days and no rust so far and a lot less break dust.

I even "aggresively stopped" a few times and there didn't seem to be any noticable loss of stopping power. Thanks mazda!

the problem is your really not going to notice a decrease in stoping power until someone actually measures a 60-0 or 70-0mph stop. I have never seen a set of pads that dust and sqeal less while also stopping as good as pads that dust and squeal.

I had new pads on before a track day. They squealed for 500 miles until I actually got on the track. Now they don't squeal!