Brake Pad Replacement
 

Hopefully someone can help me with this. I just got my pads replaced (lasted thru 66,000+ miles) and I now only have about half my braking ability. Hubby did the replacement and said the fluid level never went low so he didn't bleed the lines. Up until then, I barely had to tap the brakes in order to slow down and rarely had to push them to the floor. Now the pedal feels like a pillow and I have to push pretty hard in order to stop. We're wondering if there was something else he needs to do (like bleed the lines, duh), if the master cylinder might be going bad, or the calipers need adjusted.

Has anyone else dealt with this?

did he bed the brakes in?
What year is the car and has the fluid ever been replaced?

Hi Sweetblue. It sounds like it definitely needs to be bled especially if he replaced the pads with another set of Mazda OEM RX8 pads. It's also possible that the calipers on your pads may need to be replaced. Sometimes, especially with the amount of salt on our roads in Ohio, the calipers can have issues when they start to see the kind of mileage you have.

There's almost certainly an RX8 owner nearby who can help out if you need a free second opinion. :)

https://www.rx8club.com/mw-rx-8-forum-31/

Did he replace the pads with the same brand that was on there before? As posted above the first thing I would do is bleed the brakes despite hubby's apparently correct appraisal that he didn't need to. I would have done the same thing as your hubby but if I ended up with a soft pedal I would then bleed them. Also I agree that you should do a proper bedding procedure for the new pads, particularly if they don't seem to be grabbing as well. Go out and do about 5 or 6 60mph to 20mph hard stops followed by a 10-15 minute cooldown without coming to a complete stop. While he's under there bleeding the system he should review his handywork to make sure that the pads on all 4 wheels are sitting in their calipers appropriately (which requires removing all 4 wheels). I had a friend at the track with a Honda (which has a similar rear brake caliper) that didn't get the post on the back of the pads lined up with the slots on the rear caliper piston and the poorly seated pads chewed itself and the rotor up in short order. He kept complaining that the car wasn't braking like it used to.:Eyecrazy:

Thanks for the input. The car's an '04. We bled the brakes, no air, no change, so I did the hard stops to warm up the brakes. That didn't help either and I still have "pillow" brakes. The brakes are the same kind, but not Mazda brand. He said the calipers were sitting OK, but I don't think he checked the back ones. I'll have him check that, but he knows to watch that anyway. He thinks it might be the master cylinder. My guess is I'll have to take it into a dealer. I don't drive it in the snow, so I don't know how much the salt damaging the calipers could be a factor.