Looking to replace my brake pads soon. the dealer did the pads around 35,000 and now I am getting close to 70,000 and I have been doing all service my self since about 50,000 My car is my daily driver in Chicago. I am not looking to get anything fancy. Should I stick with OEM pads from a Mazda dealer or is there a cheaper alternative?

The best price I have seen for OEM is 120 at Finishline performance, they also have the Mazdaspeed pads for 145.

Cheaper alternatives start at about 45, such as the Duralast Gold pads from Autozone. Napa has "premium ceramic pads" at about 100.

 

OEM pads are actually very good. For a daily driver I wouldn't go more expensive, nor less.

 

fluid has hawk ceramics for sale at $156 shipped for the set.

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=156847

 

His thread title and text cites "OEM or cheaper." Why would he want to go even more expensive???

 

he also stated MS pads at $145. i'd rather go hawk than MS if he is deciding b/w those routes.

 

i just bought a set of front pads for 47.50 lol i need them bad so i cant wait for shipping lol

 

PM Charles Hill (BHR) about the hawk ceramics. I think they should be cheeper then the OEM plus less noise, less dust, last longer and perform better.

 

Get the hawk ceramic. Way less brake dust.

 

Engine brake - way less brake dust.

 

ok; I stand corrected, and concur.

 

i just got some GranSport carbon ceramic and Axxis ultimate kevlar ceramic, hope they shed less dust than the stockers

 

Hawk Ceramic are as good a performer as OEM and will reduce brake dust but they also wear faster.

You will not beat OEMs on wear/durability/price for a daily driver and unless you're doing track/autoX or have a concern with brake dust there's not reason to upgrade.

 

The Axxis Ultimates are good street performance pads, probably the best bang for the buck in terms of coefficient of friction and thermal range in a street pad but they are dusty. Way more dusty than OEM.

 

mazdatrix.com has OEM pads cheaper without hardware equipment. $60 for fronts, a little over $50 for rears:

http://mazdatrix.com/8brakes1.htm

On a side note; when might one need the hardware? Let's say you're doing your first pad swap; can't you just use the plates and whatnot from the originals?

EDIT: Rears w/o hardware are cheaper at finishlineperformance.com for $40.

http://www.finishlineperformance.com...cat=356&page=1

Shipping from two places may diminish the savings, though... unsure.

 

1) there is no engine braking on a free reving engine with 3 moving parts

2) for normal/ daily use, Hawk proposes HPS !!

(i managed 40K klm on my 1st OEM set and 30K klm on my second.)

i think HPS will last longer !!

 

Well, at least not enough engine braking to justify going without brake pads!

 

LOL Well, that's certainly true.

My Boss, who has always been as impressed with the engineering elegance of the Wankel as I, never the less routinely jibes me that it doesn't appear to be connected to anything and that the Revell plastic model of same (when we were kids) had a 9v battery to make it run.

I really do get very little brake dust thanks to engine braking, but I could use less squeel, so may go ceramic myself.