The OEM rotors wear very quickly. The OEM pads are Akebono semi organic which are actually pretty good. However the OEM pads create a ton of brake dust which makes the wheels look terrible. When I replaced mine about a year ago I went the aftermarket route and used Raybestos rotors and pads.
Best Brake pads for Mazda 5
So I followed their direction and jumped on the old interwebs to my retailer of choice, RockAuto, and ordered Bosch pads and rotors front and back. So I had nothing planned for the weekend figured I would do a little wrenching. Take the wheels off and start to unbolt the caliper, looked down and my rear pads still show about half life. Maybe they just meant the fronts, pop the wheel and they are showing even less wear. My question is it normal for the CX-5 to go 80000 miles on the original pads? I didn't think I drove like my grandmother but it is 70% highway/non city driving. For anyone that does your own maintenance the cost for 4 rotors and pads was less than $200 (Raybestos Element 3 rotors and Bosch Quiet Cast ceramic pads). It really a fairly easy job, and would not take more than 30 minutes per wheel.
AKEBONO PRO-ACT ULTRA PREMIUM are available at Napa and I hear are some of the quietest brake pads you can get over the life span of the pad. They're ceramic pads which won't make your miata sound like a school bus
Stoptech street performance (I believe renamed to Stoptech sport) has always been my go-to for spirited driving and track day use in a miata. In faster heavier cars, I use carbotechs for track days, but that's just overkill for a miata.
Akebono ceramic brake pads on RockAuto. Done, easy. They're an OG Japanese OEM, so you can expect consistency in quality. They're expensive but they're good and if you're going to get down on your knees and pop the wheels off you might as well do it right and get powerful and silent braking power for your trouble.
Just get standard oem supplier pads from someone like Mintex. They’re going to be everything you need for a daily driver.
Power stop is a great upgrade, I use the z23 pads.
They’ve been performing great, it can stop much faster. Went with Power Stop Z23 pads.
On my recent rear brake job on the Mazda5 I ordered Bosch pads through Amazon. They seem to be doing the job and I have no complaints.
I switched to EBC redstuff ceramic from my OEM pads on my MX-5. They are marketed as slightly higher performance than OEM with much improved wear and dust levels. In my experience they are maybe slightly more grabby initially, otherwise they perform similarly to OEM, but their claims about dust levels were not true at all in my case, they dusted FAR more than OEM. I get noticeable dust after a few days compared to maybe a few weeks before.
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