Best Brake pads for Mazda 3

QuietCast pads are a solid choice. Centric is an OEM supplier and those are a fully coated rotor, so also a solid choice. If you want to spend a little extra, I’d go for Akebono pads. I ran their pad and rotor kit on my old Mazda 3 and they worked phenomenally but, ate through the pads pretty quick under normal city driving. No issues up until I sold the car.

I would recommend the TRW ultra pads from the official ZF store on eBay. $50 total for front and rear. They’re a tier 1 oem supplier, and the ultra line is their premium aftermarket offering. Similar to akebono and the pro act line which isn’t available for the 4th gen. The solid Bosch rotors would be a good choice. Centric as well.

Honestly for everyday driving the Bosch and centric is a good combo. The powerstop are very grabby and have a bit more stopping power but it’s not worth the extra money, plus long term normal rotors are better. Drilled/slotted don’t have as much durability

Yes to the Bosch/Centric combo. No to drilled rotors on a daily driver.

I bought that centric kit for my 18 Mazda 3 last year, no issues.

I did the entire powerstop front and rear kit, has worked great, 0 issues in roughly 20k miles.

For the front and rear I got Akebono ProACTs and Brembo rotors for the rear and both are wayyy better than stock in all ways. Quieter, they haven't warped, very low dust after break in compared to OEM, and they have lasted me at least 2x as long.

Surprisingly, it needed brake pads and rotors at 21k miles, and at $1,100 at a trusted local mechanic, it wasn't as cheap as I expected. When I bought the car with 1,400 miles on it, the piano black trim inside the car was already scratched, and it looks quite a bit worse now. I also have to echo the thin paint comments from above, I've never seen a car that scratches so easily. The car's manners on the highway at 70 mph+ are a little nervous for me. On the plus side, I've always enjoyed the way the car looks and drives around town. The interior does look way better than the original MSRP would suggest (even with scratches). And we've had no surprising issues, other than the early brake job.

Changed the pads front and rear was super easy and straight forward.Then after taking the car out of 'electric brake service mode' and starting the car I get the a yellow check engine light and code C05AB, clearing it made no difference. Only thing I could find online was "The electronically controlled brake unit detects that the pressure feed valve (primary side) is stuck ON (OPEN)."

I put OEM Brakes on my ‘19 3 GT AWD. I’m 20K KM into them, and they pulse like mad when I brake above 90KM/h. Absolute fucking trash. The factory brakes also did this, above 90KM, but started around 50K into their life.