Brake pads Raybestos or OEM Mazda
I always buy from Rockauto, but check if the part is on Amazon for comparable price for the free shipping. With brake parts especially I highly recommend buying the best you can afford. Cheap pads and rotors will be noisier and more likely to warp and give vibration when braking. The cheapest pads are also usually bonded meaning the friction material is only glued onto the backing plate, and I’ve seen them separate, especially a risk if you drive where rust is an issue. Also cheap pads don’t always include abutment clips and good shims.
I just changed my rear pads and rotors. Bought raybestos from rockauto. $80 shipped.
Like the previous comment said, akebono is their oem supplier, imo I like raybestos the best because they’re super cheap on rock auto and they produce a lot less dust if you go with ceramic pads instead of metallic
I have Raybestos Element 3 pads on 2 of our 3 cars and brake dust is next to nothing.
I recently replaced front and rear pads and rotors on my 2021 CE TURBO with Raybestos EHT3 pads and element 3 rotors (rear) and Raybestos specialty performance rotors (front). I'd highly recommend them. They stop a little better than stock and handle heat a lot better. The rotors are also fully coated and don't rust. They've been 100% quiet and feel great.
At 55,XXX miles and still haven’t changed my brakes on 2019 AWD Mazda 3(not as heavy as yours but heavier than a FWD 3) Last service, I was in the green for both sets still, but they said I would likely be in “yellow” by 60-65k. I did want to note—I hear no scraping/squealing and brakes feel relatively strong just not as great as new.
Last point since you're doing brakes, I'll plug Raybestos Element 3 pads and rotors. Installed them on my wife's car last year and I'm genuinely impressed at the braking response in her car.
I just put on Raybestos R-line pads and rotors on a 2010 Town and Country. Those vans are notorious squealers. The trick is to use the spray version of disc brake quiet.
oem brake pads are ceramic (low noise, low dust, minimal rotor wear, less bite)
So I mentioned to Mike at GiroDisc (who is great btw) that I was in the market for pads, and he recommended Raybestos ST43s, which get great reviews. So I went with them, but two events ago they put deposits on the rotors so bad the car shook like mad after a few laps. I still had the HT-10s with me, so I swapped them, they wiped the deposits off and I was back in business for the day.
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