Need Rear Pads/Rotors for a 2004 mazda3 GT

[nejo]

I'm buying a car today for my wife that requires rear pads and rotors before it will pass safety. I went to Nappa Auto and there price was $220 + taxes for NPR & NUP brand, are these good? Any suggestions for a daily commute car?

[Zoom Zoom Boy]

Where are you located? Was that price also with the brakes installed? I ask as you could contact a sponsor on here, Nextmod in Markham, CTA Patrique in the West End or Touge Tuning in Scarborough and get a set of OEM spec blank rotors and Hawk HPS pads for around the same price, if not cheaper. Then take the car to Jimmy at Street Performance (Markham) who will charge you $50.00 cash for install. This set-up is a large improvement in braking performance and durability over what Nappa is trying to sell you.

[nejo]

Thanks for the info and referrals. Is it okay to use cheaper parts for the rear? An auto shop near my house has rear pads/rotors for under a $100. The owner said the rear isn't used nearly as much as the front so he suggested to spend the money on the front only. He also sells higher priced parts but said it wasn't really worth it - any thoughts on this? My wife will be using the car mainly so I want to make sure it's safe.

[stevenma188]

For some reason, I believe Mazda3s go through rear brakes faster than front ones. That means there is probably more braking force on the back compared to the front. Maybe not a good thing to cheap out on rear brakes.

[Zoom Zoom Boy]

Thanks for the info and referrals. Is it okay to use cheaper parts for the rear? An auto shop near my house has rear pads/rotors for under a $100. The owner said the rear isn't used nearly as much as the front so he suggested to spend the money on the front only. He also sells higher priced parts but said it wasn't really worth it - any thoughts on this? My wife will be using the car mainly so I want to make sure it's safe.

There are two things you really never want to cheap out on where a car and a loved one's safety is concerned and they are tires and brakes.

From my experience and with my driving habits and style, the brake bias on the Mazda 3's is fairly evenly distributed between the front and rear, albeit I believe the front brake pads are larger (I know they are on the Speeds 3's).
I also know a number of people who actually wear out their rear brakes quicker, but most of these people also drive automatics, whereas I am driving only manual transmission.

What your mechanic said might be true if your rear brakes were drums and not disc brakes. If they are discs, then your braking performance will always be limited by the area of the car with the worst braking performance and it will actually cause more bias to be placed to the front brakes and will end up causing more wear. You often see this with cars with front disc, rear drum set-up's. It just isn't worth it...

It's not like you need to put racing spec brakes in the car or anything, but if it is a matter of $100.00 extra and you can afford it, buy the better brakes and have the peace of mind. You'll care when you really need to use them...

[Nextmod]

we have the rotors and pads instock =)

let me know if you are interested =)

[cozmoz]

Please let me know if anyone knows if Jimmy is still around to do this type of swap, I'm looking to do this as well. I'm having issues with vibrations in the front rotors / rear pads screech every time in the wet when reversing. I want to do all around to make sure it's done for another 3 years. Please let me know if anyone had this fella do it, and what it cost to do all around. Thanks in advance, and I hope to participate in this forum alot as I"m new here.

Thanks,

Cozmoz

[S.F.W.]

Please let me know if anyone knows if Jimmy is still around to do this type of swap, I'm looking to do this as well. I'm having issues with vibrations in the front rotors / rear pads screech every time in the wet when reversing. I want to do all around to make sure it's done for another 3 years. Please let me know if anyone had this fella do it, and what it cost to do all around. Thanks in advance, and I hope to participate in this forum alot as I"m new here.

Thanks,

Cozmoz

Jimmy is still around, just look here:http://www.torontomazda3.ca/forum/showthread.php?17212-Street-Performance

[Teddybbc]

Hi guys, so i was at Mazda Scarboro and they quoted me $498 to replace my rear breaks....is this price the norm or ridiculous? are the using specific parts that causes the replacement to be SO much more than what you guys have quoted below? basically, my rear breaks have 1.5mm-2 mm left on the break pads, and they are now metal to metal and scoring the rotors.....

[S.F.W.]

Hi guys, so i was at Mazda Scarboro and they quoted me $498 to replace my rear breaks....is this price the norm or ridiculous? are the using specific parts that causes the replacement to be SO much more than what you guys have quoted below? basically, my rear breaks have 1.5mm-2 mm left on the break pads, and they are now metal to metal and scoring the rotors.....

That sounds like a fairly reasonable price from a dealer. That said, you could go with OEM rotors, with better than OEM performing Hawk HPS pads, and a non dealer mechanic(Jimmy - Street Performance), and likely save ~$200.

[Teddybbc]

thanks, does jimmy have parts THERE though? cause i would need this done tomorrow, and wouldnt be able to get them, nor would I know where to get them.

I'm new to this stuff . lol

[Zoom Zoom Boy]

Hi guys, so i was at Mazda Scarboro and they quoted me $498 to replace my rear breaks....is this price the norm or ridiculous? are the using specific parts that causes the replacement to be SO much more than what you guys have quoted below? basically, my rear breaks have 1.5mm-2 mm left on the break pads, and they are now metal to metal and scoring the rotors.....

For a dealer, that isn't too ridiculous, but is still way more than you need or should pay. Jimmy doesn't carry brake parts on-site, but can get you the parts with some notice. Your best combination would be to buy OEM blank rotors from the dealer with the TM3 discount. They are good quality rotors for the price and Mazda just dropped the price significantly on these. Go ask for Joe in the parts dept. at Mazda of Toronto (in the basement floor) on Yonge street between Steeles and Cummer. For pads, Hawk HPS pads are an improvement over the OEM Mazda pads and you can pick these up from Nextmod which is in Markham and 5 minutes down the road from Street Performance and Jimmy. They are a sponsor here and the pads are currently on sale...PM him for special pricing. :chuckle

Jimmy charges in the vicinity of $50.00-$60.00 labour to replace the brakes (pads and rotors) on each end of a car. He is super busy though so you need to call him and verify the pricing also.

His cell is 416-450-6161.