brake pads - rotors

[ReginaAndrew]

Hello my crazy Mazda friends ...

I am a Canadian planning a long road trip west across the northern United States across Montana and into Seattle. I'm going to Rush in November.

Anyway, I need brake pads and rotors for my beloved 04 Mazda 6 wagon (I have many cool pictures on my profile thingy).

Because auto parts are notoriously expensive in Canada, I hope to hit a Pep Boys -- or another good supplier -- and pick up new pads and rotors.

I was in Denver in 2010 and was dazzled by the service and price at a Pep Boys.

If anyone had advice on what I should buy and where, I'd love to hear.

Taking advantage of low American prices is what I'm after here. Heck, if you had any other advice for me on where and/or what I need while I'm in Spokane or Seattle, or spots in between, send them along !

Thanks !!!!

Andrew
Regina, SK.

[JFisher100191]

If you're planning on doing the service yourself, Duralast Gold C-max pads are unparalleled as far as quality and life. In addition, they have a life-time warranty that DOES include wear. When the pads wear out, you get a new set completely free of charge with the return of your old ones. As far as rotors go, I would say that most aftermarket rotors are created equal. May want to consider just having yours turned down.

[zPacKRat]

Originally Posted by ReginaAndrew

Hello my crazy Mazda friends ...

I am a Canadian planning a long road trip west across the northern United States across Montana and into Seattle. I'm going to Rush in November.

Anyway, I need brake pads and rotors for my beloved 04 Mazda 6 wagon (I have many cool pictures on my profile thingy).

Because auto parts are notoriously expensive in Canada, I hope to hit a Pep Boys -- or another good supplier -- and pick up new pads and rotors.

I was in Denver in 2010 and was dazzled by the service and price at a Pep Boys.

If anyone had advice on what I should buy and where, I'd love to hear.

Taking advantage of low American prices is what I'm after here. Heck, if you had any other advice for me on where and/or what I need while I'm in Spokane or Seattle, or spots in between, send them along !

Thanks !!!!

Andrew
Regina, SK.

OT I know, but saw Rush on both legs of the US Time Machine tour and they were great.

[posttosh]

Originally Posted by ReginaAndrew

I am a Canadian planning a long road trip west across the northern United States across Montana and into Seattle. ...

Anyway, I need brake pads and rotors for my beloved 04 Mazda 6 wagon

If anyone had advice on what I should buy and where, I'd love to hear.

You might get more and better responses in the Brakes/Suspension subforum than here. There is a current thread going on there about Chinese-made rotors, and I posted a separate thread there recently about the four new rotors and sets of pads that we put on our '04 Sportswagon last month. In the time we have owned our wagon, this is our fourth set of front rotors (serially, the OEM that came on the car, made-in-America Raybestos PG, made-in-Italy Brembo OEM-style, and now EBC Ultimax) and our third set of rear rotors (serially, OEM, then-Italian Brembo, and now ATE PremiumOne). (We go through brakes fairly quickly, because we live atop a steep hill.)

We have changed pads when we changed rotors, and have changed rotors when we changed pads. Until this change, we used superb PBR ULT pads (sold through a different marketing channel. the identical product is known as Axxis ULT pads). This time around, we chose StopTech Street Performance pads instead, and they, too, are excellent. See my thread in the Brakes/Suspension subforum for more detail.

Coming from Saskatchewan, you of course never see cold mornings, so I guess that you can get along with some of the so-called ceramic pads which need warm-up time to grab in cold weather. [/irony] Not a choice that I would make if I lived up there.

If you are going to Washington State, you may wish to contact ImportRP, which is situated there. It is a mail-order company, but they may allow you to pick up at the warehouse; it cannot hurt to ask. Their prices generally are better than Pep Boys, I think.

[Mr.Smoke]

I ran ceramic pads on my last car & never had any issues with not being able to stop properly from them not warming up properly.

[posttosh]

Originally Posted by Mr.Smoke

I ran ceramic pads on my last car & never had any issues with not being able to stop properly from them not warming up properly.

The problem is that there is no standard definition of "ceramic." Wave a ceramic coffee mug over the pad mix, and you can call the pad "ceramic." Usually, the claimed advantages of ceramic pads are (1) that they don't dust much, and (2) that they give long service life. Generally, the qualities of a pad formulation with good "bite" are that the pad's friction digs into the rotor, causing some dust, and -- because of the high friction on the rotor -- the high-mu pads tend to wear out relatively quickly.

[ReginaAndrew]

For those of you still interested, I returned from Seattle - I bought a seat of the Duralast c-max pads. I paid $100 all in for the set of four. I'll install them this week when I get my new AWR dogbone engine mount installed.

And yes, Rush was fabulous -- thanks for everyone's advice.