The brakes are one of the most important parts of your vehicle. Every time you drive, you use them, which causes the brake pads to eventually wear out. Brake pads are the parts that rub against the brake rotors, forcing your Mazda to slow down and come to a full stop. To keep yourself and your Mazda safe, you should consider replacing the brake pads regularly. You’ll find a wide range of Mazda 6 brake pads, and you should make sure you get quality replacements that meet your driving style. Most brake pads Mazda 6 uses aren’t terribly expensive, so you’ll have a decent range to choose from. Still, choosing the right pads takes some careful consideration.
Budget
Depending on the material, design and construction of the brake pads Mazda 6 owners can choose from a wide range that can be narrowed down by how much money they’re willing to spend. Most brake pads cost anywhere between a few hundred dollars and about a thousand dollars. Some brake pad manufacturers claim to produce the best quality brake pads out there, but what defines quality?
Quality
The quality of the brake pads is defined by their stopping power, durability, weather resistance, noise reduction, dust prevention and brake system deterioration. The stopping power of the brake pads represents how smoothly they’re capable of bringing your Mazda to a full stop and their overall responsiveness. The durability refers to how many kilometres the brake pads can go before you start noticing a decrease in performance and need replacement. Their weather resistance properties are also important, as that dictates how well they perform in extremely hot or cold weather. The noise reduction and dust prevention, as the names imply, is how silent-operating the pads are, and how much dust build-up they cause over time. Lastly, the brake system deterioration refers to how well they dissipate heat, and how much they wear the brake rotors.
Compatibility
Next, you have to consider whether the pads you’re looking for are compatible with your Mazda 6 model and make. Most vehicle manufacturers also produce brake pads, known as OEM brake pads. However, most people opt for aftermarket brake pads, as they’re designed to either match or outperform OEM brake pads. But some manufacturers put focus on designing pads that fit multiple types of vehicles, rather than performance. That being said, you want brake pads that provide better performance than your stock brake pads and are also compatible with your Mazda.
Installation
Lastly, you have to consider how easy installing your new brake pads will be. Some OEM brake pads are difficult to install, as they’re usually installed during the vehicle manufacturing process, so it’s assumed that replacing them with another pair of OEM brake pads will be done by an experienced, certified mechanic or technician. On the other hand, most aftermarket brake pads, especially those that are made to be compatible with various vehicles, are far easier to install. Still, there are some vehicle-specific brake pads that do require some skills and knowledge to be installed, and those are best left for experienced mechanics to deal with.
Types of Brake Pads
Brake pads are separated into 4 categories based on the materials they’re made of. Brake pads are categorised as semi-metallic, metallic, ceramic and organic.
Semi-metallic brake pads are made of a combination of metals, such as iron, steel, copper and graphite, and organic compounds. You can usually tell the quality of semi-metallic brake pads by looking at how fine the metal grains are. The finer the grains are, the higher quality the pads are. The advantages of these pads are that they’re more affordable than metallic and ceramic pads; they provide superior performance in cold weather, and they don’t wear the rotors as hard as metallic pads. On the downside, they’re quite loud, wear out faster than other types of pads, and they produce a fair amount of brake dust.
Metallic brake pads, as their name implies, are 100% metallic. This makes them durable in all type of weather, and it allows them to conduct heat very well, preventing overheating on the rotors. Additionally, they provide a lot of stopping power. On the downside, they’re the loudest of all brake pads, wear down the rotors faster, and produce a lot of brake dust.
Ceramic brake pads are the highest-performance pads available today. They work well in all weather conditions, and since ceramic materials are softer than metal, they produce less brake dust and don’t create any noise. On the downside, they wear faster, are more expensive, and don’t dissipate heat as well as metallic or semi-metallic brake pads.
Organic brake pads are usually the most affordable ones, and they don’t wear the rotors as hard. Further, they produce less brake dust and are quiet-operating. On the downside, they wear out faster; can’t handle extreme temperatures well, and they don’t respond as well for sudden stops.