Soft brake pedal and weird shudder when coming to a stop
 

Hi, I recently bought a 2023 cx5 naturally aspirated earlier this year in February. I didn't quite catch the weird shudder when coming to a stop with the car during the test drive since the braking style required a lot more force than I was used to. As a result I may have been pressing it harder than I am now where I'm trying to control it more. It's really weird, I have to stop fairly hard to get that smooth braking feeling but as soon as I try to brake really slowly and smoothly to make the brakes last longer such as when I see a red light off in the distance that just came on then it will jerk right as I'm going from about 10 to 0 mph.

After some research it looks like the Mazda CX5 has a linear-type brake pedal that puts the braking power on par with how hard you're actually pressing the brake pedals rather than in every other car brand I've seen where 75%+ of the braking power seems to engage with just a tiny press of the brake pedal. I've never run into an issue like this with any other car so this seems unique. A friend recently also got a cx-50 naturally aspirated and there are no issues with that one - no jerk. It's not the car noticeably bending downwards during braking either, that's normal for a relatively tall vehicle. That wouldn't happen much in something like a civic which is really dang flat to the ground so we can scratch that off. My sister loved the cx5 as well and so she bought one. She's running into similar issues of having the shudder.

If I were to describe it a little bit better... it feels like it grabs-releases-grabs-releases as I go from 10 to 0 mph. Thinking back on it, it would seem like I'm not pressing the brakes hard enough but if I press it any harder I feel like I am braking too fast. This experience makes me feel like I don't have as much control over the car as I would like. I love coming braking slowly and smoothly and I can do that in literally every other car except the cx5. This car is so good otherwise, I really want to make this work!!

In short:
1. Is it possible to eliminate this shuddering when coming to a stop
2. Is it possible to stiffen up the brake pedal? The stiffness of the brake pedal seems to be linked to the brake booster, which I confirmed is working fine! I did the test where you press down on it over and over with the car off until it stiffens up hard, and then you turn the car on. The pedal should then easily sink to the floor, which it did. All good there.

Welcome to the forum.

Your Mazda is still under warranty, I suggest you address your brake concern with them. Try do this ASAP While I do not think that there is a problem based on your information I am not physically there to inspect your MAZDA either. brakes are the most important system on any vehicle. Get them checked with MAZDA!

Agreed. Go to the dealer under warranty asap.

Same issue
 

Hi, I have a 2024 carbon that does this, did you find out the issue?

I do not agree that doing a hard stop service is advisable for several reasons the number one is safety. Then there are the chances of damaging the brake system that already may have some issues needed to be address at Mazda Service. And the biggest is you could damage the brake system and need to have your Mazda towed to a dealership and if found that abuse to the brake system was the cause you could lose that portion of warranty work .
There are no training or service manuals or basic brake operation service and guide that ever stated to do hard braking as a way to resolve a brake issue. And if there ever was i would like to know the publication and read it?

The proper way to bed new brake pads or new disc's or a combination of both is several light and medium stops. Not to heat them up or to do extreme stops. Doing extreme stops on new pads and disc's can actually cause pads to flash bake and then noisy for their service life or damage and cause small fracturing of the disc's.


A definition of the abbreviation used in this thread by another member
YMMV= your mileage may vary (used to say that people may experience a particular thing in different ways

As others said, being under warranty get Mazda to check it.

I will add that my CX-5 brakes were the only thing I felt not up to the rest of the vehicle.
That was remedied when I had performance rotors and pads installed during my first brake service.

Given it's a 2023, it's possible the pads gave been changed from the originals, though you didn't give us your mileage.

If so, there is a some issues with the Mazda OEM replacement pads that causes a weird noise when stopping in certain situations. It doesn't have to be a hard stop. It usually occurs when breaking more slowly.

I had to fix it by going with a different brand of pads and throwing away the Mazda OEM ones.

hey M.A.S.H. Fan belated welcome to the forum. Sorry don’t think I saw when you joined?

The Mazda pads work perfectly…. They are also carefully engineered for the exact model and trim. The normal average expected service life is 50k . When more attention in braking habits and some off the book’s serving OEM pad could reach 70-80 k miles on daily drivers.
Brakes noises from pads that occur after several thousand miles are most often then not caused by poor braking habits.
All anyone has to do is take the replaced brake pad that is being replaced for noise is cut it in half and cause will be found. Almost never a defect !;)
Also using a magnifying glass and carefully examining the disc supports what you will find in the pad examination.

can’t tell you how many times a customer always claims they take care of their car and the noise is from bad defective brake parts…….after months or years and several thousand miles of first having trouble free brakes. :cool:

Got about 80k out of original pads. But immediately after dealer brake job, took car back to the dealership 4 times in one year. First time was within 2 months, but could never be resolved. They tried several things.

After two years, the Service Manager finally said there was a TSB that said I had to get their "premium" $300 pads if this occurs.

I got a set of Akebono pads and fixed it for $60.

There is something wrong with the standard OEM Mazda pads.

yes I understand that’s your end story…

And glad in the end it worked out for you.

:cool:

oh you do realize that Akebono is a brake pad supplier (primary)for many Mazda models right ;)