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braking..a clunk and pdeal drop about 25%

1K views 3 replies 2 participants last post by  Cab0oze 
#1 ·
Mazda 3 2007 120K.
Purchased Oct 2014. 3rd owner, car in great shape. Coming to a stop sign this morning, in a 25MPH zone, heard a clunk and felt a pedal drop about 25% as I can to a complete stop. Pedal used to be nice and firm, now uses about 50%. Also occurred is a grinding sound on the rotors. Drove the car a mile to get the train to go to work and will be able to drive it home afterwards.

Plan is to jack up and rotate each wheel, hoping to isolate the problem. Is this a common problem on this make/model/year/mileage? I'm hope something like a brake pads broke apart. I'll report back, just wondering if the collective knowledge base can shorten my hunt for the problem.

4-wheel disk brakes, need to know anything else about the car?
 
#3 · (Edited)
Thanks, and your close enough to be a winner. The pad was very thin, about thickness of a paper match book cover. It separated from the steel backing of the pad and cracked about 20% off. Car in garage and waiting for Wagner pads from Rockauto. Front and rear Thermo Quiets delivered for $66. Plus there is a $30 rebates. I'll do the back when I feel in the mood. Right now, the front need replacement. Haven't looked at the rears yet. 120K mileage, Rotors look really thick.

Problem solved. While drivers inner pad was the thickness of a paper matchbook cover, and had separated from the pad, the passenger inner pad was worse. No pad remaining. Metal to metal. What surprised me is how thick the rotors were. As if someone replaced the rotors (maybe they were warpped?) without replacing the pads.

All great now. Gave the rear pads a hard look. Maybe 60% remaining.
 
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