[TehPyrate]

Hey Folks..

So here's the story:

about Jan 5, I hit a patch of Ice while changing lanes, slid side ways ONTO the sidewalk. Luckily the car behind me dodged otherwise he would've been a direct 40MPH hit to the driver side. I walked away from it with a $450 Dollar bill for a Bent tire rod. My Rims are pretty badly messed up, the Mechanic said they weren't bent.. looking to replace anyway... about 3 weeks later after parking the car in the garage I got a nice burning smell.. touched one of the rotors .. it was BURNING hot took it to the mechanic right away .. I had to have Both rear brake calipers replaced along with rotors and pads.
After getting the car back I had to floor the Brakes in order to get them to do anything! I took it back , he bled the brakes and said he had to remove some air.. there's now some resistance but I usually have to pump the brakes once or twice in order to not have to have the pedal pressed about 60/65% of the way down at a Stop Light.

Now The issue at hand:

Yesterday some jerk driver cut me off in the parking lot , and I had to brake pretty hard to stop before hitting him. after that at low speeds between 10-20Mph (Brake pedal is completely released) I hear a "Clicking" noise coming out of back -Right- wheel .. Click Click Click.. Its as if the Caliper is clamping and opening rapidly. I was hearing a clicking noise when I would press the brake pedal, its the same noise just repeats it self.
The odd thing is that the noise doesn't occur all the time... just every once in a while. I already took it back to the guy he said that there's nothing wrong with the assembly of the calipers,rotors, and pads.

Also odd thing happens idk if its normal or not, but never really payed much attention to it before. If I'm at about 40/45MPH the RPMs drop to about 1000RPMs if I ever release the gas pedal, is that normal? Ive had my car slow down while going down hill at 80MPH after releasing the Gas trying to coast down the hill..


sorry about the long wall of text, these brakes are Driving me nuts.. I need to make sure they work. I live in MA, Everyone here is equally terrible at driving.

 

[TehPyrate]

New Developments. I'm starting to hear a terrible rattle coming out of my Rear Passenger side whenever I hit a bump. It sounds like two pieces of metal hitting each other.

Any help/advice would be appreciated. I feel as if I got screwed by the guy who did my brakes.

 

[gigiwcw]

I met about the same situation with u, decide to change the whole front brake.

 

[TehPyrate]

[quote author=gigiwcw link=topic=134962.msg2905235#msg2905235 date=1233542632]
I met about the same situation with u, decide to change the whole front brake.
[/quote]

These brakes that are in now are brand new. Probably don't even have 100 miles on them.

 

[TehPyrate]

Update: Took the car to the mechanic today. He said the retainer clips were bad... I came home switched the left side clip with the right side one the clip went in so easily on the right side(The side making the noise) but had to fight the one on the left for a good 5 minutes before it would go in...The clicking seems to have stopped, but the rattle is still there when I hit a bump or something..

 

[TehPyrate]

Another Update:

The Brake caliper on the Passenger back side is very wobbly..I can easily shake it and make it make clunking noises using very little force. The other 3 Calipers don't even move when I shake them with the equal force any advice on how to tighten this back up?

 

[cali_axela]

If your mechanic said your brakes were fine but you can WIGGLE one of the calipers by hand, I say take it to another mechanic. Brakes aren't something to take lightly.

 

[TehPyrate]

That'll be my last ditch effort.

 

[sok07]

First off, sounds to me that you need to get a new mechanic. Braking systems aren't rocket science, a novice should be able to do the job properly on the 'first' try. The fundamentals of the braking system are pretty universal w/ respect to cars.

Rear brake calipers are a redundant system as they are both tied to the parking brake and the hydraulic system, which are independent from one another. Since you have an ATX do you use your parking brake often, have you noticed if there is little resistance in parking brake? Symptoms sound to me like your mechanic either didn't adjust one of the rear calipers or simply didn't connect the parking brake cable to one of your rear calipers.

The rear calipers are self-adjusting w/ the use of the parking brake, sort of like a set of ratcheting clamp. To reset the caliper, pull the parking brake lever and release 8-15 times. When changing rear pads the initial pull on the parking brake should provide little resistance (the pads aren't making contact w/ the rotor), but the more you set the parking brake the resistance on the lever should increase.

Do a quick check...set your parking brake and jack up the rear end (you can jack up the rear corners if you don't have a floor jack). Check if the parking brake is working, if you can freely rotate the wheel w/ the parking brake set....you've got a problem, so check to see if the parking brake cable is set in the caliper. Probably not a good pic, but it shows the end of the parking brake cable set in its slot. Look at the pic, follow the coil spring at the upper part of the pic to the right and you should see a u-shaped bracket w/ the parking brake cable end in place.

 

[TehPyrate]

Yeah, Interesting thing about that, The Guy didn't tighten up the eBrake cable, I had the car lifted by another mechanic today. He showed me how the cables were coming right out of the caliper. I told him I knew how to tighten up the eBrake cable so he didn't charge me to look at it.

Came home and tightened up the ebrake cable, I'll try pulling it a couple times today.

 

[TehPyrate]

Wow... I think I may need to tighten the cable a little bit more, there's still some slack, but I can't rattle the rear caliper as much as I could before... Its definately stiffened up. They're independently self adjusting right? so tightening up one side won't screw up the other right?

 

[sok07]

Yes, they should adjust independently from one another. Just keep on pulling and releasing the e-brake. Generally for my rear brake pad changes, it takes about 15-20 e-brake cycles before I'm satisfied.

 

[TehPyrate]

Alright.. Got new Retention clips today $35 dollars for a set of 2. Caliper is firm now, but I'm still getting rattle.. I reached behind and the back pad seemed to rattle a little bit.. now I get this "click" noise that increases with speed between 20 and 5 MPH after 20MPH it stops. If I hit a bump I get a nasty rattle that comes from the back right wheel. I'm wondering if the mechanic gave me the right pads.

 

[TehPyrate]

Update: I figured out the problem.

So I looked around for Mazda 3 Rear Brake Pads today.

The mechanic that pulled apart the Passenger rear caliper showed me the pads, the one that went on the back of the ROTOR , DID NOT have a SPRING like its SUPPOSED to. They were both FRONT pads.

Looked on the Driver side Rear Caliper, and the FRONT brake Pad had a Spring Bolted onto it.

The Passenger side Caliper is the one Rattling because there's no Spring holding the pad down to keep it from bouncing up and down, and the Driver side one isn't rattling because it has BOTH of the Spring Pads.

I'm taking the car back to the mechanic in the morning to get this fixed. Then I'm going to take this up with the better business bureau and complain that the shop owner has put an inexperienced mechanic to work on my car when I was promised that he would personally look at it.

I'm so frustrated, I've wasted 8 Days of my time now trying to figure this all out. They charge me $200+ for their labor, but what about my time that I had to spend running from mechanic to mechanic trying to figure out their mistake.. Not to mention that Its winter and I'm relying on my brakes to work so that I dont... you know.. possibly - D I E - .. Not to mention they made me purchase a set of new Retention springs for the calipers EVEN when I didn't need them. that's money I won't see again because I had to order them through the dealer.

This is rediculous.. I know I sound like a complete a$$hole, but that's just how Pissed off I am.

thanks Sok for your replies.

 

[cali_axela]

What year is your car? I am guessing it's an 04-05 model, which require the rear pads with springs. Newer models use a slightly different method to secure the pad on the rear, but a lot of parts catalogs don't differentiate them properly. There has always been a fair amount of confusion about that issue.

Mazdabrakes knows the correct pads for your application and can get you the best price on the correct replacement part... here's a useful relevant thread:

http://www.mazda3forums.com/index.php?topic=111045.0

 

[TehPyrate]

Its an 06 Mazda 3, it uses the Pads with the Spring instead of the anti-rattle back plate.

 

[TehPyrate]

Last and final update. Problem solved. Each caliper now has the proper inner and outer pad. The nasty rattle noise is gone. I hope this helps someone in the future. Check your brake pads once you get them changed, if your outer brake pads don't have 2 pivots sticking out, they're the wrong pads. If you see a spring attached to the tippy top of the pad, its the wrong pad.

There's a link in this post to the technicals of the Pads. Check that post, and it shows the 2 sets of brake pads you need.