Good evening - it's been a while since I've posted on here. Good to be back, I guess! I just wanted to share my rear brake job fiasco, and maybe get some further insight from the pros here. Kind of long but want to give the whole bit of context.
So, I have a 2017 Mazda CX-5 sport, 71K. Bought it used in 2020; in that time I've replaced the front pads and rotors twice, and my rears made it to a whopping 3mm at 70K. I was pretty impressed, until they started making some serious grinding and squeaking noises from the driver side. Until recently, I've brought my car in for routine maintenance at a trusted independent shop, but it's far from my new house and his prices started to rise. I saw an oil change special for my local dealer where I bought the car (literally a 4 minute drive) that was competitive and thought "ah, what the hell!". Had great service. WiFI, coffee, nice...Such a great experience I even decided to get an overpriced front brake job done by them (November, 2023). No issues to speak of, and everything was dandy. About a month later, the rear grinding was unbearable. Decided to take it in. This is where everything went south.
They slapped new pads and rotors on and sent me on my way. I had thought it was a little odd that they didn't mention anything to me about the rotor with the grinding, that it had a noticeable gouge/score mark that the passenger side didn't. Maybe a faulty pad after 70,00 miles, what do I know. I noticed that the brakes smelled a little, but it wasn't too different than the "normal" material burning smell you get with new brakes. Until Friday, when I got out of the car and saw my entire rotor glowing bright red. They maybe had 25 miles on them at this point. Brought it back the next day; many-a-mechanic on Reddit told me it must be the caliper seized or a collapsed flex hose, so I mentioned that to them. They did in fact determine the caliper was seized; I had to insist on them replacing the hoses because "they weren't leaking, so they're fine" (knowing that they can fail inside out).
The dealer was kind enough to replace the rotor, pads, and caliper, and parking brake mother on that wheel at no charge, only I had to fork out the cash for a brake flush and new hoses (I did both sides to be safe). I felt that this was a good compromise, even though I was annoyed that maybe they should have investigated the issue prior to giving me new pads and rotors. When I picked my car up today, before I went in the shop I investigated the new parts...hoses, caliper, all clearly new. Except the rotor...looked a little grooved. All of the other brand new rotors on my car, you can still clearly see most of the cross hatching and there is no grooving. So it raised some alarm bells. I politely brought it up to them, until I wasn't so polite because I couldn't believe that a brand new rotor with only a mile or two on them could already have groove marks on them. So, they put another brand new rotor on in front of me (I hate being this kind of customer, seriously, but I felt it was warranted). Sure as hell, as soon as I get home, there's groove marks on it again. The brakes don't make any unusual sounds, don't smell, and don't appear to be hotter on touch than the other rear rotor. I do feel like the car pulls to the left at coasting a little bit; RPMs all seem to be normal, I rolled fine from drive into neutral, and it doesn't pull when I brake, so nothing seems out of the ordinary. Am I overthinking the almost immediate grooving on the rotor; is it possible they left the old burnt pad on (which they insist is new?). Little impatient at the whole situation, to be honest.
Thanks!
Photos in order;
1) New rotor groove
2) New caliper
3) New flex hose
4) Inferno
5) Rear driver rotor before replacement
6) New rotor groove (2)
7) Rear passenger nice and smooth
