My car is out of warranty by date, but mileage is well under the 90,000 miles of the warranty. (73,641 at time of repair). When pressing on brake pedal, the pedal was so stiff that it didn't move it all. Quite a scary feeling when your brakes don't work. I pressed again and they worked. A few days later, I pressed on the brake to stop at a red light. While still pressing on the brake pedal at the light, my foot began to go all the way to the floor. Quite alarming. I took my car to the dealer and was told that I needed a new Brake Booster and Brake Switch. I did a quick google search and found that "Brake Booster Failure" is a known problem for my car, and others.
Mazda attributed the problem to a defect in the mold used when forming the diaphragm and/or continuous operation in environments in high ambient temperatures. Knowing this brake problem exists in my car and others, a recall was not issued because it was determined this was a "progressive failure that developed slowly over time". Are you kidding? My brakes are defective but because the issue probably won't be discovered until AFTER my warranty expires, lets not issue a recall notice. Or for that matter, lets not even send a letter to maybe let the driver know this is a possibility. After speaking with the service department at the Mazda dealership, I contacted Mazda USA (800-222-5500 option 6) and spoke to a representative. I expressed my concern for the fact this was a known issue and he repeated (several times) this was not a recall. Once we got passed that, he put me on hold for several minutes.
When he returned he said they would pay all but $161.64 of the $933.05 repair bill. While I was extremely surprised and very pleased, it doesn't make it OK that Mazda knew my brakes would fail and chose not to recall these cars. Moral of the story -- if your car has this issue, before you have the repair performed, and preferably while your car is at the dealer service department, contact Mazda USA. They should pay for most of this expensive repair, which they were fully aware would be necessary.
My car is out of warranty by date, but mileage is well under the 90,000 miles of the warranty. (73,641 at time of repair). When pressing on brake pedal, the pedal was so stiff that it didn't move it all. Quite a scary feeling when your brakes don't work. I pressed again and they worked. A few days later, I pressed on the brake to stop at a red light. While still pressing on the brake pedal at the light, my foot began to go all the way to the floor. Quite alarming. I took my car to the dealer and was told that I needed a new Brake Booster and Brake Switch. I did a quick google search and found that "Brake Booster Failure" is a known problem for my car, and others.
Mazda attributed the problem to a defect in the mold used when forming the diaphragm and/or continuous operation in environments in high ambient temperatures. Knowing this brake problem exists in my car and others, a recall was not issued because it was determined this was a "progressive failure that developed slowly over time". Are you kidding? My brakes are defective but because the issue probably won't be discovered until AFTER my warranty expires, lets not issue a recall notice. Or for that matter, lets not even send a letter to maybe let the driver know this is a possibility. After speaking with the service department at the Mazda dealership, I contacted Mazda USA (800-222-5500 option 6) and spoke to a representative. I expressed my concern for the fact this was a known issue and he repeated (several times) this was not a recall. Once we got passed that, he put me on hold for several minutes.
When he returned he said they would pay all but $161.64 of the $933.05 repair bill. While I was extremely surprised and very pleased, it doesn't make it OK that Mazda knew my brakes would fail and chose not to recall these cars. Moral of the story -- if your car has this issue, before you have the repair performed, and preferably while your car is at the dealer service department, contact Mazda USA. They should pay for most of this expensive repair, which they were fully aware would be necessary.
- Lori R., North Richland Hills, TX, US