Mazda 5 brakes

Bought time for new brakes on the 5,

What upgrades are available/recommended?

Sub'd, I'm curious myself. I would expect that the 3/MZ3 guys may have something to say here, as the 5 is essentially a 3.

My understanding is that most, if not all, of the drivetrain and suspension is shared between the 3 and 5. I'd assume the brakes as well.

I also wouldn't buy anything based on any of my assumptions. I still have parts in my garage because of that.

The Mazda5's front brakes are the same as on the regular Mazda3, but the rear brakes are larger and are sometimes used as an upgrade on MZ3s and Mazdaspeed3s. A cheap upgrade would be to add used Mazdaspeed3 front brakes. IIRC, the 1st and 2nd gen. MS3 use the same braking system.

I'm pretty impressed with the OEM brakes on our '09 5. Really strong. A bit grabby with poorish feel at the top the pedal travel, but in emergency avoidance at highway speeds, they are really very good. I don't track mine etc though. It's the wifes car mainly.

I would just go with good pads, the stock brakes are pretty big even if you're doing an occasional track day for some reason.

Wife warped rotors (I don't think it was her fault, she isn't one to ride the brakes) So I always go with the mantra, if you need to replace go ahead and upgrade.

DD pad recommendation?

Performance Friction CarbonMetallic's are my go-to choice for a DD-first vehicle.

The brakes on my 5 are not needed yet, but they are very strong and like others have said the rears are basically an upgrade for the 3 guys.

I've got Centric rotors and Hawk HPS pads waiting to go into my ms3.... just need to go buy more tools cause the caliper bolt is being lame.... and I can't get enough torque on an 8mm allen.

I picked up some cryo-treated Power Slot rotors from Tire Rack for my Protege almost three years ago. The wear has been fantastic and they haven't warped even a little. I'm running Hawk ceramic pads right now but will be switching back to Hawk HPS pads soon. The ceramic pads just don't bite very well.

on our 3 we used to run oem rotors and hawk hp+ for the pads. with some good fluid and ss lines it eliminated the grabby ness of the factory brakes and still had enough to lock up the 245 45 16's we have on there if needed.