Corksport Brakes Pads - Mazdaspeed 3
 

For anyone who has owned a Gen 1 or Gen 2 Mazdaspeed3 for any amount of time who enjoys spirited street driving will tell you, the stock brakes can fade quickly and give you an E ticket ride. Although our cars come OEM with top rate Ferodo compound, our floating single piston calipers do not properly apply pad pressure to the rotor. We also see a lot of fade when you push the car hard with increased braking.

Ferodos OEM compound is not as aggressive as their various pad offerings and unfortunately for us, Ferodo doesn't offer us better compound selections. So, it leaves us searching, testing and ultimately wanting, better pad options for this car. Some move to the Hawk HPS or HP+ which offer better fade resistance, but do not deliver that initial bite we are used to with the OEMs. They also produce quite a bit of dust... Some of us have tried Carbotech AX6's, which are loud, fade, dust badly and grind. Their XP8 and XP10 compounds have been quite successful for track use however on this platform.

So, what other options are available for those who don't want rotor eating, extremely noisy track pads? Corksport has a pad offering that answers these issues. Corksports new pads for the Gen 1/Gen2 MS3 produce that initial OEM bite while delivering a lot less fade when you push the car hard. The best thing about them, they offer low dust and absolutely NO noise. That's win win in my book.

Since you are going to upgrade your brakes to performance pads, i recommend the purchase of stainless steel brake lines. Anytime you plan to move away from OEM pads, to performance pads, its a smart idea to change our your rubber OEM lines. Several reasons to move to ss lines are due to increased pedal feel and response... Secondly, safety. These really clean up the slop in your brake system and compliment the Corksport pads nicely.

Please excuse the photograph quality.. i left my CF card in the computer and had to resort to an Apple product for images.

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So, there's tons of threads on the forum showing you how to install brakes on these cars. I'm going to blow through the pre-school stuff and cut right to the chase. Its extremely important if you want to remain completely sane, to purchase the correct caliper reset tool for the rear brakes. It makes your life 20x times easier, trust me here. The first time i did brakes on my Gen1, it took me almost 3 hrs total to reset both rear calps with needle noses... The first reset tool didn't fit correctly and at 11:30pm, there are very few places open to buy tools.



This time around... @UnknownSuperhero; provided a working calp reset tool for the rear and about 15 seconds later, the pistons were reset. I would suggest this investment be made for your local Nator chapter, it will pay for itself first time out..




Corksport provides great installation instructions, unlike some vendors who provide none, but i didn't need them since I've already been down this road before. I do recommend picking up a 7mm Allen socket to remove the pistons pins from the rear calipers if you are not changing the rotors. This makes a huge night and day difference then just removing the 2 14mm bolts and pulling the entire assembly off the rotor. Again, my recommendation if you do not like to spend a long time working on stuff.


The rear pads fit without issue and have an anti squeal backing plate as well. Pads were out and back in within 10 mins of removing the wheels. I suggest lubing the pins up before screwing them back into the calipers.


For the fronts, i recommend pulling the piston pins like you did for the rear. Again, its the quickest way to exchange just the pads if you aren't touching the rotors in my case.



So let's blow through this real quick and remove these NASTY Carbotech AX6 pads!



resetting the piston back into the calp. Love these large C-Clamps with the button to retract when finished.


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So, how was the reward after all of the work? Well, based on Corksports instructions, we took the car out to bed in the new pads. Proper bedding improves pedal feel, reduces or eliminates brake squeal, prevents (and often cures) brake judder, reduces brake dust, and extends the life of your pads and rotors. So, CS recommends taking the car to 30MPH, apply even brake pressure until almost stopped, then repeat this process roughly 10 times. The next step will be to take the car to 45MPH, brake smoothly and evenly, but make the stops much harder. Brake until almost stopped, then repeat 2-3 times... We took the car back to the garage for the brakes to cool down for 15 mins min... We had a few beers, so that 15 mins turned into almost an hour...

I then made way for my drive home which is about 25 miles away. I hit a bit of traffic and even had an guy cut me off, which concerned me considering, these are new brakes and usually the pads don't bite as hard. I was pleasantly surprised to see, these brakes immediately dug in and took all items on the passenger seat and dumped them straight to the floor! So, emergency stop, completed and passed with flying colors... Then i came up to the 10 miles of curvy roads. Here i drive pretty aggressive as long as there isn't a lot of traffic... I blew through that 10 miles quickly and found the single lane go to multi lane. I had a guy in a Subaru STi trying to battle me for that open lane.. needless to say he lost... Our speeds were up to around 75mph when the light ahead changed to red. So, i smashed on the brakes, front end slammed to the ground and the car just stopped. These impressed me because my Carbotech AX6's made a butt load of noise like a UPS truck and would grind themselves to death in the process. I had virtually no confidence in the AX6s whatsoever... Now some of you familiar with brakes will say i didn't get the AX6s heated up enough. I did and it didn't help.. infact, it just made it worse.

It's funny how i stumbled across these pads to begin with. Joel from CS would see me complain in shout often about my brakes and i would hound him every time i saw him, wanting the new Caliper kit Corksport is releasing. To shut me up in the meantime, i got a pretty good deal on the pads and hopefully these would keep me quiet until the new kit is released. Well that's been successful, i am happy again with the current status of my brakes. I am still longing for the Corksport Caliper kit, which will allow us access to the plethora of pads available for the STi and Evo.

For those of you who don't race often but want a nice performance pad, these CS pads are nice. At $69 for the front and $55 for the rear, they come in much cheaper than OEM, while surpassing their performance. The real test will be next week when i hit the mountain and see how they react. So far, I'm not seeing the same type of fade as i did with OEM and the AX6's. Ill keep this updated as my experience continues with these pads.

These will be my next set of pads for sure

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I need to order rotors so I can but mine on lol

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Great review as always @Haltech;

These should go along great with my new Centric Rotors. I jus need to get more superblue since the Dealer decided to put the crappy oem DOT 3 fluid in my car. :(

Sadly I had to purchase Autozone's CMAX pads while out of town to see family. Didn't get to turn my rotors or bleed the lines due to time restraint so everything feels mushy. Was wanting to purchase the Hawks today and thankfully saw this review. I'm going to order these and some SS lines and switch it all out and see how they feel.

Great review and exactly what I'm looking for. I like the OEM initial bite, but man that fade is scary when it happens. Looks like I know what I'm grabbing, especially at that price

When you do a combo of the pads, blanks and SS lines, complete flush, the brakes fully transform.

Yeah i kinda wished i didn't spend an assload of $$ on the Carbotech's from the get-go.. however, curiosity got the best of me and i lost, lol.

finally a solid review on these.

Thanks Hal for making my decision on what pads to buy.

Should help slow down that beastly pu of yours :)

Great review. Didn't see it mentioned; did you sand the rotors prior to swapping compounds?

No, i left it as is.. Ill order new blanks when i move to the new calps.

@Haltech; It might be a little early to tell, but how is the dust coming off of these? More or less than the OEM pads?

Just a heads-up:

There is no Hawk "HPS+" available.

HPS and HP+ are the two you mean to reference, I believe. :)

I installed Centric blank rotors when I did the swap to the Corksport pads and the dusting seems to be a much lighter shade and did seem to dust about a third as much as compared to the the stock pads.

I am gonna go a week inbetween cleanings and see how that works out.

After I broke them in I took a 15 min cruise down the freeway and then did a 4th gear log and then exited the freeway. I pit it in neutral and came almost to a complete stop 1/2 of the way down the offramp. I hears the tires squeal for a little bit but I came to a controlled stop

So I let the brakes cool for a few then romped in the canyons for 15 minutes. When I got back and the freeway and I did another 4th gear log and then exited the freeway on the same offramp. This time the tires didn't make any noise but everything came flying forward in the car. I stopped a little sooner than the previous time.

I started to noticed that the car was stopping much sooner and with less pressure on the brake pedal than the oem brakes. I did not notice any brake squeeling and the pedal feel is nice and linear. The initial hard bite of the oem pads doesn't seem to be there but the car seems to a stop with much less fuss.

I will report back after I get some more miles on them.

Sent via blown passenger side speakers.

@Haltech; Nice review Kevin. It won't help you for you know what, nice effort though. :)

Thanks, ill edit.

Hey, im just happy as hell i don't sound like UPS.

Just installed these CorkSport brake pads on my MS3. LOVE THEM! no noise, and such little dust. Pics of front and rear attached! Highly recommend them. Hell, I highly recommend ANYTHING by CorkSport. IMO, they are the best Mazdaspeed performance parts company. Thanks to Derrick for the birthday card too!

thanks to @acidego; for the new rotors

Looking good!

Nice write up. having the proper tools for the job is nice isn't it? lol

It's strange how your opinion of the Carbotech ax6 is so negative. I've got a set for a dedicated "aggressive" brake set up. I bedded them with brand new rotors as Carbotech recommends. Yes they are somewhat noisy and very dusty but it's a compromise I'll make for the stopping power they provide. I found them to bite much harder than Hawk HP+ pads and the harder you pushed the pedal the more they bit. I had them up to around 680* as per my infrared thermometer and they were still there 100%. That's obscenely hot and even melted the powder coating off the hub of my wheel and my center caps, but I never had any indication of pedal fade or anything. Now it's not on a speed so maybe the weight of the MS3 over my protege was just too much for that pad? I'm not sure but it leaves me wondering.

Well it's possible they could of been a bad set. Generally though, if bedding doesn't work properly, you would eventually see an increase in bite over time. I didn't see any improvement on the ax6's I've had.

Could be over my head as usual, but any word of a set of rear pads for the MS6? I saw someone ask this same question back on the intitial release thread but no answer, so maybe since this is on the front page and is more recent someone might have some word on those?

Stock pads are finally coming to an end at 40K. I'll buy some of these, a set of new rotors, lines and some fluid. Thanks for the review saved me a lot of time searching.

I might snag some of these down the road when it comes time to replace my stock rotors.

I have over 1500 miles on these pads now and the pedal feel is getting firmer. The bite is more consisten than the stockers and the wheels don't hop as much. The reduction in brake dust is just an added bonus. I think the bedding in process needs to be more aggressive than the instructions state.

Sent via blown passenger side speakers.

I agree on the bedding process needing to be more aggressive, but we legally shouldn't advocate breaking the speed limit... That being said... go fast, brake, don't come to a complete stop, repeat many times, good to go.

Glad you like the pads!!!!

Cheers,
Joel

Well after running these pads for about a month now. I have to say I am not all that impressed. I believe my issues with them are completely subjective but I will try and explain them.

While these pads do give you more overall stopping power compared to stock I personally do not like they way they give you that power.

With the stock pads in my experience the initial bite was much stronger, but after the strength of that initial bite there was not much more stopping power available.

With the corks port pads there is more overall bra king power but the peddle feels softer and requires more pedal travel and pressure to access that power. I think the best description is they have a very linier progression of power. The more you give it the harder you stop.

Me personally doing a lot a fair amount of autocross I prefer being able to punch the brake. The brakes bite very hard then get back on the throttle. With these I feel I spend a bit more time on the brake peddle before I can get back on the throttle. Granted I might get used to this feel more but I personally prefer the brakes to make my face hit the windshield with less needed travel and pressure on the peddle.

Now they are for sure an upgrade over stock. They dust less and give more overall stopping power. Subjectively though I prefer a bit the has a much strong initial bite.

Also before anyone tells me to bleed the brakes to solve the someone mushy peddle feel. After putting these pads on I flushed my brake fluid with a power bleeder. So I am 100% positive there is no air in the system.

Again an upgrade u just am not impressed with how they feel

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Did you install braided steel lines? I feel that this is allows for a consistent and firmer feel, even with the stock pads.

He did a direct comparison, why should he need additional parts to give him the desired braking performance?

It just takes some trial and error to figure out which pads perform for your environment and which have the feel you desire. I've gone through a lot of different compounds over the years looking for that.

I prefer the initial bite of the stock pads but I did make them smoke on more than occasion during some downhill runs and the fade made me nervous.

Installing the braided lines and using different fluid did help reduce brake fading.

Installing the corksport pads and new blanks have eliminated the fading and reduced the brake dust but the initial bite of the stock pads just isn't there for me and I also do find myself spending more time on the brakes. Talking with other folks and trying cars with other varieties of pads, I found that this appears to be the norm for non OEM pads.

So after two weeks of using corksport front pads and utilizing the stock lines and then stainless lines, I can provide my two cents. I also replaced the front rotors with stoptech slotted rotors

These brake pads do not offer the same bite as OEM. I haven't been able to get them to fade yet, but I don't exactly race my car. But a couple 120-0 stops have proved they are up to the job.

In daily traffic I felt that there was too much time pressing the pedal to get a good strong response. The pads feel more linear, but I felt there was too much pedal movement. I was weary about ceramics, because I know they don't offer the bite I want, and the same holds here.

Once I put in braided stainless ptfe lines the bite is back and I feel a lot more confident about braking.

And if you care, they are quiet, a slight squeal here and there but it's no UPS truck, and don't dust much.

I have yet to get the braided lines installed on my car as I cannot get the old ones to come out. Before I switch pads I will go ahead and give the cs pads another review with the ss lines. I will still ultimately switch to ebc yellow as a pretty active autocrosser I simply need more out of my pads than these can provide

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Really, hmm, the lines should be pretty easy to come out. PB blaster?

Nope tried that. Even left it on stands over the weekend soaking in pb blaster

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Wow, just muscle the fuck out of them haha, if it breaks it breaks. Surprised though. I'm at 50k and mine didn't take much with a little 10mm and 12mm wrench.

80k on an 07. I don't want to break the connection at the fender well as it could destroy the upstream pipe. It just tries to round off the line

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Did my pads a couple weeks ago...just pads, nothing else. Quite happy with them and experiencing the same sort of performance changes as most others have mentioned in this thread. I might do brake lines/bleed in the spring but was due for new pads on the front so just got these done. Glad that the performance is quite good with no other investment or changes necessary.

glad you're happy with them, unfortunately I'm not liking them

Well I did finally get the brake lines installed with the help of @silvapain; A quality set of flare wrenches is key. Had an issue with one. It is stripped the fuck out hopefully i never have to take it apart again because the upstream hardline will be a bitch to replace.

I will chime back into this thread after a couple autocross events with the stainless lines on. Pretty sure that will be the most comprehensive review i can give of these pads before i swap them out.

Sounds good. I just bought some HP+'s but have yet to throw them in.