A new lawsuit highlights ongoing brake squeaking and safety concerns in a popular SUV despite repeated dealer repairs
2 hours ago
- One owner took their CX-90 to a Mazda dealer multiple times for brake inspections.
- A technician sanded the brake pads and applied a disc quiet solution without success.
- Mazda issued a service alert for brake noise, judder, and dragging on multiple models.
No one likes squeaky brakes. In fact, they can be downright infuriating, especially if you can’t work out a way to silence them. For some, it’s a minor nuisance. For others, it’s the sound of something not quite right. And in the case of one 2024 Mazda CX-90 owner in the US, it was enough to take legal action.
The driver, frustrated by persistent squeaking from the brakes and what he describes as ineffective dealership repairs, has filed a lawsuit against Mazda.
Read: One Mazda Surged 683 Percent While The Rest Crashed In May
The plaintiff, Daniel Green, took delivery of a CX-90 in September 2024 and took it to a dealership after just 839 miles (1,350 km), complaining that the brakes were making a high-pitched squeak. According to the class action, a Mazda technician reproduced the sound and greased the brake pads in an attempt to solve the problem.
A Brief Fix That Didn’t Stick
The grease didn’t help, and after less than 300 miles, the CX-90 was back at the dealer. They proceeded to resurface the front and rear discs, while also greasing the brake pads once again. This seemed to silence the squeak, but only temporarily.
Green visited the dealer several other times to try to resolve the issue. During one visit, the technician sanded the brake pads with 80 grit sandpaper and applied a pad disc quiet solution to them, an elastomeric multi-polymer compound designed to eliminate squeaking pads. However, not even this worked.
Noisy And Dangerous, Too?
The lawsuit notes that in addition to the brakes squeaking, they can also start to judder. Consequently, the plaintiff has been “forced to adjust his speed and braking based solely on the vehicle’s dangerous braking performance.” Reference is also made to a service alert that Mazda USA issued in August 2024 related to “brake noise, judder, and dragging.”
This bulletin outlines procedures that dealership technicians can follow if a customer returns a vehicle with complaints about any of the specified braking issues. Several other models were included in this bulletin, including the Mazda3, Mazda6, CX-9, CX-30, CX-5, CX-50, CX-3, MX-5, and MX-30.
