2011 Mazda CX-9: soft or spongy brake pedal

8 of the 171 complaints about the 2011 Mazda CX-9 describe soft or spongy brake pedal.

owner complaints: 8
of this car's complaints: 5%
typical mileage: 79,388
recalls: 0

Is there a fix? 18 service bulletins cover this area of the car. See below

Soft or spongy brake pedal by model year

2023
1
2018
1
2016
1
2014
2
2012
14
2011
8
2010
9
2009
1
2008
2

What owners say

Filed Jan 6, 2020 · Brakes · 79,388 miles · CA

Brakes really hard to press. Wife thought car wasn't going to stop and she was going to rear end car in front of her. Sometimes brake pedal would feel spongy. Over last month there was an intermittent strange noise sometimes when car was started. Mazda dealership identified the problem to be a defective brake booster. I found that the federal safety agency opened investigation on cx-9 brake issues previously and mazda identified problem to be brake booster. Mazda extended the warranty to 7 years or 90,000 miles and the federal safety agency closed investigation. Our brake booster failed at 9 years with 79,388 miles on the car. From what I have read the life expectancy of a brake booster is the life of the car. Mazda never informed us about this possible problem. Our family could have been seriously injured or killed due to this defect. Why did the federal safety agency accept an extended warranty as a solution?

Filed Jan 2, 2020 · Airbags, Brakes · 86,000 miles · OR · crash

Tl* the contact owns a 2011 mazda cx9. The contact stated that while his wife was driving approximately 13 MPH and attempting to slow down, the brake pedal was harder than usual to depress. As a result, the driver rear ended the vehicle in front causing a five vehicle collision at a traffic light. None of the frontal air bags deployed. The police were present and a police report was filed. There were no injuries reported. The vehicle was towed to an impound lot where the insurance company was scheduled to have an inspector inspect the vehicle. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer for a diagnostic. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The contact referenced the federal safety agency action number: pe14005 (service brakes, hydraulic). The VIN was not available. The approximate failure mileage was 86,000.

Filed Apr 11, 2019 · Brakes · 105,000 miles · MI

In dec. 2018, I had my 2011 mazda cx-9 to a mazda dealer service shop for what I felt like a spongy brake pedal. When I picked up the car the service advisor told be there is nothing wrong with the car's brakes. After a few months, while the symptom persisted, I found out there is a know issue with the brake booster, which mazda acknowledged and issued a warranty extension (which is expired now). Two days ago, while traveling in traffic on highway, I had to stop the car due to a sudden traffic jam and I felt the brakes being insufficiently effective to stop my car safely. As such, I pumped the brake pedal 3-4 times and that caused the pedal to become very hard and made matters worst- to a point where I had to pull on the shoulder to avoid rear-ending the vehicle in front of me.

Filed Jan 29, 2019 · Brakes · 102,000 miles · CA

I started noticing it was taking a long distance for my vehicle to come to a stop. I took it to my mechanic. We took it for a test drive and he confirmed there was a problem with the power brake booster. When he was driving, if he pressed on the brake pedal hard, he could make the car have a long "beep" sound. Otherwise, he, too, noticed the long distance required for the car to stop.

Filed Jul 31, 2017 · Brakes · 60,000 miles · FL

Tl* the contact owns a 2011 mazda cx-9. While driving, the brakes were applied and failed to respond. Additionally, the brake pedal became hard to depress. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 60,000.

Filed Jul 17, 2016 · Brakes · 59,000 miles · NC

Loss of brake fluid; brake pedal hard to push & not stopping car; noise at brake pedal

Filed Jun 16, 2016 · Brakes · 1 miles · CA

There is an issue when using the brakes where there's a loss of power assist making the brakes really hard to push at times, a sudden loss of braking ability with super spongy pedals, and a strange, hissing noise coming from the pedal area. These issues happen concurrently when driving in the city or highway and whenever the car is in reverse or drive.

Filed Mar 20, 2015 · Brakes · 58,800 miles · GU

This is the second happened to my mazda cx9, 2011. The brake started to have hissing sounds while stepping on brake. The brake pedal is harder than usual to depress. The brake functions has been reduced around 30~50% less than normal. This has put deriving safety in jeopardized. This is the second time my cx9's brake booster failure. The first time is in year 2012. I worked with mazda to have brake booster replaced. However, dealer seemed not realized there is a warranty extended program from mazda --- mazda special service program -93 (ssp93). This is official recorded in the federal safety agency action number pe14005. Dealer tried contacting mazda for this program. But mazda kept not responding, it has been two weeks but still not message back from them. I paid the repairmen of the defective brake booster (parts & labor) from my own packet at this point. Despite the defective parts for jeopardizing driving safety, my complaints to mazda is also for their non-responsive to customer's warranty program which they have made.