Brake Disc Pads problems of the 2001 Mazda Tribute

Brakes failed to stop vehicle within 200ft, started as a regular braking but only slowed, applied full force and held foot pressure. No pulsating and slowed to approximately 5 mph. Turned car right to avoid car and bumped his right back bumper with my left front bumper. Minimal damage to other vehicle. My bumper has a 3 inch rip in bumper. Road was dry but it acted like the brakes where wet, Mazda recalled abs in March 2007 by NHTSA records, I did not receive a recall on this ! can you help, brake pads replaced approximately 12,000 miles ago.

Front disk rotors are completely worn out, although the pads are in great shape (not worn out). Mileage is under 50,000 miles.

Problems with vehicle's brake pads and rotors. The consumer was informed the front brake pads had reached the 20% point of friction material remaining and they needed to be replaced. The consumer believed the brakes and/or pads were made from inadequate materials.

When applying the brakes pads were causing the pedal to be hard when depressing. Also, rotors overheatedd intermittently. Dealership was notified, but did not resolve the problem.

November 2, 2006 Mazda north America operations attn: customer assistance center po box 19734 irvine, CA 92623-9734 to whom it may concern: our service advisors tony and brian, again at el cajon Mazda, did a little research and found that the only factory rotors for the Mazda Tribute are throw-away. Other than buying aftermarket parts, which we prefer not to do, we would have this throw-away dilemma. My husband called Mazda north America and spoke with todd in customer service. He took the information and immediately called us back. (I had already tried doing what my husband did, spoke with bruce, and was told to go to another Mazda dealership for a second opinion, there was nothing Mazda could do. ) todd seemed to understand our frustration with this whole situation and called tony at el cajon Mazda and authorized for our rotors to be replaced at no charge, we would be responsible for the pads and labor again. So our brakes are now replaced, but we are still feeling a little funny about the whole situation. We were told that if the pads are changed with 50% life left on them, then the rotors may be able to be turned. Well, that seems pretty crazy to us to have to get new pads when they are still half there! we really want to stick with genuine Mazda parts, but in the future feel that financially we may be better off just buying aftermarket so we don't have to replace the rotors every 3 years! needless to say, we are somewhat frustrated with the apparent design flaw of the braking system on our 2001 Mazda Tribute, and certainly hope we don't have to go through this with our 2005. Hopefully this system has been improved upon.