I’ve had my mk3 about 18 months now. I have always felt that he brakes could be binding a little but never really got to the bottom of it. I like to sense that the car is freewheeling to a standstill without any sense of resistance and also note if the car will start to roll on the slightest gradient.
My other car is much more mobile on he slightest of gradients and feels to roll more freely but it is front wheel drive saloon and I wonder if that explains the difference?
The calliper do not feel hot after driving so perhaps I am being over critical. All calliper slider pins were greased this summer.
When I had a binding front caliper on my 2006 NC this summer one of the wheels was noticeably toasty, to the point that the disc was blue and the alloy rim was too hot to touch. You could try lifting the car and see if the wheels turn with minimal resistance by hand.
Any wheel bearing noise? That’d be my next point of investigation.
As the previous poster says, lift each wheel and spin to see if the brake is actually binding. This would happen cold as well as when the car/brakes are hot.
Bearing wear can be detected by grabbing the wheel top/bottom and try to move to see if there is any movement within the bearing. really worn bearings will graunch/grind when the wheel is rotated by hand.
I can check again but haven’t found any noticeable heat difference from the wheels…it would be useful to obtain one of those infrared thermometer s for jobs lie this.
Does any else think their 5 freewheels less easily than another car?
Yes spend about £15 of an infrared gun and measure the disc temps after say a 2 mile run without putting the brakes on. Try just to cost to a stop. Do it once a month a tempreture under 50C is good.
My Subaru’s are bad for binding, MX5’s tend to be OK but I have had two front calipers on the MK2 sieze and one on the mk3. In all cases the seals needed changing. On the Subarus it is 50% needing nre cailper seals and 50% the floating pins sticking but recently the pads seized after being changed last year due to the backing plates needing filing but were OK when fitted.
Our Suzuki Jeep need two calipers changed and two re seals in 8 years.
We have metal salts coming off farm fields locally.
Hmmmmm. Had my MX5 mk3 for 3 months, putting 2,000 trouble free miles on the clock. Last couple of days I have had a sense that something was not quite right. A slight vibration at the front end. I put it down to front wheels needing to be balanced. Then it seemed more like a slight hesitation on acceleration…possible misfire…but did not happen in neutral when blipping the throttle. Tonight (in the dark) all became clear. Front end started juddering, either from the ABS activating or a wheel locking up. I pulled over and checked the wheels. Drivers front cool, nearside…burnt my bloody fingers on the disc!! Was so hot my fingers stuct to it and burnt off a layer of skin. Lesson learnt !! Waited 30 mins for it to cool down and then limped the 8 mls home ,stopping at every lay by to cool disc down.
Hi John D., and anyone else afflicted by the brake bind syndrome,
Sound advice as above, but when you have the wheel(s) off, I strongly advise you to check the condition of the wheel bearings and their grease on the affected wheel station. Touch wood, I’ve never had this affect my '5, but had it on a Nissan X-trail.
Changed out the calipers, and pads (which will be well-goosed by dragging at those temperatures, and must change both wheels), only to have a wheel bearing go almost seized about a month later due to hub grease breakdown after running so hot. Not nice…and £££££!
Not quite so serious on a RWD MX5 as an X-trail, but best prevented if you can…
Aldi, Good points raised. Local garage had a chuckle at the state of my fingers…there goes their Christmas bonus…I think I will change the Calliper assembly, slider pins and have them change the brake fluid at the same time. It makes sense to check the nearside bearing for grease at the same time. The car is booked in tomorrow, only 300yds away (with 1 steep hill to negotiate.) I will price up the cost of parts in case their supplier does not have them in stock. At least I should be back on the road by Christmas…The garage closes on Fri.
Regards, JohnD
Always check the hubs. It is why I have an optical thermometer, they are so cheap now it is a no-brainer to get one.
Years ago when we were down to only one car, I needed to borrow my sister’s old HC Viva for a week working on the other side of the country. It was great little car and went like the wind on super unleaded, so I was a bit surprised halfway home when there was a sudden massive vibration and lumping bumping from the left front wheel. I thought it was a flat, and pulled over onto the grass beside the busy A-road.
The tyre still had air but it was no longer circular, more lumpen and bulgy misshapen, and the heat radiating from it and the hub was so much I expected it to burst, and when I sprayed some water over it to cool it - it steamed off.
When I jacked up the car to put on the spare I found I could not turn the wheel. I levered the pads off the disc, and still couldn’t turn it. So to get home I pulled the split pin and nut retainer, slackened off the nut holding the bearings just enough until the wheel turned and replaced the retainer and split pin. I had tools, oil and water in the car, but not a pot of axle grease.
What amazed me most about it was that there was no pull on the steering even though the bearing was almost seized solid. Thinking about it now, it still amazes me.
Thanks, Richard FX.
I can explain why there was zero pull on the steering on your HC Viva, I think. My memory is not 100%, but IIRC…
Early Vauxhalls, in common with many other makes, used a (dual-circuit) brake system which was split front and rear, so in the event of an hydraulic failure you still had either front or rear brakes operable.
This was OK if the rears failed, since the front were powerful enough to stop the car, but the rears-only case was not good news…!
To overcome this, later models (in common with most other makes) split the hydraulics diagonally - LH front + RH rear and vice-versa. This gave much improved stopping power in the event of failure (approx 50% efficiency) but meant that the car would pull violently to the side of the one operating front brake due to the ground-line offset of the wheel from the effective centres of the kingpin. Some early Fords with such systems were bad in this respect.
To overcome this, the steering geometry was changed to minimise the ground offset to virtually zero, so even with a badly dragging wheel (from whatever cause) there was little or no steering feedback.
The desirable property of self-centring of the steering was achieved by changing the camber and trail angles.
Not a lot wrong with the brakes, then, at those tempetatures.
If its still not rolling freely then the drag is elsewhere…and my suspicion woild point at the diff…particilrly if its a LSD.
Checking it means getting both rear wheels off the ground and turning firstly one wheel at atime then both with gearbox in neutral
There shouldnt be any significant resistance in either case
Either way check the diff oil for level and any metallic particles.Has it been changed in its life so far? It can have a hard life in a torsen diff.
Aldi.
I’ve had the car about 18 months…It’s done just under 50k miles.
I changed the diff oil last summer.
It is currently hibernating for winter with just the occasional look outside when weather permits but I will try checking the diff as suggested.
I am beginning to wonder if I am being overly sensitive because all I can compare it to is my fwd saloon. Perhaps the mx5 simply has a greater rolling resistance?
well ZED is back on the road. Called into my local friendly garage yesterday, and dropped my MX5 off this morning at 9.15. Picked it up at 4.30pm. Nearside front caliper replaced (seized). Unfortunately this had damaged /scored the disc, and warped it for good measure. So add 2 discs and pads. In changing the drivers side disc they found the caliper binding on the slider pins so they took these off and cleaned them. Greased slider pins and re assembled. The brake fluid was also changed. Now all I need to do is pay!
Only downside is that there is a slightly spongey feeling to the brakes.I will let them bed in and then re-bleed if necessary.