Was on the way home just now from work and car started to pull slightly to the left… seemed to stop after I stopped at a set of trafgic lights then staryed again afyer the next set… got home and the disc is redders hot and smells well warmed lol. Just wondering what would cause this? Is it defo a new caliper time or could it be to do with brake lines?.. further info the cam cover gasket needs replacing as I have a leak from the rear left hand side as you look at it from the front… could this be causing a problem?
Bit upset as shes just flown through her mot two weeks ago and been singing her praises!
Oil leak is not bringing on the problem .Rocker cover leaking and CAS oring, my money on the brakes is lack of correct lube a cleaning,and the handbrake arm is sticking on the bottom of the rear calipers?
Hi, if you could feel it pulling I guess it was the front left though the rear could do it with less effect.
Each caliper has just one piston on one pad and the other side pad is applied by reaction of the piston side being allowed to slide on lubed pins. The problem is often that the sliding pins and pads themselves become corroded and need cleaning and greasing. The other common cause is the piston on the hydraulic side corrodes and sticks out instead of returning when you release the brakes. Much more obscure causes are things such as a collapsed flexy brake hose.
Remove and inspect the caliper, take the pads out and scrape all rust off, and check the piston moves ok. Lube sliding pins with red rubber grease and metal pad contact edges and backs with Ceratec. Bear in mind the pads and disc may now be damaged and need replacing too and if so both sides will need changing or it will pull. In short, it’s front brake overhaul time, both sides.
As MM says none of this is to do with the engine so if it’s not familiar ground for you take it into any decent local garage as as it’s bread and butter stuff with nothing tricky for them. Some will only fit a new caliper if the piston’s stuck. Others will change a rusty piston and seals but those guys are fast disappearing.
The sticking front left caliper might be seizing, might need some clean-up/greasing of the sliding pins, or, sometimes, it might just be a a piece of the rusty edge of the disc broken off, and jammed up. Sometimes just disassembling, cleaning, and refitting does the job.
Thanks rich… sorry didn’t mention it was the front. Didn’t think it could be the engine oil but didn’t know if it it could have degraded something.
Hopefully its a quick fix thing is I need the car for work next week as I wont be able to use the mrs car so will have to get my mate to do it in his garage this week and just get him to sort the caliper out. Ill change the discs and pads when im off next weekend…
Dose anyone use upgraded discs and pads on here? Eg ebc or black Diamond? Are they worth it on an mx5 as they dont have much to stop anyway lol? Just wondering if people recommend them? Have used on other bigger more powerful cars and were great just wondering if there’s any point on a mx5?
I had a caliper do exactly the same over the winter.
I got home one day and there was an ominous smell in the cockpit. Get out, have a wander around and the pass. front disc looked like it was a photo from Le Mans!
It was a new caliper job.
All I’ll say on parts is avoid MX5Parts’ EBC basic pads (ultimax, or something like that). All they did on mine was squeal like the pedal was connected directly to a knife, twisting inside a cat.
Yes it’s always tempting to see if we can put better parts on isn’t it. In this case though I would definitely go for road pads and discs from a known brand. I’ve had Greenstuff and Ferodo competition pads on 2 previous cars and both were disappointing on the road. Poor initial bite when cold and the last thing you want for driving in 8am traffic on a wet winters day! Just getting your brakes back into top condition with quality road pads will be a big improvement. If there’s any doubt spend the saving over boutique stuff by doing the rears as well. You should get discs and pads all round for about £130 and a lot of the initial feel if not the actual stopping power comes from the rear discs.
My last 3 full brake jobs were with Pagid and Apec and all were really good, at least as good as the oe that came off. The thing is these days they have to meet R90 spec which ensures they work as well as original and the big brands are quite open about telling us how they exceed and do many further tests. Ring your local factor or the likes of GSF or ECP.
Thanks again rich… ok so I should go for road spec pagid or ferrado or similar? Thats good to know… I know what you mean about tge initial bite tho I used to have a potent celica that I used as a daily but also did track days so had ceramic pads and upgraded discs and theh were the same had to make sure you left yourself enough soace on the commute but on track when hot they were epic… but im not doing that in the mx5 so no need just wondered if anyone had tried a certain set and worked well so if you’re saying standard road compound from decent brand then thats what ill do. Cheers again much appreciated
Best pads I’ve had were Ultimates, a ceramic road pad made by Bendix. Needed a little warming up, and you needed to follow the bedding in procedure (a couple of hard stops from 50-60, 20 minutes of gentle driving, then let heat cycle overnight). They did dust a lot, but that didn’t bother me. I think recently, they’ve changed the compound, and technically, they’re not Reg-90 (Ultmate is Bendix’s US brand, and Bendix is an Australian manufacturer (was known as Bendix-Mintex)).
APECs are ok for a cheap pad (same grade as SolidAce). Nothing really wrong with the EBC Blackstuff (Ultimax); I’ve never had them squeal. They use a non-metal shim. Original Mazda pads are a ceramic compound, like all Japanese-made brake pads. These pads were made by Sumitomo. You can buy the Mazda branded pads through MX5parts. I think OE repackers like Firstline source pads from Sumitomo.
Only tried Ferodos once; didn’t get off to a good start when I found they were missing the holes for the spring clips. That may have been corrected in recent years.
I think, these days, there are no “bad” standard roads pads available for sale in the UK. The issues with greenstuff pads were long ago, and I think before Reg-90, which introduced a whole new level of quality control. Competition pads are bound to be terrible for road use.
Unfortunately I have to disagree with some of the comments in this thread, sorry. I am assuming you have a MK1, because of the leaking cam gasket leaking is usually around a CAS, however it does not have to be. Anyway, until ABS versions of the car, where “brake bias” started to be controlled and the rears started doing some work, then the rear brakes actually do very little and the car is quite renown for this. Try pulling on the hand brake while braking, (don’t crash!) You are still unlikely to lock the rear brakes. The fixed brake bias valve on early cars limits rear piston pressure quite a lot and a significant improvement in braking can be achieved by changing that bias. For most people that is not going to happen and most of the braking effort will come from the front brakes as will feel and bite.
The anti-rattle springs may stop rattle / squeal (hence the name) but certainly do not force the pads off the discs against any sort of resistance from the calliper, slider pins or piston. I would suspect, even if everything was in 100% condition and greased with the most perfect grease that the springs would not have the power to overcome piston seal stiction. The fact that the brake hardware was the same on later models and Mazda decided to not fir springs say that Mazda thought better too.
First make sure everything is working as it should be, slides, moves, retracts etc first. There is no point changing anything if the callipers don’t move correctly for instance.
Then brakes work by friction (we all know that) but they convert the energy of the car’s movement in to heat, sound and, if they glow, light, mainly heat though.
Pads and discs work in several ways. If you don’t want anything to wear, then the heat has to be absorbed by the material. For that to happen, the friction material has to be able to withstand high temperature. There then is some general trade off in initial bite as these pads generate more friction once in their operating temperature range. You can have pads that operate at lower temperature and the surface “burns” quickly and dusts away exposing a new surface underneath, it is a little bit like the technology of grinding discs that wear away, and then you can have pads that wear the disc away. And of course a mixture of all of them. Softer pads with instant bite will tend to be the ones tht dust and wear quickly. That said I have used Yellow Stuff for years, even back when people thought EBC were the devil and I have never had any lack of response issues from the brakes.
Nick, I’m not really following you re pulling on the handbrake as that is all mechanical isn’t it and cannot be affected by the hydraulics?
My point about “feel” with rear discs (“a lot of the initial feel if not the actual stopping power comes from the rear discs”) is simply that cars with rear discs in good order feel better. That is a practical consideration as you get instant feel from the brake pedal at the point at which the brakes are coming on, unlike say from a drum brake car where there’s slack and a wooden feel in comparison. Part of this will be to do with discs automatically adjusting to take slack out of course but the rear discs are often poor as they do little work (as you say) and often get rusty with glazed pads. A good tip is to drag the handbrake every so often to clean the rear brakes and especially after rain or washing the car.
Robbie, just checked this thread on my droid and no problems with text size so maybe a question for other apple users or Ramsay.
My rear Mk1 caliper partially seized on the M27 two years ago. I got out to fill it with petrol (luckily) and noticed the wave of heat coming from the rear wheel well. Took off the BBS centre cap before it got damaged and drove slowly to Autolink, pausing occasionally to let it cool. It all survived and it just needed a good cleanup; despite me greasing the slider pins occasionally, they’d still seized.
I’ve spoken about this with Ramsay and it seems that it’s NickD’s signature size that’s causing it. MM’s posts appear the same for the same reason I believe.
