Hi All,
My dad’s NC had what we assumed was a warped front passenger-side disk. You could hear uneven rubbing when going along slowly, and the wheel got hot. Last weekend I replaced the disks and pads, greased up the slider pins, and that’s got rid of the rubbing.
Unfortunately the wheel still gets hot, so it must be something else. Everything was sliding smoothly when I put things back together though so I’m not sure what’s up. Could it be a sticky piston?
There’s not a huge amount of moving parts on the front wheels so it’s either a sticky piston/dodgy caliper or slide pin as you said or the wheel bearing.
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I did the same (replaced pads and cleaned and greased the slider pin). Two weeks later I had to replace the calliper.
Sounds very much like a partially seized brake caliper / sticking piston - not unknown on these cars, unfortunately.
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Thanks for the thoughts; wanted to make sure I wasn’t barking up the wrong tree.
Anyone know about where I could get new pistons from? MX5parts and autolink don’t seem to have them listed. I guess last resort is new caliper.
Had the rear brakes stick on my mk2.5 last year and it was a right pain mucking about with getting pistons in and out. Was hoping I wouldn’t have to do it again so soon.
Autolink do refurbished calipers just search their website. A pick from their site, note these are listed LH, another listing for RH.
Bought mine from GSF Motor Factors.
Internally failing flexi hoses can also cause this too , but as already said more than likely a caliper but for piece of mind theres no harm in changing the flexi also if changing a caliper .
Had same problem with my NC front passenger side Caliper - new ca;iper, disk and pads fixed it.
Most motor factors will have refurbished ones. Mine was about £100 and was indistinguishable from a new one. It even came with new rubbers for the slider pins and grease too.
Bigg red in Worcester sell pistons and seal kits. Front calipers are relatively simple to rebuild if you have the time and patience.
I believe Autolink only supply genuine Mazda refurbed calipers.
yes sticking caliper. I had 4 new tyres, discs and pads but only replaced the front calipers. bad idea. had to replace the rear as well due to the calipers sticking and wheel and hubs becoming red hot!
So it turns out that the Mk2.5 ‘big brake’ pistons are the same as the Mk3 ones.
That, some seals, and grease seem to have fixed things. And for £40 instead of the ~£80 a new caliper would’ve cost.
The old piston came out and the new one went in with much less fuss than the ones on my mk2.5’s did, so it wasn’t a whole-day job either!
Today’s been a good day, thanks everyone for the advice everyone 
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