Brake pads....

[franv8]

Luckily I looked at mine whilst refilling the cooling system with antifreeze, I normally wait for the warning indicator (grating sound and metal filings on the wheels....ahem) - but these were pretty thin.

Is there any recommendation for pads on a mostly stock 1.6 Eunos - road use mostly (but used as it was intended)

Thanks in advance!

Fran

[MX-5 Lazza]

Axxis Ultimate are about the best you can get (There are some Mintex that are slightly better but at double the price). No idea if they are available for 1.6 though.
Otherwise just stick with stock Mazda pads. They are a great compromise and very good for anything other than track work.

I've tried EBC Greenstuff but they are too inconsistant. You might get a set that are great but you might also get a set that are rubbish. I had a set of rears that were so hard they ate my discs I'll never touch them again.

Of course you could vastly improve your brakes by fitting 1.8 discs...

[skinny]

yep mintex M1144's are available for 1.6 - as lazza says, they are more expensive, in particular the rears for some reason. very impressive pads

[franv8]

Thanks all for this - I'll have a look at what ones I can get. Mintex look interesting if I can get some at a reasonable price,

Francis.

[pmanson]

Interesting...

Picked up our first MX5 last weekend. Brakes are interesting to say the least. Not a lot of pedal travel (pedal is very firm after about an inch of travel).

Today was the first day i've driven it since the weekend (it's my fiancee's car) so I had a quick look at them when I got to work. They look very worn (so much so that you can't see the pads against the discs.

I don't think it's just the pads that causing the firmness of the pedal but wondered if the calipers were sticking?

[MX-5 Lazza]

Have the brake lines been replaced with braided steel lines? That can make the pedal feel a lot firmer...

[pmanson]

MX-5 Lazza said:

Have the brake lines been replaced with braided steel lines? That can make the pedal feel a lot firmer...

I honestly don't know. I need to get the wheels off and have a look

[MX-5 Lazza]

I doubt they have. More likely you have seized callipers somewhere, probably rear brakes as that's a fairly common problem.

[Munter]

pmanson said:

MX-5 Lazza said:

Have the brake lines been replaced with braided steel lines? That can make the pedal feel a lot firmer...

I honestly don't know. I need to get the wheels off and have a look

Not a bad plan to get the wheels off and have a poke around. Do let the disks cool down before you handle them to feel the back though....[cough]. I did find to start with that the MX5 brakes were hard. Then I realised it was just the Focus I had before was of the ON/OFF big servo assist style while the MX5 gave more feel but took more effort.

If your calipers have seized I used these guys to get some re-con ones and took my old ones back for a discount.
http://www.jagspares.co.uk/MX5/company.asp

[skinny]

seized / sticky calipers would mean that you would feel a poor braking effort tho...

[franv8]

Bought the EBC kevlar apds (for some reason had a moment of madness and thought budget - well I did buy the rears on some parts to recon one of my calipers)

Will let you know how easy (or difficult) it is to rebuild the front caliper - I get one of my front wheels lock up way before any of the others.

[skinny]

have fun with the piston seal

[Greg_D]

I have put carbotech on mine, they are the ones used in the max5 race series, proper race pads but they actually work REALLY well on the road, the only problem i have encountered is more brake dust than standard.

They are more expensive than standard but are supposed to last a lot longer than other pads (X6 greenstuff according to the manufacturer) so they make more sense in the long term.

I can't recommend them highly enough.

Greg

[DennisTheMenace]

I rebuilt the fronts on mine and a mate did the rears , one rear was completly fluffed so a trip to a motor factors £48 exchange , so if you need any try a local motorfactors 1st it may be cheaper than getting them off the net.

[shayh]

hi .I need to get rear calipers for my mx5 '00 1.8s. have been told that all are the same from 94 to 00. was looking on autozone in the u.s. (exchange rate is good). can anyone tell me if their miata calipers will be the same as the uk spec cars. also where can u get reconditioned calipers for 48 pounds? cant find anywhere that does recon calipers in ireland and new is too expensive. thanks