Exhaust and brakes questions

[Howard-]

Morning all,

At some point I plan on changing my exhaust for an MX5prats single exit jobbie, and was wondering about the cat and manifold. Am I best off leaving them be, or are there reasonable gains to be had from decatting and getting a 4-2-1 manifold?

I'm told that decatting leads to uber noise with this exhaust, which I don't want Any solutions?


Also, brakes. What are people's favoured methods of 'uprating' the mk1 1.6 brakes? Will a set of Yellowstuff pads with the standard disks provide sufficient 'fast road' stopping power?


Cheers for any advice

[bluetone]

IMO without going forced induction you're not going to get much appreciable extra go for your money with a fancy exhaust system (maybe 5 or 6 additional bhp, tops?) and they can get rather noisey so I would be tempted not to bother if this is a concern.

Views on brake pad choice are very divided - I have seen plenty of unfavourable comments about Yellowstuff (and EBC generally tbh). The Axxis Ultimate pads http://www.performance5.com/brake_pads.asp get good write-ups/maybe best stopping power but produce a lot of dust. Replacing the front discs is pretty cheap to do if yours are a bit worn, if a bit of a pig if the old ones are stuck-fast.

Upgrading to 1.8 discs and calipers seems popular too and you could look at upgrading to braided steel hoses.

New fluid always a good idea if yours is more than 2 years old.

[Howard-]

Thanks. Maybe I'll stick with the cat-back MX5parts system then for a little extra sportiness

[MX-5 Lazza]

bluetone said:

Upgrading to 1.8 discs and calipers seems popular too and you could look at upgrading to braided steel hoses.

Actually, all that's needed is 1.8 discs & mounting brackets. The callipers are the same on 1.6 & 1.8

[Howard-]

What size are the 1.8 disks?

[GravelBen]

I don't really see any point upgrading brakes at standard power levels - mine are still bog standard (I don't even know what brand pads/fluid are in as I haven't changed them since i got it) and I haven't found them lacking anywhere- nice firm pedal, plenty of stopping power and no fade on road or track.

Edited by GravelBen on Thursday 30th July 10:25

[bluetone]

MX-5 Lazza said:

bluetone said:

Upgrading to 1.8 discs and calipers seems popular too and you could look at upgrading to braided steel hoses.

Actually, all that's needed is 1.8 discs & mounting brackets. The callipers are the same on 1.6 & 1.8

Good spot there Lazza, thx

[bluetone]

Howard- said:

What size are the 1.8 disks?

1.8 255mm
http://www.mx5parts.co.uk/product_info.php/product...

vs. 1.6 235mm
http://www.mx5parts.co.uk/product_info.php/product...

[GravelBen]

You sure the calipers are the same? I thought I'd seen diagrams showing how much greater the pad area was on the 1.8 brakes

[MX-5 Lazza]

GravelBen said:

You sure the calipers are the same? I thought I'd seen diagrams showing how much greater the pad area was on the 1.8 brakes

The pads are different, bigger surface area, but the callipers are the same

[maz8062]

GravelBen said:

I don't really see any point upgrading brakes at standard power levels - mine are still bog standard (I don't even know what brand pads/fluid are in as I haven't changed them since i got it) and I haven't found them lacking anywhere- nice firm pedal, plenty of stopping power and no fade on road or track.

Edited by GravelBen on Thursday 30th July 10:25

+1 agree.