Best "affordable" brakes (1992)

[jbrown_6]

So I am new to the Miata. I bought a 92 with $122K miles, its sqeeks a little and stops when I apply some brake, so im assuming the brakes are going out. I am looking for a step-by-step to replace them (im not expecting you to write it out, but a link would be great!) and ANY suggestions on what are a reliable, daily driver, brake set. Any suggestions are much appreciated. thanks!

[oldgrayfrog]

The best most affordable way to improve your brakes is #1 upgrade your pads, if it's street driven i recommend EBC Green or Hawk HPS pads, #2 upgrade your rear rotor to the 1.8 rear rotors, you can do front and back, but just giving that rear brake some meat will help a lot. The Miata is incredibly front biased for brakes. Buying a wilwood brake proportioning kit that will allow you to dial in a bit more rear brakes will greatly shorten stopping distances. Best yet, everything is available used if you look in the right places. I for example am about to upgrade my front brakes to the 11" wilwood two piece rotor, with a wilwood 4 piston caliper, and replace my 1.8 rear rotor and caliper with the parts from a 2004 Sport, so I will be selling mine shortly. OTH a good set of pads goes a long ways with these light little cars, so start there and see if you are happy with that!

[NA6R]

make sure the brakes work properly first.
fresh fluid, clean and lube the slides, adjust the parking brake.
mine stops well with cheapO AZ pads

[spinnerdog]

Did the breaks on our car last year. 1st attempt was rotors and durolast gold pads, I think from AZ. Wasn't happy, the stopping distance increased by allot. Replaced the pads with ones from RSpeed and problem solved. Perhaps the durolast gold pads are hardened more for the life time warranty.

[jbrown_6]

Thanks guys! I havent changes the brakes on a Miata before, so im going to look for some kind of tutorial. I will definitely check the fluid levels etc first... I just feel that the squeaking is from the pads being low... Oldgrayfrog PM me if you decide to change those rear rotors. Ill probably just go with pads at first tho... Thanks everyone!

[oldgrayfrog]

If you buy pads with a lifetime warranty, you don't shop where I do. When I said buy good pads I mean EBC Red or Green, Hawk HP or HPS.A set will cost from $80 and upwards. The 1.6 pads, rotors calipers, it's smaller and cheaper than any of the others. Unless you are adding major power adders, like a supercharger or turbo, the stock 1.6 brakes, if you change the fluid, and the pads to a performance type, you will see huge improvements. A lot of folks don't remember that brake fluid is hydroscopic. Thatmeans that it absorbs lots of water. This can lead in the long term to rusting out your brake lines, but in the short term, the "wet" braking fluid can produce 50% less braking force, than fresh fluid. Change fluid, get pas and if you still want more, put in that proportioning valve. Flyin Miata sells everything you need to change the valve in your own driveway for about $80. This allows you to slowly dial in more rear brakes as you stop. The normal setup in the 1.6 brakes, after the pedal has traveled to it's "knee" point, it goes from variable, to a fixed ratio, in which almost 70% of the braking is being done by your front brakes. This leaves the poor rears just going along for the ride. Later setups let the rears perform closer to 45%. What you do is go to a safe area to practice stops allowing plenty of time for the brakes to cool between stops. Begin with the brakes fully proportioned front, and then slowly add in a little bit more rear brakes. As soon as either the braking distances get longer, or the rear brakes actually lock up it's time to add in a bit more front as a margin of safety,go back to the position you had the valve TWO stops previous. Rear brake lockup is a very challenging position to find yourself in, that's why the manufacturer gave you such heavily front biased brakes. If you go about the re-proportioning in a safe controlled manner, you can add about 50% more braking force than you had before, just for the cost of the valve.

[JEMERY]

Sport brakes can be had for 300$, best upgrade ever. Also, if you want it to be properly biased grab the master/booster and proportioning valve from same car. Oem pads.

[Dr.Drew]

One little addition. When you change your pads and rotors for the upgrade make sure you break them in properly. I've noticed, helping friends and whatnot, that this procedure doesn't seem to be common knowledge.

For most pads you just want to heat cycle them a few times for ceramics and avoiding high heat for metallics to help mold the pads to the rotors (even new rotors aren't 100% flat). It also goes a long way to prevent them from glazing, squealing or cracking in the future.

[oldgrayfrog]

Procedure is do 5 slow downs (retarded term) from 60-30, and the 5 stops from 60-0, allow cooling between stops, maybe 20-30 seconds between. If it needs saying don't do this on a public road where there is traffic! Use an empty parking lot. I agree that the Sport brakes have some merit, but without new pads it's pretty worthless. The 1.6 brakes work very well, hell a lot of spec miata guys still use them, because they are lighter weight, and the car is so light. The sport brakes take advantage of the greater diameter of the rotor, creating greater resistance to fade (not an issue on public roads) and greater brake torque when combined with the larger surface area of the Sport caliper's pad, and larger piston size. The brake booster swap is possible of course but adds another $100 for the booster and $75-100 for the master cylinder, which isn't compatible with any other year of booster. Unfortunately although the Sport booster does give a greater rear bias, 60% vs. 75%, it's actual breaking force, when combined with the Sport master cylinder is less: 600 psi vs 900 psi unless combined with the actual Sport brakes themselves. Just bolting on the Sport master and booster to a 90-93 braking system is possible by itself, but it would be a step backwards. The best combo is a Non sport 2002-2005 Booster combined with the 1" master cylinder from a Mazda 929 sedan, with the Sport brake rear rotor at 10.9" and either a Sport Brake front rotor or one of the Wilwood swaps. Little known factoid is that the Sport rear caliper will bolt directly onto the 1.6 caliper mounting bracket so you can but the just caliper. Flyin Miata sells them in the salvaged section by themselves, for about $75 each plus shipping. You can swap between the 02-05 master and boosters, but they are not compatible with earlier master and boosters, so no 02 master cylinder on a 94 booster. The title was "Cheap" brake solutions. I'd say start with the pads, and then if your budget allows and you feel the need, go get a proportioning valve. Either way step one is to change the fluid. You can lose up to 50% of the breaking force, what manufacturers refer to as the "wet" or water logged fluid, compresses with 50% less force. That's a bunch more braking force to come from a $15 bottle of high quality brake fluid, than all the pads and caliper swaps mentioned here.

[metalman]

That's a bunch more braking force to come from a $15 bottle of high quality brake fluid, than all the pads and caliper swaps mentioned here.

Properly executed stock brakes, water free fluid, steel lines, & performance pads properly bedded, will stop a Miata on a dime.

[jzilla]

yep, i never had an issue with 1.6 brakes.

[RotorNutFD3S]

Properly executed stock brakes, water free fluid, steel lines, & performance pads properly bedded, will stop a Miata on a dime.

This every time, for street and light track/autox use.

[91baseguy]

Best Cheap Brakes:

Rotors: Stock-sized NAPA cheapos. Work great, even under heavy track use. Fronts are about $20 each, rears are about $17 each.

Pads: There are lots of great street pads. Follow the suggestions above. I'll add PBR/Axxis Metal Master. They are the lowest priced after-market, good pads I've seen. They work great for the street, have about 20% stronger bite than the OEM pads, last forever, and are fairly low dust (about like stock).

Fluid: Valvoline synthetic, about $5/pint at local parts store. Keep fresh. Bleed before track events.

Keep in mind, 1.6 liter Spec Miatas race on stock-sized brakes. With decent race pads, they do not fade. With fresh fluid, they do not boil fluid. They work just fine.

Bigger (1.8-sized) brakes are not necessary. They just add unsprung weight (although they do look cool).

Cheap brakes is one of the best things about a Miata.

[eyeballs]

Since it hasn't been mentioned....check out the Axis/PBR Ultimates for brake pads. I've got them on my '99, though I have no clue if they make them for yours. For the price they give phenominal stopping power and brake feel, and a lots of brake dust. Temp range is good for spirited street/autocross/mild track. ATE superblue fluid is what I use since it got a decently high boiling point without a super high price.

[Animus21]

Since it hasn't been mentioned....check out the Axis/PBR Ultimates for brake pads. I've got them on my '99, though I have no clue if they make them for yours. For the price they give phenominal stopping power and brake feel, and a lots of brake dust. Temp range is good for spirited street/autocross/mild track. ATE superblue fluid is what I use since it got a decently high boiling point without a super high price.

+1 on the axxis ultimates. transformed my brakes into something useable for fun driving. the mystery pads carmax had on the car were awful and faded like crazy..........I suspect duralast or whatever was cheapest at the time. a short stint down a curvy road and I had to stand on the brakes till they smelled like crap to slow down. thought this was normal. Its not.

[damham]

Dont forget Paul at Mazmart , love to support the Sponsors.

[atlnb]

Axxis Ultimates, blanks, SS brake lines, DOT4 brake fluid.. DONE! in most cases