Miata brakes - underwhelming is normal, or do i have an issue?

So after 3 days of ownership I'm relatively pleased with my newly acquired miata (95 M edition) except for the brakes. It stops OK, but either in 95 they have the smoothest, most undetectable antilock system ever, they are just not great breaks, or something else is going on.

I've absolutely smashed the pedal, and i can't get them to either lock up or engage the ABS, it stops OK, but not great. Are there known issues with the brakes that I should look at first? The car sat for a long time, so the pads could be glazed over. what is a good pad to go with for a combined weekend driver/autocross car?

You have a problem. Miata brakes whould be easily capable of locking the fronts (non ABS) with OEM pads. That said I have a friend who has crap brakes on his '91 so there is a problem somewhere.

AutoX folks say that cheapo ceramic front pads and Hawk HP+ rear pads are the set up that will balance the Miata front biased factory setup.

tip: learn how to do the rear brakes before attempting them yourself, there is a trick and it isn't intuitive at all.

I could rarely get my ABS to engage on my '96 M Edition Miata, unless my tires were really crappy and the road was wet. With my Kuhmo race tires, I could stab the brakes at 70 MPH and stop very quickly and controlled.

I had Remsa ceramic brakes on stock rotors, and I bedded the pads properly upon installation. When I switched to Hawk pads for track days, the car stopped even shorter.

My suggestion is to get new rotors, wash them in hot, soapy (dish soap) water, and do 20 stops from about 30 MPH to bed your pads to the new rotors. Brake cleaner doesn't clean rotors as well as hot soapy water (this is also according to an engineer at Raybestos, who I spoke to.)

You might have frozen sliders. The fronts you might be able to free, clean, and relube. The rears... well, I have had to replace mine...

You should be able to tell under the hood pretty easily if you have ABS or not. (look for aluminum ABS block)

In reply to icaneat50eggs:

If the car has sat for a while, bleed the brakes too. It may also be a stuck piston if the pedal is still firm.

As far as rear brake trick, there is a 14mm bolt on the back side of the caliper. Under that is an allen screw that is used to back out the piston. DO NOT USE A CLAMP or you will break the caliper.

They won't detach your retinas, but they work pretty well.

I'd check the obvious stuff first...pads, rotors, calipers. Two of my cars have had issues with gunky, rusty calipers after they had sat for an extended time.

Definitely has the abs block. I'll look into them tonight

The ABS brakes have a bit "softer" pedal feel compared to the non-ABS ones but for a stock Miata the brakes are definitely good enough for track use just with a change of pads.

I used HP+ on all four corners, they're dusty but worked well for me.

The ABS isn't subtle. I'd start with new pads and some caliper maintenance. To a lot of owners, Miatas are just cheap cute cars so they get junk consumables from Walmart or NAPA.

At their best, they're not highly boosted. Compared to your typical new car with heavily overboosted brakes to make them feel "strong", they never have that bite. But lockup (or ABS activation) should always be on the menu.

At the risk of asking the obvious, are you running really sticky tires?

CGLockRacer wrote: In reply to icaneat50eggs: If the car has sat for a while, bleed the brakes too. It may also be a stuck piston if the pedal is still firm. As far as rear brake trick, there is a 14mm bolt on the back side of the caliper. Under that is an allen screw that is used to back out the piston. DO NOT USE A CLAMP or you will break the caliper.

That's interesting, my '91 Ford Escort GT used the same system. Then again, it was mostly Mazda hardware.

calteg wrote: At the risk of asking the obvious, are you running really sticky tires?

just the opposite, old, crusty 195's. fun to slide around on in the corners though!

According to miata.net, the rear brakes also don't self-adjust and requires that 14mm hex bolt be adjusted once in a while also. I check mine every oil change.

My 99 Miata without ABS stops very well. Probably better than my RX8 w/ABS using HPS pads. Using CarboTech 1521 on my Miata. Did have AX6 CarboTech but they would lockup easy.

Right now, mine only lock up on very hard braking and usually if either the pavement is dirty or some of the tire's "traction circle" is already used up by a turn. (I almost never have them lock up on the street, its almost always when autocrossing). It does, however, stop waaaaay quicker than any other vehicle I've ever owned. For reference, mine has Dunlop Star Specs. When I first bought it, on crusty, 10 year old all seasons it locked up much easier. Tires make a huge difference.

Also, congrats on the purchase. 95 M's are my favorite model (so long as you're manly enough to rock a "purple" Miata).

+1 on properly bedding new pads. I have a 91, with 1.8 rotors and caliper carriers, and on the 3rd pull down, from 80+ mph I swore I had detached my retinas.

calteg wrote: At the risk of asking the obvious, are you running really sticky tires?

I can make the 01+ abs engage with 275 hoosiers and aero. I have part store ceramics in the front and hp+ in the rear.

Its probably stuck caliper pins.

The caliper pins are known to rust up.