Whole lotta Miata

[Senor_Taylor]

"Hey, the Miata's been great and the College Solo is coming up, I should put new pads and rotors on it!" - An Idiot (2015)

The brakes have been fine since I put new pads on the rear when I got it. I originally bought new pads and rotors for it when I bought the car, but the NA6 rear pads and rotors I bought did not fit. Then I realized that I had the upgraded NA8 brakes. (REMEMBER THIS.) So, I kept those parts in a box and I've been trying to sell them.

Fast forward to today. Lucy gave me my car back after getting his Vette sorted out, so I skipped class to put on a full set of NA8 brakes. The rears went off nearly without a hitch. The humongous (compared to the stock NA6) rotors and pads went on. I couldn't get the RR piston to retract ALL of the way, but it was all okay. Around this time, Sam Schaidhammer (E46) went into his house (he's my neighbor) and James, Chip, and Matthew showed up with the tools I had let James borrow. As I'm putting the LR wheel on, I notice brake fluid leaking. Eh, whatever, IDGAF.

Now on to the front. After much fighting, I finally got Chip to google how to get the caliper off. I've done the rears a million times adjusting the parking brake, but never the front. (Remember this as well.) I eventually get everything off and I notice the rotor has a HUGE valley in it. I'm saying a mm deep. I look at the brake pad and it's so FUBAR'd it's insane. I handed it to chip and a piece of the pad material fell off.



Then it got worse.

I compare the new NA8 rotor to the rotor on the car... and they're different. The bastard who had this car before me decided to do a big brake mod on the rear... but not the front. Well I've got it all apart, and I'm sure as hell not going to put that pad back on my car. The parts stores are closed and I don't have a parking pass on my car. What to do? "Aha! If these are the stock brakes, I have a set of pads for it!" I still had the ones I originally bought and assumed wouldn't fit because the rears didn't, but I don't have the rotors. At this point, I'm in full "don't give a shit" mode and I slap the new pads on the really ugly rotor and put it back together. Oh well, I paid like $5-$10 for the pads.

Now to the passenger side. The sun is setting and I'm frustrated. This 30 minute job is now at 2 hours. I can't get the piston to retract and my back is hurting. I get James to hold the caliper and I give the piston a good squeeze. I find purchase and it starts to move. Finally! Oh wait... no... what is that? Is that brake fluid coming out of the piston? FML. Still not sure what that means.

Okay, let's just get this shit back together and see if the car still stops. Okay, kind of. The brakes feel more spongey than before, but smoother. Nothing is warped and it doesn't make noises or pull to one side. Thank goodness. I didn't like the spongey feeling so I drive Jame's beautiful NB to feel what good brakes feel like. What a mistake. I hadn't realized how complete shit my car was because I've never driven a nice Miata. Riding in the leather clad NB interior with a hard top. The wooden shifter and the race beat intake. HHNNGG.

So Matthew and I get in mine and James is in his and we go out to the middle of nowhere and bed the brakes. I'd never done this before, but I get the hang of it and we're going to town on them. All was well until one particularly hard stop (tires are amazingly grippy for $40 a piece) and I see a red glow and sparks shooting from my front left wheel. Oh god, the smell, and so much smoke. That was fun. Oh, and my car makes a clunking noise when I turn right now. Never did that before. Great.

Will my car continue to have brakes? Will it burst into flames? Will I careen into a playground and lodge my car on a teeter totter? Find next time on "Mystery Car: The tale of $2000"