joni

Sunny on Sunday, so borrowed the Wife's MX5 to take the boy to footy. On the way there noticed a strange burning smell and a sort of reluctance in the performance department ( I know it doesn't perform when OK either ). When stopping at lights and experimenting, got an effect similar to as if handbrake is on...only it wasn't. Sounded and felt as if they were binding. Tried pumping the footbrake and applying and releasing the handbrake...nothing. Had to drive on and strangely the problem disappeared. Ideas?

Dunk

iTrader: (1)

It does sound like the rear brakes are seized, try reversing at speed & pulling up the hand brake hard & then releasing quickly four or five times. You may have to repeat it couple of times. Otherwise it involves hard work & getting dirty !

[Edited by Dunk - 5/13/2002 4:06:15 PM]

megabusa

We had this on our 94 MX5, the piston had seized. I had to buy a good second hand caliper and replace, easy job, expensive part!

Allan

iTrader: (1)

Yep, same problem on our old 91 MX5, new rear calipers cured the problem. Disks were looking a little tired so replaced these at the same time along with new pads.
Try and look on the bright side, not much else will go wrong.

megabusa

..until the pads start clunking!

joni

Thanks for the replies.....sounds like some calipers then. They are quite a laugh though in a very different way to a Scoob.
Cheers, joni

LeeMac

iTrader: (1)

Just to give you some info on the back calipers, you can wind the piston back using a 4mm allen key, its located directly at opposite end to the piston pushing out, probably a rubber cover on it and its inside, you might just need new pads. Think we got charged £150 to replace all the discs and pads so not expensive for a main dealer.

[Edited by LeeMac - 5/14/2002 6:12:17 PM]

megabusa

Yup, we tried this too, but still needed a caliper. £80 s/h.

ScoobyJawa

Same on my sis's 91 UK. Dealer told her it is now a known fault of the early cars and they were seeing quite a few seized calipers these days.......