What could this problem be? Clutch / Hand-brake?

[Legend83]

Hi all,

My trusty mk1 '5 has developed a little problem that I noticed driving home last night.

It can only be described as someone sitting on my brake pedal. When I approach a junction and slow down, the car appears to stop much faster than it should (particularly when engine braking).

When I dip the clutch the effect is even more pronounced, almost as though 4 large Polish chaps were pushing my car back towards me as I slowed.

When I went to pull out of said junction, there was a grinding noise as I lifted the clutch up and applied gas.

When I got home and reversed into the drive-way the grinding became more pronounced and I could smell burning / metal friction in the cabin.

Hoping it is just a sticky hand-brake which would be cheap to fix but could it be something else more worrying?

[anonymous-user]

Sounds like it could be typical MX5 brake caliper binding. After parking up check your brake discs (carefully!) to see if one or more are hotter than the other, an easy way to tell if the caliper is sticking on.

Solutions are either refurbished replacement calipers or refurb your own with ebay kits including dust boots and seals - I refurbed my own and it's a fairly easy job but refurb calipers aren't expensive either.

[Conor D]

I had a caliper seize. Think it cost about £35 for a refurb one at the local motor factors. They took the old one.

Took it from Liverpool to Newcastle and front right started to seize pretty bad. Coming Into Newcastle it was a struggle to accelerate.

The 300 mile drive back to Ireland the next day was a nightmare.

[Legend83]

Thanks guys, that sounds very much like it! A S/C MX5 should be pulling away a lot sharper than it currently is!