Hello everyone, recently i bought a 2003 Mazda Miata from my neighbor down the street. The car is amazing and well taken care of. However, the previous owner did tell me it would need new brake pads soon. I went on to buy the brake pads and replace them but, i ran into a problem with the caliper in which the bolts that hold it and allow it to slide on the bracket do not want to come off. After examining the situation i noticed that the entire sliding bolt (picture #1) spins as i try to remove it. I was unable to replace the break pads because i have never ran into this problem with other vehicles i owned. Does anybody know the solution to this problem? Thank you for your help in advance!!



When i try to loosen the bolt to rotate the caliper to remove the break pads, the nut spins as well. I am guessing by the way the caliper is design that the bolt that i'm trying to remove, which is behind the nut, screws inside the nut and that is why it is spinning.

 

So hold the nut and turn the bolt to loosen it?

 

I actually tried that if you noticed from the picture. I looked into more detail and it seems the back bolt i'm trying to remove has some kind of lock tight residue. I honestly do not know who would do this. I even went to ask the previous owner about it and he told me that the shop he used to take the car to would remove the entire bracket and caliper to replace pads which i find odd. I also noticed the back brake pad is unevenly worn out, almost at a 45 degree angle accross the pad. Can i apply heat to the bolt and see if i can take it out or just go with the shop method of removing the entire assembly and replacing pads?

 

The pads will wear with a taper if the slider pin to caliper bracket fitment is worn or if the brakes are being applied with great force, like on the race track. It sounds like the best solution will be to replace the mounting brackets, calipers and all. That will solve both the taper issue and the bolt problem if you are unable to loosen it. If you are able to loosen it, change the slider bolt and the caliper bracket itself to solve the tapering problem.

$55 apiece with the caliper and bracket from Rockauto RockAuto Parts Catalog[year_1994]=true&ck[mkt_US]=true&ck[mkt_EU]=true&ck[mkt_CA]=true&ck[mkt_MX]=true&ck[viewcurrency]=USD&ck[ID]=0&ck[idlist]=0&ck[PHP_SESSION_ID]=8ojuijms1eujgik1sjv05nuob6

 

After trying to remove the bolts from the brake caliper with a torch, i did manage to pull them off the caliper and replace my pads how it should of have been done a while ago. The seal around the cylinder of the caliper is starting to show some signs of leakage so i went ahead and order the part you directed me to at Rock auto so i went ahead and replaced it anyways. Thank you for your help.

 

I own a 2003 Mazda miata.

I found this upon my research to find the solution to fix this same issue and found nothing. So I came back here to save someone in the future or a painstakingly frustrating situation. As a few people mentioned just using any ol’ wrench… For the 03’ Miata in my experience all of my wrenched were to wide to fit.

I bought a set of thin wrenches off of Tractor Supply co. It worked well for holding the nut on the in-side of the caliper (where the slider pin is) while simultaneously using a socket to secure and tighten it / or loosen it. I hope this was helpful.

SKU: 197529499
LINK: https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/pr...h-set-mm-90122