During a few rainy days, I took the time to complete belated maintenance on my Miata.

I told myself that when my rear pads finally start squealing - they did - I’ll replace all the rotors, all the pads, flush the brake system and refinish my badly scratched¹ rims.

The work

In the run-up to the squealing brakes condition, I shopped around for good quality rotors (Bosch Canada) and more aggressive street pads (Hawk HPS 5.0) than the noisy and not so effective ones I had on.

The old rotors came off, I de-rusted the hubs (very important step to avoid oscillation), cleaned everything and greased the caliper pins, and shims, with hi-temp silicone grease. After putting on new rotors and pads, I used one and a half bottles of dot4 to flush the entire brakes system.

Last item was the most dreadful - refinish the old rims - something I’ve not done before. The old curb rash was removed with 6" angle grinder and purple scotch-brite wheel. I used aviation Alodine process to protect against corrosion and to serve as a primer. Dupli-Color rattle can wheel paint for fresh look and their wheel grade clear-coat for final gloss. They came out great!!

Before the test drive, I dropped the wheels at a tire shop for re-balancing and reinstalled them afterwards. The tires are near end of their life (cheap tires) and were hard to get balanced, but they’ll be fine until spring.

Tip: use index cards stuck between tire and rim instead of masking tape. Saves tons of time!

Summary

Hawk HPS 5.0 are a big step-up from their older HPS pad. The latter was only a bit more aggressive than OEM and noisy. This one has much sharper bite and no noise. TBD how quickly it will eat rotors or itself, but for spirited driving, it really gets excellent marks!!

Interestingly, it feels like two-pads in one, when operating under normal heat conditions it performs very well, but when it gets heated up (auto-cross or presumably track), it gets a sharper initial bite and even more friction - reminds me of Hawk Blue 9012 pads feel.