As promised, here’s the upgrades. I had to wait on brake rotors so it took a little longer than expected. Anyhow, the front brakes are done and upgraded; and she’s got some new high temp fluid to boot.
The stock pads were down to about 1/3 of their life left, and the OEM rotors were pretty worn. She just turned 50,000 miles today on the trip, so I can’t complain. This car sees tons of mixed driving and overall I’m very happy with the reliability of this thing.
Here’s My Impressions
All in all I couldn’t be happier. On the OEM brakes there was zero ability to get into ABS even under 100% pedal application, the brakes just weren’t that great. Additionally the factory pads dust like crazy and the OEM fluid didn’t give the best pedal feel or fade resistance. I’ve literally been able to get the pedal on the floor after some country back road blasts.
The OEM rotors were replaced with some GEOMET slotted rotors from R1 Concepts; I used a coupon code and scored these for just under 80$ shipped. The pads are Powerstop Z23 Carbon fiber sport pads, they’re the only upgraded pad I’ve seen for the Mirage. They included new rattle clips, some high temp grease and were nicely packaged. Lastly, the fluid was changed to ATE TYP200 high temperature. I love this stuff because it has the ability to go a few years between changes, I’ve been told Motul RBF struggles here and is more used in vehicles that see constant fluid changes.
Doing the brakes was very easy, took under 15 minutes with our lift. Bleeding the brakes for the fluid flush took the longest. Still yet, it was incredibly easy.
Once it was done, I took it out for brake bedding. The first stop from 55-5 MPH was shocking, it was squealing the front tires and causing ABS intervention. I’ve never experienced this in the Mirage and it gave me a smile. I did five 55-5 stops before stopping for cool down. The brake pedal feel is vastly improved on the new fluid, and the pads offer incredible stopping power.
The pedal is super firm and any amount of braking immediately sheds speed, this thing will stop very quick now if needed. I can’t quite comment on dusting yet but I will report back. My last impression is that these pads make no additional noise. Overall, I’d highly recommend these as an upgrade.
I’m overly happy, this has been an area I’ve complained about a lot with this car. The stopping power was always lacking, and now it certainly isn’t. Next up is coilovers and a rear drum-to-disc conversion. Stay tuned!
