Ref Sensor · Miata sourcing

Brake caliper slide pins

Brake calipers on the NC slide on two pins, and sticky pins are the usual way a caliper "seizes". This page says what owners found and what is sold. It is not a repair guide.

How to read it. The owner accounts are from Miata.net forum threads that I read in full on 1 October 2026, dated below. They are individual owners' experience, not tested by me, and posters sometimes disagree. There are no prices on this page.

What owners say

From a thread from April 2013 (NC maintenance):

  • Why the pins matter. A poster explained that the caliper has a piston on one side only, so the caliper has to slide on its pins for the other pad to press on the rotor. A stuck pin means the brakes are not at their best, with premature pad wear, a hot rotor and eventually a larger brake job. Another poster described a front caliper on his 2006 whose pin had stuck: the wheel collected extra brake dust and the hub was hot after a short drive, the brakes still worked but did not fully release, the pads were cooked and the mechanic replaced the caliper. He was told to lubricate the pins every year.
  • A check. One poster measures rotor temperature with an infrared thermometer after a few minutes without braking: under about 20 C above ambient is good, and he checks after hard braking too.
  • NC differs from NA and NB. A poster said that on the NC both pins come out and both should slide and turn freely, and that advice from older cars, to leave one pin in place, does not apply. He added that one front pin on each side has a rubber sleeve that fits into a groove in the pin and can ride up and jam when the pin is refitted.
  • Freeing a stuck pin. Suggestions from posters: soak with penetrating oil overnight; use heat; tap the pin with a hammer; cut away the rubber boot, heat and tap; a 50 per cent ATF and acetone mixture; drilling a hole to reach the other end of the pin hole and drive it out with a thin drift, which one noted may not apply to the NC. Several said a split dust boot was likely the cause.
  • Rubber sleeve. A poster noted that the shop manual lists the rubber sleeve as a replacement part.

What is sold

I did not open a seller. Search results listed slide pin boot kits for the NC front and rear on eBay, a genuine Mazda caliper guide pin (part B25D33694) at Jim Ellis Mazda Parts, and a Mazda OEM rear caliper and boot rebuild kit at 5X Racing, whose fit for the NC I could not confirm. Treat all of this as a lead, and check fit against your car.

Not covered yet

  • A seller page I could read for NC pins, boots and sleeves.
  • The rear calipers specifically; the thread I read was about the front.
  • Miata.net's NC brake guide (a PDF the thread links), which I did not open.

© 2026 Fischer Interactive LLC. Written for the Ref Sensor app's Miata users. The seller's page is the authority.