MZ6/626 Brake Upgrade - Rotors and Pads?

[hornsfan10609]

So let see if I get this straight, the calipers fit but, I will have to sacrifice the ebrake?

Only if you use the 6 calipers, use the 626 or MSP calipers and the e-brake will fit. I have read someone swapped the 6 rear calipers side to side and made it work.

 

[KrayzieFox]

Pretty sure that was Edwin (TheMAN), he used MZ6 calipers and switched them to the opposite sides to make the bleeder screws face the right direction but I have no idea what he did about the e-brake cable.

 

[Bebotech]

Great, I was at the local junkyard this past week end and there was a MZ6 with the whole brake system. I was tempted to grab it but without the right knowledge I did not buy them. They were going to cost me $15 a piece. Actually there was Three MZ6 with the whole braking system still on them. Crap should have grabbed them.

 

[Circuit]

Great, I was at the local junkyard this past week end and there was a MZ6 with the whole brake system. I was tempted to grab it but without the right knowledge I did not buy them. They were going to cost me $15 a piece. Actually there was Three MZ6 with the whole braking system still on them. Crap should have grabbed them.

Make sure they are 06+ as the 04-05 had smaller calipers/rotors.

 

[Bebotech]

So, 06 fronts from a MZ6 and 00 626 rears for ebrake compatibility correct?

 

[TheMAN]

just so nobody gets the wrong impression... none of these parts have anything in common with the MSP brakes except for the rear rotors
the 626 rear calipers are very different from the MSP ones and use a smaller pad than the MSP/RX7... the mazda6 front pads also are smaller than the MSP/626 V6 front pads, but the trade off is for a larger rotor for better cooling/fade resistance... is it a budget upgrade? yes, but do you get the same performance? not quite (as far as the rear goes)

 

[KrayzieFox]

So Edwin brought up a good point about pad size. Since for some reason I never considered the surface area of the pads, and none of the other threads on this topic had any information, I decided to dig into it a bit. I just went to RockAuto and pulled up pad dimensions and roughly estimated the braking surface area from each vehicle. You can see the details in the post below...

In a nutshell, if you're an MSP owner, the MZ6 front brakes are a nice upgrade, but the rear 626 brakes are only an "upgrade" for non-MSP Proteges. I put upgrade in quotes because you can see that while the 626 rears use a larger rotor, the brake pad surface area is much smaller than even that of a P5.. so the best you could hope to gain is what Edwin mentioned with increased heat exchange efficiency, but braking capacity of 626 rears is not likely to be too much more (if any) than the P5 rears, and certainly not more than the MSP rears.

The MSP rears have the same size rear rotors and more braking surface area than both the 626 and MZ6, so the only OEM upgrade MSP guys should consider is the MS6.. but those require some modification to make the e-brake fit.

 

[KrayzieFox]

Rotor Diameter
Front: P5 < 626 = MSP < MZ6
Rear: P5 < 626 = MSP = MZ6

Front Rotors:
'03 P5 Front (258 mm) vs. MSP Front (274 mm)
'02 626 Front (274 mm) vs. MSP Front (274 mm)
'07 MZ6 Front (300 mm) vs. MSP Front (274 mm)

Rear Rotors:
'03 P5 Rear (261 mm) vs. MSP Rear (280 mm)
'02 626 Rear (280 mm) vs. MSP Rear (280 mm)
'07 MZ6 Rear (280 mm) vs. MSP Rear (280 mm)


Pad Surface Area
Front: P5 < 626 = MSP < MZ6
Rear: P5 < 626 < MZ6 < MSP

'03 P5 Front (4800 mm2) vs. MSP Front (5300 mm2) -- P5 < MSP

'02 626 Front (5300 mm2 vs. MSP Front 5300 mm2) -- 626 = MSP

'07 MZ6 Front (5380 mm2) vs MSP Front (5300 mm2) -- MZ6 > MSP

'03 P5 Rear (2700 mm2) vs. MSP Rear (3200 mm2) -- P5 < MSP

'02 626 Rear (2900 mm2) vs. MSP Rear (3200 mm2) -- 626 < MSP

'07 MZ6 Rear (2970 mm2) vs. MSP Rear (3200 mm2) -- MZ6 < MSP

 

[TheMAN]

actual pad area sizes per shop manuals:
626 V6 front: 5300mm x 10mm
626 V6 rear: 2900mm x 8mm
Protege 1.8/2.0 non-turbo front: 4800mm x 10mm
Protege 2.0 non-turbo rear: 2700mm x 8mm
MSP front: 5300mm x 10mm
MSP/RX-7 rear: 3200mm x 8mm
03-05 MZ6 front: 4010mm x 12mm
03-05 MZ6 rear: 2820mm x 8mm
06-08 MZ6 front: 5380mm x 12mm
06-08 MZ6 rear: 2970mm x 9mm
MS6 front: 3918mm x 12.5mm
MS6 rear: 2195mm x 9mm

actual rotor sizes per shop manuals:
626 V6 front disc size: 274x24mm
626 V6 rear disc size: 261x10mm
Protege/626 1.8/2.0 non-turbo front disc size: 258x25mm
Protege 2.0 non-turbo rear disc size: 261x10mm
MSP front disc size: 274x24mm
MSP/03-08 MZ6 rear disc size: 280x10mm
03-05 MZ6 front disc size: 283x25mm
06-08 MZ6 front disc size: 299x25mm
MS6 front disc size: 320x25mm
MS6 rear disc size: 314x11mm

actual caliper piston sizes per shop manuals:
626 front: 57.15mm
626 rear: 30.16mm
Protege 1.8/2.0/MSP front: 57.15mm
Protege 2.0 non-turbo rear: 30.1mm
MSP rear: 34.93mm
03-05 MZ6 front: 57.15mm
03-05 MZ6 rear: 34.93mm
06-08 MZ6 front: 57.22mm
06-08 MZ6/MS6 rear: 33.96mm

 

[KrayzieFox]

Awesome, thanks Edwin.. it's good to have the actual values. I was estimating the actual pad dimensions and assuming they were rectangles for simplicity.. so I was pretty far off on some of them, but it seems that my overall conclusions were still mostly accurate. Front MZ6 and rear MSP pads have the most surface area, and the 626 rears are only an upgrade for non-MSP owners.

But are those MS6 pad dimensions really accurate?! Hard to believe they're so small compared to the others, especially considering how much bigger the actual calipers are. And the 626 rear disc dimensions too, I thought they were also 280mm like the MSP and MZ6?