Through research of my jdm FD, i've found the previous owner did the "17-inch" front brake upgrade. Seems to be common wordage in Japan, I assume this is referring to the RZ brakes. If this is correct, are the pads different from the standard caliper or just the rotor? Could anyone point me to parts or a part number of pads (if different) and rotors that work with these? I've gone to my usual rhdjapan, nengun etc but they only differentiate by year and the "17-inch" being denoted in the description. I'd like to be sure im getting the correct parts and preferably something easier to get a hold of in the US. My car has some well used 2 piece rotors and pads that are on their last leg.

 

in the USA we say RZ brakes, because we are wrong, the same brakes came on every FD with 17" wheels.

or rather if we wanted to be correct the RZ has the 17" style brakes with painted calipers, the RS used non painted calipers.

 

Even though the RZ/RS/Spirit-R/Australian SP/17-inch calipers are larger they use the same pads as the standard USDM FD, some other Mazda cars also use the same pads so you can get those easily here in the US.

However the brake rotors are larger and they are not a standard car part in the US market. You won't find the rotors in the US at your local auto store or online retailer like rockauto. The only place in the US you can get the OEM Mazda "17-inch" brake rotors is through Mazdacomp...if you have a racers account.

You other option is Japan. And yes...RHDJapan does sell them and you are correct they do denote them as "17-inch" in the description. So you are fine to buy those. Also keep in mind that the rebuild kit for the larger calipers is not the same as the rebuild kit for the standard calipers. So while you are ordering the brake rotors from Japan maybe it would be a good idea to buy a rebuild kit for them as well.

 

17" fronts are F124-33-25XA in the undrilled type if you wanted OEM. I'd probably try to avoid buying in Japan if possible, EMS rates for lumps of cast iron are pretty expensive!

Don't know about the compound but 16" and 17" pads are different in that they come with different spring packages....you don't just buy pads alone from Mazuda. Minor bit of trivia, there were two types of pad, spring and anti rattle shim part numbers for 17s, almost everyone buys aftermarket bare pads though, so mostly moot.

 

 

 

Hey, I hope you are still around but are the 99 rotors front and back the same? There are only two options on the mazdamotorsports website. 0000-03-7400 and F124-33-25XA. Which one is the right one?

Thanks

 

Hi, so when you say '99 rotors, there are actually different sizes that came with different models. IIRC the base models and type r's of the time still retained the 294mm front and rear rotors (with different hat offsets, I learned this the hard way a couple of years ago!) The RZ/Spirit R "17 inch brake" was a 314mm x 32mm rotor on the front and 314mm x 20mm on the rear.

Probably wouldn't hurt to give them a call and ask. Hope that helps.