Mazda2 / Fiesta Mk7 Front Brake Upgrade DIY.

The Mazda 2 DE5FS and Ford Fiesta MK7 share the same chassis and brake setup. After the Fiesta ST180 was available we had the opportunity to upgrade the stock 257mm rotor brakes with the ST 278mm ones.

The stock brake setup is very good for daily use but brake fade appears after continuous fast road or track driving. The first thing that we did is replacing the stock brake pads with some more aggressive from Hawk and the brake fluid with Motul RBF600 which meets the factory standards. This is the recommended setup from our experience for those who love spirited road driving.

After turboing the car and planning to do some trackdays with it, we had to further improve the brakes on stopping power and duration as well. Designing a better brake setup isn't as simple as some may think. This is a very good article about choosing the best brake setup for your car which was very helpful to us too.

With limited budget we were among the choice of Rx7 FC-FD brake calipers or OEM Fiesta ST200 rotors and calipers both of which have the right piston size to cooperate with the OEM master cylinder. We choose the second option and bought the parts listed below:

1. 278mm oem rotors.
2. Oem Ford brake pads.
3. Red caliper.
4. Red caliper bracket.

  

                                                                       

For Fiesta cars the above hardware is enough for the brake upgrade but for Mazdas we had to custom fabricate two things before that. The Ford Rotor PCD is 4x114 4x108 but the Mazda PCD is 4x100 so we had to drill new PCD holes with the new spec. Also the rotor center bore is different so we made an aluminium center bore adaptor to achieve 54.1mm diameter instead of Ford's 63.4mm.

                          

After collecting all the hardware the installation time had come. We started by removing the old parts. 

Remove the 12mm bolt holding the brake line.

Remove the two 17mm bolts holding the caliper bracket to the knuckle.

We hang the caliper from the suspension spring in order not to damage the brake line. We removed the old rotor and cleaned the hub.

Then we started installing the new parts. We cleaned the rotors with brake cleaner before installing them and securing them with a lug nut.

Then we installed the caliper bracket on the knuckle with the two 17mm bolts.

The next step is to install the caliper. First we tightened only the upper 13mm bolt and 17mm nut.

Then we installed the brackets that hold the brake pads in place. There is a black one that goes to the bottom and a silver one tha goes on top.After installing the brackets we installed the brake pads.

The last step is to install the second 13mm bolt on the bottom of the caliper. Then we installed the brake line to the new caliper.

At this point the brakes are installed.Before doing the same thing on the other side we bleeded the brakes like that.

After bleeding the drivers side we repeated the same process on the other side and we were ready.!

Stock rotors vs new rotors:

Stock brake pads vs new brake pads:

Stock vs new weight:

                               

After bedding in the brakes for about 200km the difference is noticeable. Initial bite is as good as before with the Hawks but now we have better stopping power, better duration and no noise which is very good for daily use.! A set of braided lines is already ordered in order to further improve the braking feel and performance.

Edit: All bolts should be tightened to factory spec using a torque wrench. N.Stephens provided this info for us so I am putting it here for you:

• 82-101 Nm for caliper hanger bolts. 
• 22-31 Nm for caliper slider bolts. 
• 22-29 Nm for Banjo bolt.