Wheel Spokes Close to Front Break Calipers
by tribander » Thu Apr 06, 2006 6:58 pm
I just put new wheels on my 04 SLE V6 and really like the way they look. I am however somewhat concerned with the clearance between the inside of the wheel spokes and the front disk break calipers. (Maybe a 1/4" or perhaps even slightly less!) I asked the guy at the shop where I had them mounted if we couldn't put some spacers on the front to move the wheels out slightly but he said it's not recommended. There is no problem with the rear wheels as of course the calipers are much smaller in back.
I've been driving them now all this week and I've had no problems. There are no signs of any contact on the rims or the calipers. It just bugs me that if there is much flexing of the wheel it wouldn’t take much for a spoke to go crashing into the caliper. That would definitely spoil my entire weekend.
However, on the other hand, it seems that in hi-G turns the outside wheel with respect to the direction of the turn would take the majority of the stress/force and also have a tendency to flex outward at the top of the rim and inward at the bottom. Because the caliper is at the top of the wheel this should create more clearance thus reducing the chance of a spoke caliper collision. (At least this thinking makes me feel more comfortable, I don't know if its actually true or not.)
I did check the offset of the wheels (+42) before purchasing and from digging around this forum I came to the conclusion that +42 would work out just fine. But as I recall I believe it was mentioned you could actually go out to +40 or +38 and be OK. I think the higher the + the further “in” the wheel is in the wheel-well. So if that's the case, why would it hurt to spacer them out slightly. It seems to me it would be the same as buying a wheel with a slightly lower offset.
Do any of you gurus out there know more about this than I do. (It wouldn't take much for that to be the case.) Have any of you used spacers with custom wheels to make things fit? Is it possible that the installer is not exactly the sharpest crayon in the box?
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I've been driving them now all this week and I've had no problems. There are no signs of any contact on the rims or the calipers. It just bugs me that if there is much flexing of the wheel it wouldn’t take much for a spoke to go crashing into the caliper. That would definitely spoil my entire weekend.
However, on the other hand, it seems that in hi-G turns the outside wheel with respect to the direction of the turn would take the majority of the stress/force and also have a tendency to flex outward at the top of the rim and inward at the bottom. Because the caliper is at the top of the wheel this should create more clearance thus reducing the chance of a spoke caliper collision. (At least this thinking makes me feel more comfortable, I don't know if its actually true or not.)
I did check the offset of the wheels (+42) before purchasing and from digging around this forum I came to the conclusion that +42 would work out just fine. But as I recall I believe it was mentioned you could actually go out to +40 or +38 and be OK. I think the higher the + the further “in” the wheel is in the wheel-well. So if that's the case, why would it hurt to spacer them out slightly. It seems to me it would be the same as buying a wheel with a slightly lower offset.
Do any of you gurus out there know more about this than I do. (It wouldn't take much for that to be the case.) Have any of you used spacers with custom wheels to make things fit? Is it possible that the installer is not exactly the sharpest crayon in the box?
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- tribander
- Just Licensed SolaraGuy
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- Joined: Sun Feb 05, 2006 7:26 pm
- Location: Green Bay, Wisconsin
