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I just got myself a set of wheels I've wanted for AGES and with all the excitement I went into the garage after having tyres fitted to them and tried to put them on. The rears fit fine, however the fronts touch the handle looking part of the caliper. It's the part of the brake caliper that sits over the pad and is closest to the hub.
This is happening because the wheel mounting faces are completely flat. I'm wondering what my options are here. Selling the wheels is not an option, I've wanted these forever so now that I finally have them, I'm not giving up that easy.

I was thinking about fitting spacers at first but when I had a look, I'd need a lot more than 5mm of clearance. The other option is to grind the part of the caliper which touches. I should probably add that this is an na6 with na8 brakes.
I could replace my front brakes with 1.6 brakes as they are smaller but I'd run in to the issue of having na8 rears still which are bigger than na6 fronts... I'm unsure what to do.

Advice would be great.

I assume they are 14 inch wheels?

You could always mock up some spacers using washer on the studs to figure out exactly how much spacer you need. you might need to get extended studs.

I cant imagine that NA6 fronts/NA8 rears would be a problem, or just go back to NA6 front and rear.

That's a bugger man!

Going back to NA6 brakes would be my first suggestion, I don't really think NA6 brakes are too small if you're using decent rotors and pads.

Do we get to know what the wheels are yet?

Wheels are 15"

Putting na6 brakes back on will not make any difference, the calliper / disc offset will be the same as the na8 setup as the calliper is the same I'm pretty sure. Time to measure up for some spacers ;)

Get some 5mm spacers and that should do it.

Omg that must be devastating haha.

I would get a bunch of 1mm washers and put them on the studs 1 by 1 untill you find out how much clearance you need. If it's not a huge amount, I would very carefully grind away the caliper.

If it's alot, maybe try pairing a small slip on spacer like 3 or 5mm with grinding the caliper aswell.

Keep us posted! Keen to see the wheels


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I've got Watanabe rims that touched the calipers (just). The outside edge of the calliper closest to the hub (facing backwards) touched the edge of the rim boss.

Previous owner had nbb brakes and no issues, so if you touching in the same place you need bigger brakes not smaller.

I lightly filed the edge of the wheel boss to get clearance, something along the lines of a 2mm chamfer.

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Can you put up some pictures of where you want to remove material from on the caliper?

Watanabe Type-R



The rears fit perfect. I had a quick look and measure in the garage and they have so much clearance it's not funny. The fronts however look like they are going to need at least 12mm of spacer to clear that part of the brake. That or get bigger brakes. That bit on the brake is hitting the wheel hub bit that mates with the cars hub. The clearance from spokes to caliper is huge so with a bigger disc and caliper I don't think I'd have a problem. Maybe upgrade the fronts to nb8b might be an option?

Sweet wheels! Couldn't agree more to keep them and fix the brake problem :grin:

Sounds like same problem as mine.
You say you need to get 12mm outwards from the hub towards the side of the car, but how much space so you need radially outwards from the hub? A couple of mm is probably feasible to create the clearance by removing metal.

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go and trial the fronts on another mx5 that has nb8b brakes before you go buying the parts you need. 100% confirm they fit.

Removing metal from wheels or brakes is fraught with danger. Don't do it.

While there are safety margins in the design of these things, you don't know how the metal will behave under stress, or over time, after you modify it. And no engineer or insurance company would accept it.

Looks to me that spacers are the only way of keeping these wheels, but I would be looking to get a replacement set with the right offset.

Stating the obvious I know, but do your homework before you put your money down. Too late for you but for anyone else reading this thread it is an object lesson ...

It only took a 2mm chamfer of the wheel boss on my wheels to clear which is far far less the distance from the edge of the wheel boss to anything else .

This would reduce stress concentrations rather then increase

Is not the offset that is the problem, it's the diameter of the wheel boss that is the problem.

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Did you try swapping the wheels around front to back. I had a big panic when I bought my SSRs - fitted the first wheel to find it wouldn't clear the front brakes (these were 16x7s too!). Turns out they were a staggered fitment set - more dish on the rear even though they are marked identically for offset. SSR have an 'A Disc' and 'B Disc' fitment system. Not sure if Wats are the same, but it was a simple fix for me.