wickedk24

I did do a search on wheel spacers before anyone starts telling me to use the search option. What I found did not seem to answer my questions for my dillema.
Here is the situation:

I have 19x7.5 wheels with a 40 offset
Last weekend I tried to change out my break pads and came across a slight issue. After swaping out the front right side break pads, I put my wheel back on and noticed that the caliper was touching my rim. At first I thought nothing of it thinking that if I tighten my lug nuts it would even out. Wrong!! Once the wheel was fully mounted, I tried to roll it and it was no go. The caliper stuck out too much because of the new break pads. So I put the old break pads back on, they do still have about 35% of usage left. I contacted the shop that sold me the wheels and asked if they carried the spacer/shim and they said that it would cost me $20 for a pair and the thickness would be 5mm. My questions are:

Where can I get these shims/spacer at a better cost, because $20 bucks is a little too much for that. And would these spacer/shims affect the ride quality in a drastic way??

CCColtsicehockey

sorry buddy but i think you installed something wrong cause brake pads are not going to cause a wheel not to fit.

wickedk24

It's the thickness of the new breakpad, cause my old breakpad brings the caliper in more.

TSX2345

how think can it possibly be???? sounds like you definately did something wrong

wickedk24

Where the arrow is pointing is what pushes out when the new break pads are installed, but when the old break pads are on it barely clears the rim. That's why I was asking where I can purchase the shim at a cheaper price

xizor

i understand your problem, makes sense, but I don't see how your wheels could possibly hit your caliper. they're puny OEM calipers, and with such a low offset the spokes of the wheel are very unlikely to be close. are the face of your wheels nearly flat?

anyways, there's no way I'd put those plastic looking shims in as wheel spacers. IMO, spacers should be metal and be specifically made to fit the hub of the car. H&R makes a set for the TSX (http://www.hrsprings.com/site/products/trak.html) but they're probably $150-$200.

wickedk24

Thanks for the advice Xizor, the face of my rims are not flat. here is the pic of the rim I have on

xizor

well those are pretty close to flat (on the backside). in which case there's not much you can do except bitch at the shop who sold them to you, b/c they don't fit

if you put a 2-5mm spacer in, your wheels will be 35-38mm offset, very low, and your wheels might stick out past your fender. and if you only put them in the front, your driving dynamics could be screwed up, so you might think about doing it in the rear as well

wickedk24

Thanks again Xizor I'll see how it looks and bitch at the shop.

Bobbydoedoe

I am really confuse, can someone explain the logic here? with the new brake pad=wheel touching the caliper? i mean the caliper is a big piece of metal (shape is hard to alter unless you liquify the metal and than reshape it) in which you insert 2 brake pads in and one rotor at the middle of it. lol someone please explain

xizor

with the brakepads worn to near nothing its caliper->rotor->caliper. add new brake pads and now you have caliper->brake pad->rotor->brake pad->caliper, now the sandwich is bigger (ie: wider). think of it like a sandwich, a cheeseburger is a lot small than a big mac

peter_bigblock

I agree, don't just put them on the front, no no. I'd talk to the shop who sold you the rims about getting rims that fit.

Bobbydoedoe

lol u sure man? when i installed my bbk, the caliper inself is in nooo way expandable

xizor

on second thought, i think you're right, the outside caliper is solid cast, it can move, its the pistons inside that move the brake pad in and out, so the caliper itself doesn't change size

Bobbydoedoe

thats the thing that confuse me, i mean his claiming his caliper somehow widens arrgghh headache, not going to give up until someone give me an explanation

CCColtsicehockey

exactly. thats why he had to put it together wrong.

wickedk24

It's put together right, of course the caliper does not change size, but with the wear of the old break pad is what caused the piston to expand half way out.But with new break pads the Piston is compressed all the way in. Which expands the caliper out because of the thickness of the pad.

vwong

With OEM brakes, the caliper CAN move outward when you install brand new pads. The OEM calipers slide in and out of the brackets. Think of the OEM caliper as a C-clamp. Find a work bench and think of it as the rotor, which means it is in a fixed location. Clamp two pieces of 1/2" plywood (one on top of the bench, and the other on the bottom) with the C-clamp. Measure the distance from the top of the bench to the top most part of the C-clamp. Now try that again with 3/4" plywood or no wood at all. See the difference???

In BBK, it is different. Both the rotor and the caliper are in their respective fixed locations. The only thing that slide in and out is the brake pads. The reason is that you now have pistons on both sides of the caliper rather than only one side like the OEM does. So it doesn't matter how thick the brake pads are, the calipers of a BBK isn't gonna move. Not in the case of an OEM caliper. Make sense???

wickedk24

Sure Does vwong, thanks

CCColtsicehockey

ok so I am wrong then. however the brake pads must not be the right ones then cause when I got ones for my car and installed them I had no problems at all.

vwong

Could be the brake pads, but also could be the design of the wheels he has. If the back of the spokes is somewhat flat, the distance from it to the hub is probably very small. Therefore, it could be very close to the caliper IF he put those wheels on when the pads are half worn. And when he installs new pads (as the case now), he'll run into clearance problem.

xizor

good explanation, thanks. is this design referred to as a "floating caliper" or is that something else?