The spacers are on and they work perfect! H&R 15mm TRak Plus DRS with stock wheels lowered on Skunk2s and stock shocks. No rubbing, no goofy camber, no silly tucked in rear wheels Exactly what I wanted with NO NEGATIVE SIDE EFFECTS. So there. LOL Huge thanks to all who answered my many stupid questions Tyler, Ray, Mahout, Bitoy, etc. I will rep you all and you will like it! And to the rest of you who care (both of you) yes, you can use spacers up to 15mm with stock wheels without rubbing when lowered moderately. You clowns with coil-overs rubbing the asphalt are on your own LOL. And yes, you defineately have to use the longer studs, the stockers are too shortto even hold the wheel on! But changing out studs is so easy a caveman could do it, trust me. Pics to come (maybe...)

 

Listen for rattles and clunks. I had a civic with 10mm spacers and SI rims and I screwed up my driver side bearing in less than 10 months. It was relatively new cause I had replaced both front bearings about 7 months before I put the spacers on. I also had to replace bushings. The bushings could have just been old.

I loved the look. just keep an eye and ear on them. If you ever start to hear odd clunks on sharp turns have the bearings checked. I didn't have any problems with the rear but I ended up replacing both the fronts before I sold the car.

Good luck.

 

Pics, or it didn't happen.

(Just kidding, I'm sure you've done it...I just want to see pictures).

 

I've got pics! They aren't very good ( what else is new?) But i'll put them up here in a jiffy. 99DX, I'm not too worried about the bearings, the rears are built like tanks for a car this size and weight. And I'm not running any spacers on the front, I looked at the DIY with its instructions for notching the hub with a grinder so you didn't have to remove the axle and said "F that meng!" I will keep a close eye, and ear on them regardless to be safe. I'm also going to start rotating my tires regularly so i won't have any excuse for not catching the bearings early. My stock tires are S H O T at 28,000 miles from me not rotating them the way I should have....




And there they are, in all their crappy glory LOL At least the car is clean. Thats me in the pink, I'm short for my age what can I say?

 

how much lug stud did you have?

 

sounds like it looks nice, i've been wanting to see what stock wheels would look like with spacers! waiting for pics!

 

look up dr doom ahhaha

 

hahah now i see it. but he edited it in after i had posted so i am not crazy.

edit: oh man i misread and thought you put spacers on the front AND rear. it still looks pretty good though!

 

Matt, I got the DRS series they come with the correct studs to be pressed into the hubs. The stock studs were barely poking out through the holes in the wheel, I just had to try it and see how much too short they really were. You couldn't even get the wheel to perch on the ends for a "test fit" thats how too short they are. I may put spacers on the front at some point, but i like the look I have now and I really don't want to start messing with grinding on the hubs! I'd only go with an 8mm or so in front regardless, its a lot tighter up there than in the back.

 

Looks great. You shouldn't to have any problems. You'd probably be ok with 3-5 mm up front without to much trouble. I wouldn't go any wider. That's just me. Love the stance.

 

So that takes the offset down to +40, I assume you are still using 195's... it would be close, but is do-able without rubbing for sure. Going to a 205 you might encounter some issues.

 

Actually sits really nice. Nice choice in spacer size.

 

Thanks Ray! Coming from you that means a lot. I'm going to a 205/50 very very soon, I had a little understeer yourself into brown shorts incident in the rain yesterday. LOL According to my calculations and the tire size calculator at Miata.net the 205/50 is 10mm wider tread and 5mm shorter sidewall height so it should be a perfect fit with my current set-up. I do think i will invest in some roll-center adjusters though, the alignment in front is way out of wack on camber.

 

that was my plan if i was to keep the stock wheels. add kics 15mm spacers on stock wheels, lower car, run 195/50/15's.

 

Minor update: Got new tires today, Nitto Neo-Gen 205/50-15. Still no issues with the spacers, so all my prior calculations were smack on. With the 205s on the OE wheels I'll never have to worry about curbing the wheels again! And it looks even better with the wider/shorter tires, pics when it quits raining...

 

205/50's on 6" width wheels? hummm... 195/50's on 6.5" barely acceptable by my standards (the early 1990's sagging sidewall look, that is). hahaha.

 

No sagging sidewalls here! They don't even look stretched. If anything it appears as if the tire is trying to digest the rim! They have more stick than I have nerve to take advantage of BTW, I pushed them really hard on my drive home this evening and never even got them to chirp.

 

^^^ um, that's wat i mean by sagging sidewall.
lower profile tires look better with a slight stretch.
my current wheels are 6.5" width and althought it's
a better overall fit vs my previous 7" width, the
sidwall looks abit too meaty and early 1990's-ish.
hahahaha.

glad to hear you like your new tires though.

 

Gotcha.... I guess I'm a throwback to the 90s then LOL I dunno I sort of thought the 195s looked a little anemic on the wheels myself. To each his own right?

 

Its not the rubbing on the 15 mm spacers, its the wear and tear on the bearings. Using 15 mm spacers is like going from 55 to 40 mm offset so goofy camber should not be expected. But since the whole wheel moved outward 15 mm that means you didn't recover some of the bearing load increase by extending the inside rim inward as would occur with a 16x7/40 wheel. That will increase bearing load pretty much and also will increase camber a tad anyway. what tires are you running?