MX5 ND Tyres Rubbing with spacers and coilovers

  1. My model of MX-5 is: ND RF
  2. I’m based near: UK
  3. I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: Tyres rubbing

Lowred my MX5 on Coilovers. Installed 20mm Rear and 15mm Front wheel spacers. I run 215 Tyres and the standard wheels.

Drove it off my drive and first corner the front tyres are rubbing :frowning:

Anyone had this before? Any solutions?

I haven’t heard of people rubbing with 15:20 spacers but that is on the stock tyre size
I had rubbing when lowered with 25mm spacers on the stock tyre size
So my guess is the slightly wider tyre is causing contact
Do you know where it is rubbing?
Mine rubbed on a bulge in the front right wheel arch liner, half way up the leading edge

How much is the car lowered?

Had the same problem with mine, the same setup as yours. It was the front right wheel arch liner, so i warmed it slightly and pushed it away. Problem solved.

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@ian.prossor Not sure exactly where its rubbing as I havent fully investigated.

But night be the bigger tyres I am guessing as 15/20 spacers seem a common size.

Ill look into the leading edge on the right cheers!

@BlueAgave Not sure exactly maybe 30mm?

@fozzy Thanks for the reply ill look into that. Did you just use a heat gun on it and then push it in with something?

I will try and get a picture tomorrow to show exactly where my issue was, the fact it sounds like the same as @fozzy’s points towards a more common issue than I first thought!

Have you had an alignment done?

If it’s rubbing the front of the front wheel arch liners, reducing caster will move the wheels further away from that trim.

If it’s rubbing at the top of the front wheel arch liners, adding negative camber tucks the tire diagonally further into the wheel well.

@fozzy You were right! It was the front right that was rubbing. Heated it up and pushed it away like you said and problem solved :slight_smile:

I only went round the block to test it. I slowly increased the turning speed and it was huge improvement. I went quite quick over a speed bump to test it and the rear is still catching slightly.

It runs fine for everyday use but need to do a proper test at a fast pace before I am confident in it.

Unfortunately I am away for a few weeks now but ill have a play when im back and update.

Again, Cheers Fozzy.

@Jonathan_W Yes. Had a fully Geometry setup done this week with corner weighting etc so I have no worries about that.

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I have the same with the same setup on MeisterR GT1s, rubbing in the same places too, it can also be heard rubbing at speed through corners. I’ll try heating up and pushing in the raised bits of the wheel liner.

Glad to help.