cupete

I saw this post on a web site regarding Supra tt brake upgrade. It mentions that on some 17" rims, you need to shave the caliper. The exact word is:

"The calipers had to be shaved with a griding wheel to fit" from scott's webpage http://www.datapathusa.com/scott/scott.html

How do you shave calipers to make it fit properly? According to the quote above, it almost sounds like the actual wheel has to grind against the caliper in order to make it fit. If so, doesn't that damage both calipers and wheels? Just curious...

Peter~

quick

1) When you install the rotor and then the caliper, everything looks fine.

2) When you put the wheel on, it either won't actually go on, or it will rub at times.

This means that you need to grind parts of the caliper to take care of the clearance problems. If you don't understand, I suggest you jack your car up, remove the wheel, and take a look at how it's put together. It will all make sense then.

You typically would use a grinding tool (a Dremel tool for example) to grind the caliper.

Grinding your calipers is a poor way to finish a brake upgrade in my opinion... the proper way to do it is to invest in some larger wheels.

If you can afford the brake upgrade in the first place, you can afford the wheels to make it fit right. Otherwise if you're not going to do it right, why do it at all?

JMO.

Lex Luthor

Quick, alot of guys that can afford the brake upgrade cannot afford plus-sizing their rolling stock. I'm not one of them, but I understand, we have alot of younger members here who aren't even close to their prime earning years, and they're trying to upgrade on a budget. Since I was in that same seat at one time, I know what it's like. MKIV TT brake upgrade: $800 18"wheels and tyres $2000-up. That's spending at least 2.5 times what you spent on the brakes just to have wheels that will clear the calipers. Pete, you can clearance the caliper off the car, on a grinding wheel on the workbench, or on the car with a pneumatic or electric grinder. Figure out the exact position that needs to be clearanced and only remove the minimum you need to, work slowly and steadily, and keep checking by bolting the wheel back up. Here's the one potential problem; if I remember right, the area you need to trim is a heat-sink area and you will have a little less material to dissipate heat with in that area, but I haven't heard of any problems. If you can afford it at all, I would do as quick says and get yourself some wheels/tyres, otherwise, start grindin.'
- Jon

quick

I understand that entirely. I restrict myself to a budget and don't spend lots of $$$ on mods (my wife is in grad. school) so I appreciate the desire for getting the most bang for the buck.

If you're going to start modifying your car then you need to recognize that it's going to cost. Why would you purchase a nice car like a Lexus and then compromise it with a bunch of poorly-done mods? IMO grinding your calipers (more than a small amount) to make them fit in undersized wheels is just not a good idea in terms of heat transfer, etc. Toyota designed their parts a certain way intentionally, and hacking them up creates potential long-term issues.

If you're serious about upgrading on a budget and doing it right, you'll save the money necessary in order to purchase the wheels with the brakes.

Why do you really need to upgrade the brakes unless you're racing the car or turboing the car? If you're doing either one of those things then you're already spending $$$ on mods.

You don't need 18s, btw. You only need 17s. The Supra TT has 17s stock, and purchasing a set of 17s with the correct fitment is quite a bit cheaper than 18s.

Just my opinion.

ChrisK

iTrader: (1)

Or you can try to use the wheel spacers.

Bean

iTrader: (1)

quick, most people don't come from the supra mentality so buying another set of wheels isn't exactly in the budget

especially for me when i'm going through college, paying off a 300zxTT and paying off a SC300 and wanting to turbocharge it in the process

quick

I understand. Owning expensive, fast cars is expensive.

Why not just budget for the wheels and save up over time? Even if you're in school you can do that.

What exactly is the 'Supra mentality' anyway?