Miata Daisy advice

[zoe60]

I have searched quite a bit but can't find the exact answer I'm looking for. I got a set of Miata daisy wheels and I'm wondering the best way to put 'em on my Aspire swapped Festy. I won't need spacers. Gonna get some 165/55/14's I think. Will the original lugs work or should I get some screw in studs? If I need studs, what size? I know it's been done lots of times so thanks for advice.

[Team Lightning]

M12x1.5 screw in studs are best. I think mine are 52mm long.

[zoe60]

Ok thanks! Just what I was looking for.

[ottoparts]

I ran the stock lug studs with my Daisy's and never had an issue. There seemed to be plenty of bolt length ran into the hub.
If you are only getting a thread or two, then no I would not use them.

[skeeters_keeper]

I also ran the stock lug bolts with daisies, but studs are worth the money!

[TominMO]

You don't need 52mm (2 inches) unless you are running spacers, which you aren't, esp. with the wheel's 45mm offset. Go with the 1.5" long studs, like these from Jbugs: 12x1.5mm studs. These guys give good kwik service and are much cheaper than Amazon. You will need four sets to get 16 (you will actually have 20), costing you $24+shipping. Still much cheaper than Amazon's Gorilla studs. Sixteen would cost you $63!

Clean the threads in the drum and knuckle, and install 'em with red Loctite. I forget what size hex it takes to screw the studs in; maybe 5mm. You can install the wheels immediately. Torque them to 80 ft-lbs and let the Loctite set up overnight. In my experience, you will never break a stud at 80 ft-lbs, and that is plenty to do the job.

That is an excellent tire size BTW; even with the greater wheel offset, I doubt you will have any rubbing issues, even if lowered.

[zoe60]

Wow Tom, that is a great deal! Thanks a lot. I've been looking around on line quite a bit today and that is by far the best choice. Will get those studs and get my tires ordered this week. Kind of funny, I tried my wheels on the back with the 185/60/14's they have on them and boy do they rub! Only if I go around a corner though lol! They're worn out anyway. I have 185/60/13's on Aspire steely's on her now and they are OK, but I think the handling should improve with 5.5 inch rims and lower profile tires. Who knows, maybe I'll do Charlies advanced suspension mods after this!

[TominMO]

Wow Tom, that is a great deal! Thanks a lot. I've been looking around on line quite a bit today and that is by far the best choice. Will get those studs and get my tires ordered this week. Kind of funny, I tried my wheels on the back with the 185/60/14's they have on them and boy do they rub! Only if I go around a corner though lol! They're worn out anyway. I have 185/60/13's on Aspire steely's on her now and they are OK, but I think the handling should improve with 5.5 inch rims and lower profile tires. Who knows, maybe I'll do Charlies advanced suspension mods after this!

This is mandatory. The 165/55-14s will help a lot, and doing the rear struts is more important than the front. VW KYBs and 10" springs will lower the car ~2". For the front, for now I just cut the spring one coil. Still sits slightly high, so I would recommend 1.25 coils. Just going this far will make it a handling beasty! :-)

[Cory_Thurmond]

So its not a bad idea to run Stock front struts and go ahead and build the custom rear struts in the suspension thread just lower the front stock springs? My car is squirlly at higher speeds lots of body roll

Sorry to hijack

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[TominMO]

So its not a bad idea to run Stock front struts and go ahead and build the custom rear struts in the suspension thread just lower the front stock springs? My car is squirlly at higher speeds lots of body roll

Sure, no problem. Better rear struts and spring rate are more important for how the road irregularities hit you in the driver seat. Of course it would be best to also optimize the front, but you can even get by with totally stock fronts, as long as the struts and springs are in good condition. Better to cut the front springs a little tho.

My Festy has stock front Festy springs cut one coil with new Rio struts; my Aspire has stock Aspire front springs cut one coil with the Festy/Aspire KYBs. Both have VW struts on the rear.

[Advancedynamix]

The shorter, better valved VW rear KYB shocks will help to control that body roll and stabilize the car at all speeds. The custom rear shocks should come first if you can only afford to do one end at a time, but improving the front shocks is also essential to balance the chassis. The stock fitment front KYB shocks have too fast of a rebound rate for any sort of serious driving.

[Advancedynamix]

Also, to eliminate any confusion. The higher the wheel offset number is, the more inward the wheel will sit inside the fender.
For example a 14x5.5 wheel with 15mm of offset (et15) will rub badly on a stock festivas fenders, even with 165/55-14 tires, whereas a 14x5.5 wheel with a 46mm offset would be more likely to hit the shocks or inner fenders. Spacers reduce the wheel offset. A wheel with a 46mm offset mounted over a 15mm spacer provides an offset of 31mm.
With stock camber settings, and a 5.5" wide wheel, the ideal offset for a festiva is 38mm.

[TominMO]

Also, to eliminate any confusion. The higher the wheel offset number is, the more inward the wheel will sit inside the fender.
For example a 14x5.5 wheel with 15mm of offset (et15) will rub badly on a stock festivas fenders, even with 165/55-14 tires, whereas a 14x5.5 wheel with a 46mm offset would be more likely to hit the shocks or inner fenders. Spacers reduce the wheel offset. A wheel with a 46mm offset mounted over a 15mm spacer provides an offset of 31mm.
With stock camber settings, and a 5.5" wide wheel, the ideal offset for a festiva is 38mm.

Thanks for straightening that out. I was thinking backwards on the offset issue! :banghead: <---- self punishment

On my Aspire I have daisies with 185/60-14s and no rubbing issues in either direction, with the VW KYBs and 1 7/8" ID 10" springs. Dropping down to 165/55-14s will net me 10mm (0.4") more inner and outer clearance; and be a shorter tire as well, giving me 0.8" more clearance on top. My left rear wheel well has an issue with hitting the inner fender shelf (not the outside of the fender) on medium bumps. Aspire rear inner fender wells are designed differently than the Festy's. An added benefit is that it will also drop the car another 0.8", just from tire diameter! So between the suspension drop and shorter tires, I will be getting ~2.8" of total body drop.

[Cory_Thurmond]

The shorter, better valved VW rear KYB shocks will help to control that body roll and stabilize the car at all speeds. The custom rear shocks should come first if you can only afford to do one end at a time, but improving the front shocks is also essential to balance the chassis. The stock fitment front KYB shocks have too fast of a rebound rate for any sort of serious driving.

Perfect this is exactly what i wanted to know!, i have to finish my wrangler and dont have alot of money for festiva at the moment so itd be easier to do resr this month and front next month.

Hijack over

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[Advancedynamix]

Thanks for straightening that out. I was thinking backwards on the offset issue! :banghead: <---- self punishment

On my Aspire I have daisies with 185/60-14s and no rubbing issues in either direction, with the VW KYBs and 1 7/8" ID 10" springs. Dropping down to 165/55-14s will net me 10mm (0.4") more inner and outer clearance; and be a shorter tire as well, giving me 0.8" more clearance on top. My left rear wheel well has an issue with hitting the inner fender shelf (not the outside of the fender) on medium bumps. Aspire rear inner fender wells are designed differently than the Festy's. An added benefit is that it will also drop the car another 0.8", just from tire diameter! So between the suspension drop and shorter tires, I will be getting ~2.8" of total body drop.

No problem. It's easy to get confused because "backspacing" works opposite of offset. Backspacing is measured in inches and is the common wheel measurement on domestic vehicles and domestic racing wheels. Backspacing is measured from the outer bead lip of the wheel inward to the hub mount surface. Offset is measured from wheel centerline towards the outer bead lip.
For example.
A 7 inch wide wheel with 3" inches of backspacing is equal to a 7" wide wheel with 1 inch of offset. But, since offset is always measured in mm, the offset would be shown as 25mm (ET25). I run 7 inch wide wheels with 25mm offset on my Festivas, but this requires fender rolling and at least 2.5 degrees negative camber on all 4 corners.