Calipier Clearance - How much play is needed?

[finse]

I recently bought the Spec B LGT. Of course this car came with 18" wheels with summer only tires. Long story short, I am used to running one set of wheels in the winter time, and the other set in the summer. I have a set of 17" jdm wheels from my old legacy that I would like to use in the winter.

 

That said, I mounted one of the 17" wheels to my car this morning. It fit, but the wheel's spokes appear to come very close to the front of the caliper. Overall I would say there is about 1-3 mm of clearance between the spokes and the caliper (a slice of cardboard fit in the space).

 

Attached are a couple pics for the visual. Before I buy winter tires, I would like the boards input. Is this too close for comfort?

 

http://www.slacktastic.net/car_pics/wheel_front.png

 

http://www.slacktastic.net/car_pics/caliper_closeup1.png

 

http://www.slacktastic.net/car_pics/caliper_closeup2.png

[meier motor sports]

i would think its fine. if anything the caliper would move away from the spoks as the brake pads wear

[drewster]

i would think its fine. if anything the caliper would move away from the spoks as the brake pads wear

huh? i thought the caliper is fixed and stays exactly in the same place no matter what happens to pad wear.

[meier motor sports]

fixed calipers have a piston on each side. ours and 90% of the carsw out there have sliding calipers. they are mounterd on slides and as the piston pushes on one pad its also pushing the caliper the other way forcing the outer pad to push against the rotor