in desperation, i need some advice on my front wheels and them scrubbing on the suspension.

 

the story goes - ive recently got some 245/19s on the front (to replace my 225/18s). now the problem is that theyre right up against the elbow joint in the first picture, and i mean the wheels are almost being prevented from going to full lock. the first picture shows that even with that side of the car jacked up i can barely get my finger in the gap between the tyre and the joint - it doesnt look it but that's crushing my finger!

 

needless to say that when going over even the smallest bump, i get some horrible rubbing sounds (oddly enough only from the offside though - yet both sides have the same 'zero' clearance)

 

also needless to say ive only done about 3 miles in it since the wheels went on

 

my idea was to space the fronts out 20mm to give the required clearance, but (as you can see in my other thread) the stock hub thread is slightly too long and doesnt sit inside the alloy, leaving the alloy not seated upon the centre of the spacer properly - so i'll have to go 25mm to overcome that problem.

 

even with the 20mm spacers on (and the wheel kind of held in place) you can see from the 4th pic that there's still not a lot of room to play with

 

...but by going 25mm on the front, it seems that the tyres will be almost by not quite outside the arches and therefore being illegal.

 

so my exasperation is: how the hell have those of you (you know who you are ;) ) with 245 up front overcome these problems? surely you have sufficient clearance between the tyre and the (u-join?) - and if you spaced them out, how come the rubber's not spilling outside the car? :confused:

 

could it be that my stock suspension/geometry is just fooked and causing this problem?

 

id really appreciate some help on this one gents as ive just gone from a high (bodykit next month - NA subframe on way, etc.) to a 'i cant even drive the barsteward thing'

right ive decided to refresh the suspension all round - I've laid claims to a set of KYB AGX shocks, im going to get powertrix adjustables front and back, and probably eibach springs. the important thing is that the height is adjustable front and back, so i can play with it until i can finally get my 19s to sit under the car without trying to rotate the whole ****ing car around them!!! i wont get them sorted by my MOT tho (may 1st) so i might have to get stung with a stock replacement as i know I'll fail my MOT on my current setup :(

Hi mate

 

Sorry all packaged up but not posted yet will try and get it out to you in the morning. By the way I dont think KYB's are Height adjustable only preload and bump. You can get springs cut to different sizes but the Eibachs will give you about a 0.8 inch drop over standard. Standard will give you the highest ride height. HTH

Hi mate

 

Mine is a bit like this looks like its sticking out one side and not the other. Its because my car has been jacked up under the front wings and they are now a bit pissed. Worth having a look might be this and not the wheels.

 

update: got a pair of 5mm ripspeed (wikid) spacers, chucked them on the hub first, chucked the hubcentrics on, chucked the wheels on, and...

 

...well, they clear the inside of the arms nicely...

 

...they stick out just a tad too much to be legal i reckon, but then again my intention was to see if the 25mm would fix my problem altogether and if so, take the 5mm's off, hack the thread by 5mm and leave just the 20mm's on.

 

unfortunately it seems that for some reason now my fookin wheels are pointing in different directions (probably not good :slap: ) checked all round to make sure spacers etc. seated properly, which they were. even though the driveway is sloped slightly from house to road, there is definately about 10mm less clearance in the offside arch :( which makes me think my suspension is really fooked and is sagging down on that side and causing the problems (or making them far worse).

 

pic 1 shows 5mm's on before 20mm's.

pic 2 shows offside front arch clearance (or lack of)