I got 2 new tyres fitted on the back today (Eagle F1's again) to replace the woeful Durun F-Ones I had on there as an interim solution. The mechanic at the Goodyear centre mentioned to me that there was a fair bit of rubbing on the inside of the tyre and probably from the upper control arm. Question is, should there be contact here with VR-X 17" rims wearing 235/45 17 tyres?? I am a little concerned that my new tyres at $230 a pop will get buggered up. He said I need to keep an eye on them and suggested the rear geometry might be out and causing the problem. I have KYB Excel-G shocks, King Lows and Whiteline 22mm adj swaybar on hard setting.

Any thoughts appreciated.

i have run 235 on 17's without any problems, now running 225's on 20's with still no issues.
perhaps you should get the rear alignment checked.
what were you running before?

well before the 17's I was running the standard 16's with 215/60 IIRC? I get a full alignment done every 6 months or so, but I recently noticed that there is quite visibly a lot of camber on the rear wheels?

I got 2 new tyres fitted on the back today (Eagle F1's again) to replace the woeful Durun F-Ones I had on there as an interim solution. The mechanic at the Goodyear centre mentioned to me that there was a fair bit of rubbing on the inside of the tyre and probably from the upper control arm. Question is, should there be contact here with VR-X 17" rims wearing 235/45 17 tyres?? I am a little concerned that my new tyres at $230 a pop will get buggered up. He said I need to keep an eye on them and suggested the rear geometry might be out and causing the problem. I have KYB Excel-G shocks, King Lows and Whiteline 22mm adj swaybar on hard setting.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Which tyre dealer is fitting the 235/45R17 onto the 17x7 VRX rims? 235/45 is illegal on 17x7. You need a minimum of 7.5 wide. That said, there should be plenty of room between the tyre and the upper arm for a FWD, even with 235 wide tyres as opposed to the 225 wide OEM tyres for that wheel. Then again, fitting the 235/45 R17 onto the 17x7 may be causing the tyre to bulge out more on the sides.

Which tyre dealer is fitting the 235/45R17 onto the 17x7 VRX rims? 235/45 is illegal on 17x7. You need a minimum of 7.5 wide. That said, there should be plenty of room between the tyre and the upper arm for a FWD, even with 235 wide tyres as opposed to the 225 wide OEM tyres for that wheel. Then again, fitting the 235/45 R17 onto the 17x7 may be causing the tyre to bulge out more on the sides.

mate, how many times are you going to tell everyone this??? We all know you need a minimum of 7.5 rim to accomodate this tyre, but many run this with no problems. I even had an argument with a JAX tyre fitter about him fitting 235/45/17 tyre to my dads standard commodore 17 inch rims. Only after checking his book did he realise I was right that you cant legally fit a 235/45/17 tyre to a 7 inch wide rim. He told me he had fitted this size tyre to many many 7 inch wide 17's with no problems at all, not even with the law. There are many many tyre dealers out there willing to fit this tyre to this rim. Beaurepaires, JAX, KTAS, Goodyear...the list goes on. Not many are willing to fork out the large excess of going with a 225/50 tyre when a 235/45 is that much cheaper

Regardless, maybe the SLIGHT bulge is making the gap between control arm and tyre too close. In which case, there is some substance in your argument of fitting this tyre to a 7 inch wide rim on a Magna.

do you trust the place that fitted your tires?
ive had my fair share in bad allignments

There should be no rubbing with that size unless you have an alignment issue.



What's the offset of the wheels that you're running? Were the tyres only on the rear or were they previously on the front. The problem may lie there.

tyres were always on the rear. Offset is standard 17" VR-X wheel so guessing its spot-on to ideal offset. I will be getting an alignment done after fitting strut brace this week

Did your car come with a sway bar or did you fit it afterwards?

It's unlikely you'd have a negative camber problem at the rear, I'd think. Was it both tyres, in equally the same spot?

fitted it afterwards, drivers side only very symetrical all the way round

should not have a problem at all as i was given a set of used 255/40/17 tyres just to see if they would fit. (rear only) not a problem drove around for a week!!!. my rims were anz volteck 17''x8'' with +45 0fset and car was lowerd on kmac superlows!!!!

fitted it afterwards, drivers side only very symetrical all the way round

Is there a possibility that the bar hasn't been correctly fitted? Who did the install?

Probably a stupid question, but have you looked under the car to see of any signs of contact? Have you got any access to ramps that you could put the rear of the car on to get a 'proper' look?

May be an issue running 235's on the VRX rim due to the offset - Being a wider tyre the offset may be causing them to rub... Maybe check with brendan and see if he had any issues? I believe he was running 235's and has gone back to 225's.

245/35R19s + 8.5" rim + 42 offset = 5mm spacers for me to clear the control arms

Well i'm running 235/45/17 on TL VRX rims, Koni reds, King lows and whiteline 22mm adjustable sway bar on hardest setting and i don't think i have any rub atm but its a little early to tell, only been driving around with that set up since Friday.

Prior to that, I was running 235/45/17 on TL VRX rims, stock shocks, stock springs and whiteline 22 adjustable sway bar on hardest setting and I had no rubbing problems other than actually breaking the RHS sway bar link off the control arm.

I'll keep you guys informed if i do get any rubbing. will be interesting....

Is there a possibility that the bar hasn't been correctly fitted? Who did the install?

Probably a stupid question, but have you looked under the car to see of any signs of contact? Have you got any access to ramps that you could put the rear of the car on to get a 'proper' look?

Heasmans in Sydenham, probably the most professional suspension and steering joint in Sydney. I dont have immediate access to ramps (aherm ih8hsv ;) ) but from what I can tell underneath it all seems to be fitted perfectly.

i had no problems with this combo on my old car running pretty much the same setup but with the swaybar on the meduim setting and i had no issues when going for a alignment,on the new car i was wearing the tyres out right in the middle of the tyre and my mechanic advised me to go back to 225's and it fixed it up but i still need a alignment.

Graham put stock EVO 8" wheels with 235/45 x 17 and 38 offset on his AWD for a tryout when he was testing for most suitable wheel/tyre size combo. AWD has much less rear arm clearance than FWD and there weren't any clearance issues.

Cheers,
Alan

I have 17 x 8's on my AWD.
No clearance issues at all.
I really suspect that you have the wrong offset or that the tyres are way too wide for the rims.
You should be able to get a little finger between the tyre side wall and the upright.
Gerry

I have 17 x 8's on my AWD.
No clearance issues at all.
I really suspect that you have the wrong offset or that the tyres are way too wide for the rims.
You should be able to get a little finger between the tyre side wall and the upright.
Gerry

no way jose! Cant get my little finger in the gap :(

I reckon clearance at the top edge of the tyre is 5mm. I have inspected the old tyres again (i kept them) and the scoring looks consistent of where it might rub on that control arm. This is really odd!

Wheels are standard 17" VR-X so cant see why offset would be an issue. and the tyres aren't WAY too wide. As has been discussed, the rim is half an inch too small in width to accomodate a 235/45 according to fitment books but as also discussed, many other members run these tyres on these rims all the time. I really think there is something up with the geometry at the back for there to be so little room between the tyre and control arm. This weekend I will take the wheel off to inspect the tyre and also check all the components.

Geometry will not make any difference.
The relationship between the hub and the carrier is effectively fixed.
There can only be the following causes.

Tyre too wide for the rim.
Wrong offset
Casting bent so that it is closer to the rim than it should be.

If you cannot get your finger in between the tyre wall and the casting then something is definitely wrong.


Gerry.

Regardless, maybe the SLIGHT bulge is making the gap between control arm and tyre too close. In which case, there is some substance in your argument of fitting this tyre to a 7 inch wide rim on a Magna.Assuming you had an alignment done with the new tyres, fitting 235s instead of 225s is probably the reason your getting rubbing, compounded with the fact you've lowered the car.

The reason why we can't use snow chains on the 16x7 and 17x7 Sports/VRX wheels whilst we can on the 16x6s is due to the clearance between the control arms/struts et al and the wheel width (not diameter).

In saying that though plenty of other people have the same setup as you with KYBs/Kings and 235s who have not mentioned rubbing on AMC.

The reason why we can't use snow chains on the 16x7 and 17x7 Sports/VRX wheels whilst we can on the 16x6s is due to the clearance between the control arms/struts et al and the wheel width (not diameter).


But you wouldn't be putting snow chains on the rear of a FWD car would you?

Cheers,
Alan

But you wouldn't be putting snow chains on the rear of a FWD car would you?

Cheers,
Alan

Correct...only need to install chains on the driving wheels Front for FWD... as for AWD Magna you can get by with install on front only.

But you wouldn't be putting snow chains on the rear of a FWD car would you?

Cheers,
Alan

Argument remains the same though - not sufficient clearance at the front with x7s, logic suggests back end is the same.

no way jose! Cant get my little finger in the gap :(

I reckon clearance at the top edge of the tyre is 5mm. I have inspected the old tyres again (i kept them) and the scoring looks consistent of where it might rub on that control arm. This is really odd!

Wheels are standard 17" VR-X so cant see why offset would be an issue. and the tyres aren't WAY too wide. As has been discussed, the rim is half an inch too small in width to accomodate a 235/45 according to fitment books but as also discussed, many other members run these tyres on these rims all the time. I really think there is something up with the geometry at the back for there to be so little room between the tyre and control arm. This weekend I will take the wheel off to inspect the tyre and also check all the components.

I agree. If theis was a tyre/ car clearance issue, surely it'd be happening on both sides, not just the drivers side?

Has the car ever being in an accident?

not around that area of the car. I got hit from the side a while ago that smashed in the front drivers wheel and thats been the only major one

Is there evidence of rubbing on the control arm? Shiny, no dirt, no black paint? Maybe that accident forced your car sideways enough to bend something on the rear.

Is there evidence of rubbing on the control arm? Shiny, no dirt, no black paint? Maybe that accident forced your car sideways enough to bend something on the rear.
Good point. Car is currently up on ramps getting allignment and no signs of rubbing on the new tyre or control arm recently so no idea what happened to old shit tyre. . .

Yea thats heaps odd it hitting on 235 17's. When I had the VRX rims they never ever hit anything even with big bumps. With 245/30/R20s it scrubs if the body bounces.

just got new tires on and they accdently put on 235 on my 20ies and it was close swaped to 225 in case there was some tire flex and it did rub, I think somthing must be bent on your car

rear camber on passenger side LOOKS more negative than driver side. Suspension shop this morning didn't think there was much wrong but he kept thinking I was talking about the suspension strut not the control arm