Greetings all,
Turns out that after my initial report on my car not rubbing with the H&R springs and my 18" wheels and tires, I did start to get some rubbing. It must have been after they settled.

Anyway, I pulled the rear fender liners (I am not getting any rubbing in front) out today and cut away the points that were coming into contact with the tires. It is a simple and straightforward operation that I documented with some photos for anybody who is interested:

The liners come off easily with 4 phillips push fasteners, 2 10mm nuts and one phillips screws.


Rubbing on the drivers side liner is eveident between the yellow lines.


Using a dremel, I cut away the rubbed area.


The passenger side liner received more contact.


It was also trimmed away with the dremel.


This photo shows the passenger side liner reinstalled and the cutaway area.


Finally the car back on the ground.


So far this seems to have taken care of the rubbing. Once I have a chance to really work the car out I will add to the report.

Specs:
Wheels: 18" x 7.5" ASA J5s
Tires: Yokohama Proxes Spec2 215-35/18
Springs: H&R
Music played in the garage during the conversion: The Minus 5 - Down with Wilco & Koop - Waltz for Koop (too much info?)

 

Awesome pictorial! I've included this thread in the how-tos.

 

Groovy!
Thanks.

 

notpaddyhopkirk,

I hope, in that first pick, the jackstands are just out of camera view; and that the jack is only sitting waiting for the work to be done. :smile: :smile: :smile:

Otherwise, nice pics!

Cheers,

James

 

Of course! I always use jackstands!

"A reminder to anyone who looks at this: Never work on, or especially under, a car that is on the jack. Always support a car on jackstands before working on it. "

And look both ways when you cross the street...
And don't talk with your mouth full...
And don't track mud on my nice clean floors...

 

OK it's tire time for me too and I'm confused! I talked on the phone with d-mini-ero and he just went through all of this and his goals were the same as mine. Keep the 17" white s-lites for looks, go to 215s, get grip, low road noise, good wear, and good ride. So, like Dennis, I'm leaning towards Toyo T1s.

I apologiize if all this has been answered but I searched and did not find the answers. (1) will 215s rub with H&Rs? (2) will H&R negative camber reduce the benefits of the wider tire? (3) what profile should I use?

Any help appreciated.

 

Mckinneymini,
I think that the reason I am getting away with 215s is because of the low 35 series profile. Overall my wheels and tires, even as 18s, are slightly lower than the 205-40/17s. Unfortunately, my tires are not any more comfortable than the stock Run Flats, in fact they are probably just a little rougher. I had hoped that the low profile of the new tires compared to the Run Flats would be about equal, and they are pretty close, so I'll call it a push.

I would defer to Randy on this for a more educated answer but, If comfort and grip are your priorities, I would ditch the runflats and buy gripper non-run-flat tires in the same size. 215s vs 205s are going to make little or no difference in terms of grip and will only cause rubbing when you lower it. The real trick, I would imagine is to find a good tire in the 205-40/17 size.

There are camber links availble to compensate for the neg camber in back, but with periodic rotation, you should be able to do without. Personally I am waiting for someone to test the camber links before I buy mine.


Cheers and good luck!
Eric

 

Hey Eric, good answer. I'm definitely ditching the runflats. I'm at 7K miles and these Pirellis are shot on the rear (were on the front). Like you, I prefer the big wheel look so won't go with the autocross crowd's preference for 16s. I just want to optimize the contact patch using H&Rs (no camber plates, like you), and have reasonable everything else like I said.

Hopefully Randy will kick in a comment or two. I guess my emphasis shifted to the tires while I am waiting on Randy's THROTTLE BODY!

 

Eric,

I missed what your offset was for the ASAs, my Konigs are 45 and you mentioned you thought I'd have no problems with the H&Rs, are your less than that?

Kevin

 

Kevin,
My ASAs are 18 x 7.5 with a 42mm offset.

Cheers,
Eric

 

Good news on the throttle body front - I have a new and reliable source!!!! Those who have purchased already will get the intro price of $399, but from now on, due to the increased cost of the mod from the new supplier (which is absolutely beautiful work BTW), the new cost will be $449 - which is still a good deal on an e-gas throttle body when you look at them for BMW or Porsches.

As far as the tire/wheel info - I have done some work for you Graham and found that the upper and lower arms are in fact the same other than the color, and for the DSC folks, the yaw sensor. The latter comes into play when changing the upper arms, as they have play due to the heim joint, and therefore would render DSC useless even if the mount for the yaw sensor was built onto the new arm. If that isn't a concern, and all you would like to do is adjust the camber, I would be able to split a set of Helix arms - let me know.

The 40mm wheels with a 35 series tire will cause minimal rubbing on an 18, but can be addressed with the mod in this thread. If you go with a 37mm, you are a test pilot. I think you may have issues even wtih the trimming mod, but I haven't tested it out.

Hope that helps!

Randy

 

205/35/19 with 1.5 modification to the rear wheel quarter panel shaved.

 

>>205/35/19 with 1.5 modification to the rear wheel quarter panel shaved.


Well.....let's see....pretty puh-leeze!!!!!

 

I am running 20 mm spacers and 1.5" lower.

I trimed the inner fender "liner quit a bit (about 1.5 inches almost the whole arc. Found REALLY sticky ruberized electric tape (used bu the power co.) and have now sealed the edge. One summer and one winter and still in good shape.

On the upper control arm I mounted a angle bracket on the arm sleved with a piece of split rubber tube with a hose clamp. I had measured the length from the center line of the arm and bolt hole. The Yaw system works perfectly and if adjustment to the arm lengh is needed I just loosten the clamp and re tighten.

Not rocket science but both work very well

 

I thing everyone forgot about while doing this like i was gonna do myself being i knew my tires would rub b4 i even put them on......Cutting away that portion now leaves an opening for dirty and road debris to get in there and load up the liner with sh*t. I would recommend cutting a relief opening at the bottom to drain any junk that get s caught in there...Good luck.

 

Great thread!!! Looks liek I have something to do for the weekend!! Man it is going to be cold out there!!

 

which wheels and tires did you have again?

 

I have HP design EVO's (also called Lightnings) in 17x7 with a +37 offset and 215-45-17 Avon Tech M550 A/S.

They are rubbing pretty badly, I figure i'll have to take out about 1.5" in the center of the fender liner and then arch it down from there. Probably a total of 12" that i'll need to cut out (about 6" each side of center). I tried to let them wear down themselves, but no way, it is just painful to drive the car with that noise. I took a trip from NY to PA and the highway had a lot of dips and whoop-de-doos in it and it was horrible.

 

those Evo's are good looking wheels.

+37 is a tight fit, but should work with some dremeling action.

might wanna try some 215/40's or 205/45's next time, huh?

 

Thanks!! Can't wait to get them mounted and get some pics of them.

Question for you, how does one goa bout adjusting the camber in the rear??? I was thinking of doing a slight adjustment on my own to make sure they don't rub and then when I bring it in to the dealer, having them just set the adjustment true. I'll be heading to the dealer in about 2 months anyway, so I doubt any damage would occur if I just eyed it.

I pulled the wheel off in the rear and didn't se any adjustment. I would think it would be similar to setting toe with an threaded arm, but I didn't see anything!!!

 

honestly I don't know how to adjust camber because my 03 does not have
that feature.

but i am assuming it is similar to our G35C's where there's the bolt with
adjustment collar attached.

The toe angle will probably change when you change camber, so you
might want to let a local alignment shop do the adjustment for you.

You can give them alignment targets...like for example -1.8 with 0.08
each side or something and see if they can match it. You want to
prioritize the toe angle over camber though, if they say they can't get
it to zero or a slight toe-in on the rear at -1.8.

 

Very good write-up!

And you have an awesome garage!

 

Could someone please re-post the pics in the How to article?
Thanks,
MinMax

 

Could someone please re-post the pics in the How to article?
Thanks,
Bster

 

anyone?