I am fairly new and purchased a MINI Cooper S and now have a tire rub issue. It's a 2005, and I know that the tire size is one size too large(205 not 195) but the left side is much worse than the right. Any load at all in the rear seat or cargo area causes major rubbing. All I could find was a possibility of a " suspension bumper " being the culprit. Can anyone here verify that as a possibility and tell me how to correct it?

 

Sounds to me like there may be more of an issue with the suspension than the tire size o.O

Probably some of the "veterans" could actually answer it for you.

Also sidenote, the Mini has two possible stock sizes. If you have 16" wheels they're generally 195/55s and 17" wheels will have 205/45s. My suspension on my MCS is super stiff so I've never encountered this (I'm on 205/45s). There's around 2" of potential travel there on mine before it'd start "rubbing" so it could just be worn out shocks or its a lowered car. Or maybe you just have one seriously heavy load.

 

There are not enough details to answer this. Is it lowered? Sagging on either side. Shocks or coilovers wore out from a lot of miles? Full tire size?

 

No, it isn't lowered, I don't notice any sagging. Honestly, I don't know how to determine if the shocks or coilovers would be worn out, but could one side be that much different than the other? And I have 16" wheels, the tire size on the doorplate calls for 195/55/16 and the car has 205/55/16 on it.

 

Tire size should not be the issue...
but the rims could be if they are not oem, and the wrong offset...in this case spacers would fix it, but since it appears to be rubbing on ONE side, it sounds like tge frame/suspension/compotents have issues ....you just have to look...sounds like somebody took a curb too tight, or hot a big pothole, and hurt the car....

 

OK, so I think I'll take it to a professional tomorrow

 

Keep us posted.

 

Some others who've switched to 205/55/16s have also reported rubbing. The 205/55/16 tire is about .5" greater in diameter than the 195/55/16 tire (24.9" versus 24.4"), so the former tire has a bit less clearance above the tire when springs are fully compressed. There shouldn't be a problem with the extra width. I don't remember reading that switching to 205/50/16s results in rubbing problems.

 

I have 205/55/16s and I have rubbing on the rear driver's side wheel. Annoying as hell, and it's not just excessive weight. If I take a turn to hard it'll rub the front part of the plastic wheel arch, I'm used to it, my wife thinks the car is skidding off the road and she screams... she's more annoying than the actual rubbing sound.

 

I have 205/50R16's on my 2004 MCS and I don't believe that I have noticed any rubbing at all. Is the rubbing noticeable, and is it a noise, or felt?


Reid

 

On mine it sounds like the bottom of the car rubbing the ground. It's actually the tire rubbing the trim/fender. You'll know for sure if it does happen to you.

 

Took it to my guy today, after about 2 seconds of looking at it, he says, " tires are too big". I looked at him in disbelief and told him how it was about 1000 times worse on the left side than the right and a lot worse with weight added, even a 20 lb bag of puppy food. I insisted that he look deeper into the problem. Then about 30 seconds later (it took that long to get it on the rack and lift it to eyeball height) he says "oh, you've got a broken strut. You can replace it or if you want to get by cheap, then buy a rubber spacer to put in the spring and it won't let it compress all the way down". Well, I'm not much for patches, so we are replacing the strut tomorrow.

I understand that I'll probably still have a little rub with the tires, but this is extremely excessive. This is to the point of I have a bag of dog food in the back and when it start off at the traffic light, I have rubbing on the left side. I can put 100 pounds of stuff in the back on the right side and the left will still rub, not the right. This past weekend, we drove about 30 miles up into the mountains here in GA to Hiawassee and all the way up, I had rubbing on the left side in almost every curve. VERY ANNOYING. This isn't light scrubbing from taking a turn hard, this is coming back down the mountain, going 25 and it scrubs and sounds like a concrete barrier on the interstate is sliding down the side.

 

Rubber spacers for springs? Never heard of those, can they be used for anything else? Like I don't think you should be driving around with a broken strut.

 

Apparently these rubber spacers or whatever are fairly common around here. I had a local race car driver tell me the same thing. They both say you can buy them at any local parts house. Best I can tell, it's a piece of rubber that you slip between the rings of the coil springs which doesn't allow them to compress all the way down.

I'm definitely not a big fan of driving with a broken strut, so I opted for replacing it. My mom used to put patches on my jeans as a kid, and they never held up, don't see why a "patch" on a suspension would do any better!

 

OK, so the new strut didn't fix the issue. Any ideas?

 

How many miles on the car? The springs may just be tired and sagging some. Oh, stock wheels or not, like someone said earlier could just be a slight offset issue.

I have a full set of '05 OEM "Sport" springs with about 55,000 miles on them in a box with all my other OEM parts, if this ends up being the problem, I'll let them go pretty cheap, just PM me.

 

Same here. 205/50R16's no rubbing ever. I also have 215/45R16's for autocross and experience no rubbing even under hard "wheel lifting" cornering conditions.

Sounds like tire height may be a bigger factor than width. Of course, wheel offset and condition of suspension components could be the culprits as well.

From your descriptions, it sounds pretty extreme. How was it when you took a pre-purchase test drive?

 

I just changed out my autocross tires to 225/50R16. The rears rub on the wheel arches when I hit a dip in the road but not in the corners. They are rubbing less and less as they wear away the inside edges of the wheel arches.

I'm running on stock springs with 108K on them and fairly new Koni adjustable shock/struts.

Eric, have you sorted out your problem yet?

 

maybe this recall has something to do with your problems? http://www.automd.com/recall/campaign_c47470/

 

i'm having a rubbing issue right now also (only rear driver side wheel). it sounds like a faint scraping noise every time a certain point in that wheel area is hit. my runflat was so worn down on the inside from it, the whole wheel can't even stand on its own. at first, thought it was a bent rotor causing part of it. replaced that. no change. shocks are ok. another idea is the wheel bearings and hub but i highly doubt its the wheel bearings.

any ideas???

i was thinking an alignment won't hurt.

 

205/55/16 is taller than oem size. 205/50/16 is just slightly lower than oem. as others have noted, problem could also lie in sagging springs or wheel offset.

 

Everybody who has looked at mine tells me it's a tire size issue. I've just been dealing with it. I put some spring rubbers in there and that has helped some, but hasn't eliminated the problem. I'm such a novice when it comes to automobiles, it's just difficult to know what to do. Perhaps I will see some of you in Helen and see what you think.

 

Remember that when you increase the tire width, the overall diameter grows as well if you keep the same profile number (55 in your case). I have an 06 cabriolet with all JCW options. Stock suspension. I believe it should be pretty much the same as your car. The stock tire size was 205/40-18 which turns out to be exactly the same diameter as your old 195/55-16's. I'm thinking you should have gone down in profile as you increased the width.

 

I don't disagree with you. The thing is that I didn't buy the tires, the previous owner did and it seems he went to one of the warehouse clubs and put in whatever they had in stock that was "close" just so it had decent tread on it.

 

But since you are obviously knowledgeable on this topic, would 205/40/16 be an acceptable option to keep the similar appearance without the annoying rub?