I'm running 225/45/16 Toyo Proxes T1-S on 16x7.5 SSR Comps. No rubbing at stock ride height. After car was lowered with PSS-9s the wheel and tire rubbed in the rear. I was adjusting my shocks so I thought I'd trim the wheel well liner and take some pics, since I haven't seen any good rubbing pics posted yet and this seems to be a common concern for those considering larger tire sizes.

If you squint, you can see a little bit of wear around the outer edge of the right rear tire. It's not something you would even notice unless you were looking for it. On the left rear, the tire wasn't rubbing, but the inner edge of the wheel accumulated a little bit of plastic build-up. A 1mm spacer on the rears would keep this from happening. Haven't tried the spacer so I'm not sure if it would solve one problem and cause another. But seriously, at this wheel and tire size, I see nothing to worry about. If those who run 215/45/17 could take a look at the pics and comment as to whether their rubbing was better or worse, I'm sure those considering that size would appreciate it.

 

What is the offset of these wheels?

You could eliminate this rubbing simply with some adjustments to your control arms.

 

And, how much negative camber did you have after you lowered your car, when this rubbing happened?

 

The rubbing that most people complain about is not on the inside of the wheel-well: it's on the outside. I see a fine line of plastic on my tire at the contact-point, and can feel a plastic build-up under the lip of the well.

I'm running 215's on 16x7 SSR Comps, so that might be part of the difference: .5" thinner wheel and 10mm thinner tires.

I would be very curious as to the offset on those 7.5" wheels and the neg. camber you have dialed in, as usually a spacer makes the rubbing problem worse.

 

wow, that looks pretty bad.

Shouldn't have to do all that if you get some spacers and adjust
the rear camber. I wonder how bad the neg camber is... like -4???

onasled, you have 235's on your car without rubbing, right?

 

The 235s need quite a bit of fender work in the rear a a little in front. The rears don't rub the inside well, but they rubbed the trailing arm slightly, so 2mm spacers are used. Lots of outside fender stuff was done, including hamering out the sheet metal.

Fronts need a 5mm spacer to clear the struts, triminig off the outside of the plastic well and trimming off the inner lip of the arch.

I would be concerned that with the rubbing we see in the above pics that the trailing arm may be in contact also.

Added this; using 17"x7.5"x45 offset wheels

 

it's a bit of a pain, but the way to check it out for sure is to assemble the wheel and strut w/o the spring, sway bar disconnected, jackstands under the frame, and then move the wheel with a jack and see what's what.

 

Offset is +45mm. Rear camber is -1.5, so not too aggressive. Remember, this is a 16" wheel. A 17" would give me another .5" inch of clearance in the vertical direction, and that would probably make a difference.

The rubbing in the picture I posted was before the Dremel but after I had picked at it a bit. Attached is a better pre-Dremel picture of the rubbing.

So... general concensus is that this is a problem that needs to be fixed? I was told to anticipate this with 225/45/16 and that it was no big deal.

 

I'm certainly no expert here, but this seems unusual to have this type of contact.Are you sure your trailing arms are not in contact also?
Hmmm, what toe are you running back there?
Have you checked to see that your factory toe adjusting bolts are tight or has this adjustment been set for max toe in prior to adding your control arms? This can happen and when you reset toe with control arms alone you end up pulling the wheels into the wells.
Where did you set your PSS9s as far as height goes?

 

I didn't notice any marks on the trailing arms but I will look more closely next time I have the rear wheels off. Toe is like 1/32 out... close enough to zero for the couple of weeks until I go back to get the real alignment after the suspension settles.

Now that's a good point. I need to ask the shop that did the alignment. What is the preferred way to do this? How much toe should be dialed in using the factory adjustment vs. the control arms?

Judging by the pics in your gallery I'd say my wheel gap is slightly larger than yours, however I'm running 225/45/16 rubber.

 

How much toe should be dialed in using the factory adjustment vs. the control arms?

 

That rubs more than my honda ever has. Could be toe you can check to see if that's right without taking it back to the shop. A 2x4 and measuring tape will be sufficent if you don't have toe plates. Two people are required to do it that way though.

Just make sure your studs are long enough if you have to use spacers.

 

You guys don't have studs, do you...

 

Nope.

 

Looking a bit more carefully at the last picture you posted, I noted the following:

The lip of the wheel is rubbing, too. That's very bad. Keep an eye on the paint in the wheel-well, and on the wheel's lip.

It looks like you have upper and lower H-sport control arms. Is that the case? You mention toe-out. I don't often hear of folks running with toe-out in the rear, and even less frequently with a 225 section-width tire.

But, since the wheel is touching the liner, I don't think your tires are at fault. There's something dramatically wrong with your setup at the rear.

This might seem like a ridiculous question, but did you remove your rear brake rotors? Something has put the wheel closer to the car, and I don't think those SSR's have an offset that could explain the distance traversed.

Could you perhaps have mis-adjusted the control arms to being entirely too short?

I think, one way or the other, a serious and complete examination of your suspension is in order. While it would be a righteous PITA, try jlm's suggestion of removing the springs.

 

Toe out in the rear was only 1/32. That was good enough for the first few weeks while the suspension settles and then back to the alignment shop for fine tuning. After that, I will be running zero toe in the rear, just as most people are.

Yes, I do have the H-sport rear control arms. The problem might be from the fact that the factory toe adjuster is set to full toe-in and then the H-sport arms bring toe back out to nearly zero. There's probably a balance to be struck there somewhere between those two adjustments.... or at least that seems to me to be the most likely theory.

 

Onasled,
I pre fitted my rear wheels today and the inside rim lip only has about a 2mm gap between the inside rim and the trailing arm. The tires are ok because they do not protrude out like the lip of the inside rims. The rims are custom three piece wheels 18" wheels w/ 215-35-18 tires. Is there any wheel movement that may cause the wheel to touch the trailing arm during hard cornering. Do you think I should get some wheel spacers or is that ok? How much of a gap do you have between your tires and trailing arms. Where did you get the 2mm spacers?
thanks Emmanuel

 

Unless you also have custom flared rear fenders, you do not want spacers in the rear, especially with 215's.