Fenders chewing a tire, need help.

[PorscheGuy79]

I have recently purchased a set of Toyo RA-1s, 225 front/245 rear, and I am having issues with the front tire on the drivers side. I talked to several people and shops about choosing the tire size, I have friends that run similar tires on similar cars. After a few drives on the street to test out the tires the said tire now has several cuts into the tire from the fenders that are bordering a safety issue. So I rolled the fenders to try and fix the issue and im not 100% positive that its going to fix everything. Does anyone have any additional ideas on what i can do because im getting extremely frustrated with this and im about to take a chainsaw to the front fenders.


More details.

tires = 225 front, 245 rear RA-1s
wheels = BBS multi spoke 16in wheels 7s front, 8s rear.

Thanks

[Scooter]

I am sure Bill Verburg will chime in here. He is much more knowledgeable about wheels than I, but I can tell you that all 911's are not the same. Some can run a 225 in front without issue, others cannot. It sounds like your car is in the "cannot" category. This does not mean that you cannot run 225's, it just means that you need to do additional work to make it happen. Rolling the fenders is the best first step. You may have to look at camber settings next. I will stop there and let Bill give you the best advice . Go luck!

BTW: all tire brands are not the same either. One 225 from Goodyear may be smaller than a 225 from Kumho.

[widgeon13]

Where is it cutting the tire, what part of the fender is causing the damage? You might be better off just bagging the 225's and going with 205's since you don't have stock Fuchs and you didn't list the offset for the wheel 7" up front.

You may actually need to roll a slight flare in the fender but if it's only happening on one side??? That's a lot of work to fit that tire. Can you post some pics and the wheel offset?

[Todd Simpson]

A common issue with clearance is the trim piece behind the bumper bellows at the front of the wheel.

I've always hit there before I had issues at the fender lips.

Max camber, max caster then start cutting/rolling. And make sure you are at ET23 or higher.

[Dave Nordhoff]

I run 7's on the front with 205/55's on my SC with -1.5 neg. camber. I started with ES100's and I had to cut down my driver side fender lip. When I switched to RA1's I had rubbing on the passenger side and had to cut down that lip also. I used a thin cutting wheel on a angle grinder and sealed the edge with paint. The paint is thick on my car so I decided to cut instead of rolling.
I also had to move the drivers side bellows trim forward as Todd mentions.
Dave

[MOMO3.2]

I have 7" Fuchs on the front and have used Yoko ES100's and Hankook S2's size 225x50x16's without any rubbing since Dave at TRE used his magic bat and metal pipe to roll the front fenders. It looked dicey, but Dave has done this so many times, he knows the limits. Perhaps there is someone with a lot of experience and a magic bat in your area?

Good luck.

Mike

[PorscheGuy79]

Originally Posted by widgeon13

Where is it cutting the tire, what part of the fender is causing the damage? You might be better off just bagging the 225's and going with 205's since you don't have stock Fuchs and you didn't list the offset for the wheel 7" up front.

You may actually need to roll a slight flare in the fender but if it's only happening on one side??? That's a lot of work to fit that tire. Can you post some pics and the wheel offset?

Well guys,

I decided to do just that, my racing budget this year is pretty tight (im a student and I am barely able to make it out to the two DEs this year) but right now I deciding to put the 225s aside, admit my mistake and bite the bullet. I am gonna get a set of 205s for the front, ive ran those before with no issues and now that they are rolled things will be fine with those. Its a good chuck of change on this mistake, something I cant afford to do too often, but I think its better be safe then into the tire wall at five on Road America next friday.

Thanks guys.

[450knotOffice]

What about more camber? Where are you at now?

[patkeefe]

What is the wheel offset?

[PorscheGuy79]

Originally Posted by 450knotOffice

What about more camber? Where are you at now?

The car was just aligned when i had the tires put on, it has a good bit of camber on there. Not sure how much but enough.

[PorscheGuy79]

Originally Posted by patkeefe

What is the wheel offset?

Unfortunately I live in the city and the car stays in a garage at my parents house so I do not have access to the wheels right now. They are the BBS multi-spokes, quite popular cheap wheel option, usually gold, no bolds, center caps that say BBS and stick out a bit. Thanks all I got, let me see if i have an old picture on this computer.

[patkeefe]

Somewhere there is an offset chart; if I remembered where it was I'd put up the link. My SC has ROH wheels, 17x8 in front, that I run 225/45 track tires. I got by with rolling the fenders. The tires tend to hit in the front, about six inches up from the fender/bumper seam.
Pat

Here's one:
http://members.rennlist.org/911pcars/WheelWts.html

[dorschman]

this sounds dumb but check your ride height. I had one tire that was rubbing in hard turns and we finally noticed that the front right tire was one inch higher than the other three. Very hard to see standing there but easily seen with a ruler. Corrected the height and no more tire trouble.