Gen4: will this wheel and tyre combo work?

[Turbo Lag]

You can always get replacement camber bolts for the upper or lower of the struts to assist.

https://www.whiteline.com.au/product_de ... 4&sq=49041

Can't really tell anything about your alignment from just seeing the camber tops. How the entire strut is situated makes a huge difference and will always be different car to car.

[Kimmo]

There's stuff-all camber; I eyed up the right wheel when I took those shots, and despite the upper adjustment being nearly all the way in, the wheel has maybe a degree and a half tops.

Can't say I'm too impressed with the BCs either... some pretty crappy old roads around here so I wound all the dampers to full soft, but the springs are too stiff for this stuff. They might be fine for a track car or someone living in the leafy suburbs where all the roads are smooth as glass, but they're a bit nuts for a car you'd want to drive anywhere...

Wondering if I could just get softer springs for em, or if maybe someone around Melbs is able to tweak the temper of these ones; anneal em a bit or something.

Somewhere along the way I gathered the notion that less spring and more damper is where it's at - does that make any sense? If so, the adjustable dampers would be a whole lot more useful.

[bigBADbenny]

Hmu for a Shockworks taxi ride! Or koni’s

[Turbo Lag]

As Ben said... Shockworks or bust. I'll almost guarantee any further money spent on BCs will be a WOFTAM. Better off to remove, sell them for whatever, and invest in Shockworks. You won't need to do any other suspension mods ever again.

[Kimmo]

Had a look at the Shockworks site but no prices.

What's a set go for?

[bigBADbenny]

$2300 last I heard.
Just send them an email to check price and availability.

[statetro]

What wheel and tyre combo did the OP go for?

[Kimmo]

What wheel and tyre combo did the OP go for?

Wheels and tyres on the back burner for now, since Shockworks coilovers matter more; gotta lose the dumb BC Racing coilovers I've got.

They're pretty awesome when I belt the thing through a smooth turn, but a lot of the roads around here aren't very smooth...

Anyway, even the coilovers are on a bit of a slow burn till my bank account recovers a bit from buying the Lib. Couple more months or so. Wheels and tyres maybe late in the year.

In the meantime, I'm pretty stoked with how it's looking after I've touched up the paint chips, blacked out the chrome and tinted all the lights, and lastly fitted some black headlights with no washers.



Mind you, the vast gulf of space between the rear guard and the wheel, as brutally depicted here, is doing my head in. Just how dodgy would some half-inch spacers be...?

[Turbo Lag]

Good choice with the SW. Can't go wrong with them. If the BCs are in decent condition I'm sure you could sell them to recoup at least some of your costs. Try on the FB page.

Car is looking a lot better now overall, just needs a wash.

Personally I'm very much against spacers - but they usually come in 2 types being bolt on and slip on.

I'd never run slip on spacers on any street driven vehicle. IMO they're incredibly dangerous unless you've got extended studs at the very minimum. Most are only suited to the stud pattern and aren't hub centric (however they do exist). I've seen wheels come off after a light impact using these so I wouldn't touch them other than to test wheel fitment.

Bolt on, hub centric spacers are a lot better and safer but IMO you're better off spending this money on wheels that fit in the long run, as good ones won't be cheap.

IMO - save your money for some better wheels and deal with it for the time being.

[Kimmo]

Bolt on, hub centric spacers are a lot better and safer but IMO you're better off spending this money on wheels that fit in the long run, as good ones won't be cheap.

Thing is though, and I just went and measured it, the rear guards have 10mm more overhang. I was thinking to keep the spacers when I went to different wheels, since I only want to equalise that dimension. And being rears, they should have less chance of rubbing, even though the wheelarch is lower, since the rears don't steer, right?

Although since I only want 10mm, it looks like there's no bolt-on solution. Is 10mm a big deal, with hub-centric slip-ons? I have a hard time understanding why slightly longer studs are so sketchy... although maybe too tight and too loose might get closer together?

[Turbo Lag]

Bolt on, hub centric spacers are a lot better and safer but IMO you're better off spending this money on wheels that fit in the long run, as good ones won't be cheap.

Thing is though, and I just went and measured it, the rear guards have 10mm more overhang. I was thinking to keep the spacers when I went to different wheels, since I only want to equalise that dimension. And being rears, they should have less chance of rubbing, even though the wheelarch is lower, since the rears don't steer, right?

Although since I only want 10mm, it looks like there's no bolt-on solution. Is 10mm a big deal, with hub-centric slip-ons? I have a hard time understanding why slightly longer studs are so sketchy... although maybe too tight and too loose might get closer together?

As someone who has messed around enough with wheels now, on a sedan you're actually a lot more likely to scrub at the rear than front. The front has a tonne of space if you have coilovers until you start going for much larger tyres (which I assume you're not going for).

A 10mm spacer is effectively making your current offset +55 (I think these are the stock wheels offset) to +45. If you're running the standard 215/40/18 you should clear rear guards just fine. If you're running =>225 tyres you may rub in which case you'd just want the guards rolled.

Extended studs of decent quality in theory are fine. A spacer effectively does the same thing a lower offset wheel however the difference is you lose thread for the lug to hold on to. You could be left with a lug just holding onto 1cm of thread instead of 2cm etc. You''d also have to invest in new lug nuts too, likely open ended or much longer. I really wouldn't recommend slip on spacers at all especially since it's for looks and a street driven car. I've personally seen a crash where wheels have come off due to slip on spacers.

I'd personally would never run slip on spacers, and wouldn't bother with bolt ons either. I've always just gone for wheels that fit and they aren't particularly hard to come across either. If you're worried about the rear sitting too far inwards you might just want to look into a staggered wheel set up instead (assuming tyre size remains the same).

Just my 2c.

[Yowie]

You could always try cambered wheel spacers:

[Kimmo]

As someone who has messed around enough with wheels now, on a sedan you're actually a lot more likely to scrub at the rear than front. The front has a tonne of space if you have coilovers until you start going for much larger tyres (which I assume you're not going for).

A 10mm spacer is effectively making your current offset +55 (I think these are the stock wheels offset) to +45. If you're running the standard 215/40/18 you should clear rear guards just fine. If you're running =>225 tyres you may rub in which case you'd just want the guards rolled.

Extended studs of decent quality in theory are fine. A spacer effectively does the same thing a lower offset wheel however the difference is you lose thread for the lug to hold on to. You could be left with a lug just holding onto 1cm of thread instead of 2cm etc. You''d also have to invest in new lug nuts too, likely open ended or much longer.

...

If you're worried about the rear sitting too far inwards you might just want to look into a staggered wheel set up instead (assuming tyre size remains the same).

Yeah, I've got coilovers, but it's the space between the wheel and the guards that's of interest here. Happy to stick with the 225/40/18s I'm running. But the standard GT-B wheels and tyres are 215/45 on +55 - and fitting 10mm spacers would reduce the effective offset to +45.

I wouldn't consider adding spacers without longer studs unless they were under 5mm; the hubcentric spacer set I found includes longer studs (Ichiba, if that means anything). I'm not real keen on the idea of spacers, but if I reckon staggered wheels are silly and I want to fill my guards and the gap isn't the same, then I have to wonder if there's a way to do spacers right, especially since it's just on the back...

You could always try cambered wheel spacers:

Fully sick, bro!

I guess those were made for taking photos? Actually come to think of it, I should probably have all my suspension geometry looked at before anything... the fronts have barely any camber, seems a bit weird.

[Yowie]

Fully sick, bro! I guess those were made for taking photos?

I don't know. Not my items or my photo. I laughed really hard when I first saw it though. I assume they were ground down to that wedge profile as a p!ss-take to drive people crazy on the internet.

[bigBADbenny]

What’s the update on the scope, intent and expected outcome of this post?

If you raise the car, your current wheels will look less sunk.