will 18" always rub

[justin0469]

i have 18"s on my eclipse right now, not by my choice at all, it came like that. its rubbed through the fron side of the fender well cover before i got it. but i want to replace the well covers and have coilovers on the way. will just raising my car (i think its like a freakin 2.5" drop right now ) fix the rubbing problem or will it always rub unless i get smaller rims?

 

[RWKustoms]

i have 18"s on my eclipse right now, not by my choice at all, it came like that. its rubbed through the fron side of the fender well cover before i got it. but i want to replace the well covers and have coilovers on the way. will just raising my car (i think its like a freakin 2.5" drop right now ) fix the rubbing problem or will it always rub unless i get smaller rims?

Pretty strange..I have 18's with 225 40 tires with a 1.2" drop and there's no rubbing..Maybe it does have something to do with the drop..Does the car have a camber correction kit and what's the size of the tires?

 

[justin0469]

he said it does, i cant see or feel for myself because of the drop and the size of the tire.

 

[DSM BEEYACH]

Its not the size of the rim that's causing the rubbing its the offset of the rims. The coilovers might help if your wheels are real messed up right now.

 

[justin0469]

what is the max offset you can have without it rubbing?

 

[wret]

Its not the size of the rim that's causing the rubbing its the offset of the rims. The coilovers might help if your wheels are real messed up right now.

You're on the right track but there is a little more to it than that. The set of variables involved is tire tread width, offset, suspension height, and camber adjustment. You may notice that wheel size is not among them.

It's possible to have an 18" wheel/tire with the same dimensions as stock and then lower the suspension to the point of rubbing. 2.5 inches of lowering is too low for a street driven car in my opinion. Getting it back up to a reasonable height may solve your problem entirely.

 

[Flash]

I think you would rub on the control arm first before you rubbed on the front fender well cover. And by front fender well cover I mean the splash guard thing behind the stock SMIC's. Am I right?

its rubbed through the fron side of the fender well cover before i got it. but i want to replace the well covers and have coilovers on the way.

The front fender well you mean? I had that problem. When I installed my FMIC I had to use my car for something and didn't have time to put the front bumper on. I drove on the highway and the air blew my cover back into my tire and it just melted away. But I really believe you would rub on the control arm before anything else like a front fender well cover.