225/45/17 vs. 235/45/17 on a 1G

[tanner261]

I have 17x7.5 wheels with a 45mm offset. The current tires are 225/45/17 and I do not have any clearance issues. Is anyone running a 235/45/17 on a 7.5" wide wheel and a 45mm offset on a 1G? I know the clearance is close on the rear control arm with the 225's, but I'd like to know if I can get away with 235's.

If not, is it possible to run a 5mm spacer without getting longer wheel studs?

 

[PaulPDX]

The only spacers I would spend money on are the H&R spacers... and those come with studs.

 

[tanner261]

Originally posted by PaulPDX
The only spacers I would spend money on are the H&R spacers... and those come with studs.

Right, and I'm trying to decide if it is worth $140 for spacers if they are required for a 235.

 

[wret]

I have no experience with 1g fitment or how it compares with 2g, but the 235's would rub on a 2g with 45 mm offset.

 

[PaulPDX]

You can probably grind down the control arm to get a little more clearance... but 7.5" wide rim with 45 offset is really not the most ideal offset. I would've gone with 40 or 35. 35 would put it flush with the fender. If I were you I'd just stick with 225. You've got AWD so traction isn't an issue... so no reason to go wider really. Unless you want to spend $ on spacers or rims.

 

[tanner261]

I would have liked more offset, but the Rota Subzeros only come in 45 or 48mm offset. Now Rota has a lot more wheel options, but I bought the wheels a couple years ago. I will be staying with 225's since the Falken Azenis doesn't come in a 235. My other option was a Kumho MX, but I've decided that the Falken will better suit my needs.

 

[HokieDSM]

Interesting topic - especially since I have Subzeros in 17x7.5 with 225/45 Azenis due to arrive in three days

I had to go with the even higher +48mm offset, since they only seem to carry the +45 in Silver & plain Steel Grey - but I ordered a set of 5mm H&R spacers from optauto.com for $112 shipped.

Our cars are going to look almost like twins hehe

As for the tires, I don't think the difference between 235s & 225s would make that much of a difference, not to mention the fact that it'd throw your speedometer off by an additional 1.4% compared to the 225s.

I know it isn't talked about a lot around here, but its not always best to put the widest tire you can possibly fit on to your wheels - I had 215/50s on my stock 16s last year - and although the tires were sticky enough, the fact that they bulged out of the wheels so much made my steering really mushy.

 

[PaulPDX]

Originally posted by HokieDSM
I had 215/50s on my stock 16s last year - and although the tires were sticky enough, the fact that they bulged out of the wheels so much made my steering really mushy.

That's not entirely accurate assumption though... steering response has much to do with the way the sidewalls of the tires are constructed. If you have a 50 series tire with really stiff sidewalls, the steering response can still be sharp. The mushiness is mostly from sidewall flex.

 

[dewdew]

If you have a 225/45R-17 go to a 235/40R-17. It will be close to the same overall diameter, but it will give you more width like you want. I had 235/40R-17 on 17X8 Niche Shoks with no problems at all.

 

[tanner261]

I got the 225/45/17 Falken Azenis along with 5mm H&R spacers. The spacers are required on my setup since I'm using 2 eccentric bolts per side to get -2 deg camber in the front. This brings the top of the tire closer to the strut, and without the spacers the tires would rub. I did not install the longer H&R studs since the lug nuts have more than the required threads engaged with the stock studs. I know that the camber bolts aren't the ideal setup, but it would be pointless to get camber plates since I'm still running a stock diameter H&R sport spring. Coil overs are required to get any reasonable adjustment out of camber plates.

HokieDSM: I just noticed your car today, our cars are nearly identical! I'm running my first autox of the season tomorrow, hoping the Azenis live up to all the reviews. Have you had a chance to run your car at the track yet?

 

[PaulPDX]

Looking good.

 

[HokieDSM]

HokieDSM: I just noticed your car today, our cars are nearly identical! I'm running my first autox of the season tomorrow, hoping the Azenis live up to all the reviews. Have you had a chance to run your car at the track yet?

Yeah, our cars are pretty close, except that my subzeros are Royal Steel grey instead of the silver, and I ended up with a +48mm offset instead of the +45 - since they didn't have the +45 in stock.

Ironic that you should reply to this topic now - I'm actually having rubbing issues with my 225s with the Subzeros, and I'm thinking that a camber correction would take care of it - but I haven't worked out how to get it done. I'm suprised though that you say that you didn't need the lug studs in the 5mm H&R kit - with the spacers on my setup, I can only get 3.5 turns per lug whereas they recommend 6 or more - so I'm ending up needing to get the studs installed - which is turning into a royal PITA since I have ABS.

Our spring/shock setups are different, but I don't see that really affecting these issues, since it appears we're both running roughly the same ride height. But these issues are keeping the car off the road right now, because the rubbing is tearing up my tires on the edges over hard bumps (see my thread here), and it would be unsafe to run the car with the stud situation the way it is. Any clues you could give as to how I can overcome these things would make my week - since it's killing me that I can't even take a good hard drive with things the way they are...

 

[tanner261]

HokieDSM: Your tires are rubbing on the fender lip, very bad IMO. Do you have to run the spacers? By eliminating them, you would bring the tire in and away from the fender, but with the 48mm offset you might be rubbing the rear control arm.

Either you can roll your fender lip, which is very simple and can be done with a wooden baseball bat, or add some negative camber. You can get the negative camber in the rear easily with the factory eccentric bolt. The front will require slotting the lower bolt hole (cheap), or getting the Ingalls/Whiteline/etc eccentric bolts.

I'm surprised that you only get 3.5 turns on the lug nut. Are you sure they are seated properly? Depending on how the wheels are manufactured, it is possible that the 48mm offset Rotas have a thicker flange than the 45mm offset that I have. I get 7.5 turns on all the lug nuts.

My camber settings are -2 deg in front and -1 in the rear. 1/16" toe out on the front, and 1/16" toe in on the rear. I added a couple photos to my gallery of the new tires with the spacers. The front tires are extremely close to rubbing the strut, but after autoxing today, nothing seems to be rubbing. I did come home with a win in the modified class, it was a SAE regional race, not SCCA. There were a few cars prepped with Hoosier race tires in my class, but the Falkens held their own and really surprised me. AWD doesn't hurt either

 

[HokieDSM]

Congrats on the win!

I'll check those camber settings - I'm pretty sure they're off. I'm not sure if its noticable in the pics I have online now, but I've got noticably high negative rear camber and what almost looks like positive front camber. I'm almost certain I've got the eccentric bolts up front, so I should be able to adjust them. I've got to pull the wheels off again anyhow since I've got to ditch the spacers for my state inspection - so it'll be back to stockers for a day or so. I may just have Satan check the camber for me when I go get those studs put on.

Thanks for the help! Your car looks great - I'll have to upload some more pics once I get everything worked out.

 

[BAD-TSi]

I want to run these 15" rims with a 235/60 BFG drag radial and a 40mm offset. Which is talked about here , so can anybody please tell me if they think that will work on the front of my 1g?

 

[PaulPDX]

Just make sure the tire you want to run has an overall diameter that is close to or the same as the stock size. If you don't know how to caculate that... go to tirerack.com and read the tire FAQ.

40 mm offset sounds OK.

 

[wret]

I want to run these 15" rims with a 235/60 BFG drag radial and a 40mm offset. Which is talked about here , so can anybody please tell me if they think that will work on the front of my 1g?

There's more to consider than diameter. The width of those tires at that diameter would require somewhere around 32 mm max offset (for the rear anyway). I know nothing about drag radials but 235 is awful wide for a 6.5 wheel.

 

[BAD-TSi]

Just make sure the tire you want to run has an overall diameter that is close to or the same as the stock size. If you don't know how to caculate that... go to tirerack.com and read the tire FAQ.

40 mm offset sounds OK.

The diameter is gonna be slightly smaller then stock, but that I'm not concerend about. I just don't want them to rub.

And whats the width of stock wheels? 6.0"? People put 225s on stock rims, I'm shure a 235 on a 6.5" would be fine.

 

[redX90]

I have a set of 17x7.5s I run 235x40 Yoko A520s on. As soon as I get the $ for 225x45s I will change them. I'm not sure of the offset but they're about 4mm from the lower spring perch and dead even with the fenderwell. Thats a bit too tight. I could cut off the perches and run have enough room to even go 245s but why. Yeah they look and handle awesome but these a520s are noisy, ride is harsh, eat more gas, and grab extremely well. Grabbing extremely well on AWD might not be the best thing to do since most people have upgraded clutches that don't slip and save the upgrading of weak parts like axles, CVs etc for another day. Something else... I'm running ground controls and sit about 3" below stock. The rear camber is still off though at it's limit as far as adjustment goes. With these 235x4os, on my car they force the rear wheels to sit flat which pushes the rear end up and force 0 camber. Weird.