rubbing winter tires

[Vassago]

I tried seaching but was unable to find a good answer. I have an MSP and am running 205/55/16 tires for the winter mounted on steel wheels. I have encountered fairly severe rubbing in the rear end when I have 4 people in the car. This size tire seems to be the recomended choice from most people here. My question is if this could be caused by improper offset? It is really anoying beacause I cant put anybody in the back.

Thanks, Scott

 

[girth]

Yes indeed. You're running less offset than the stock rims and it therefore rubs on the outer-edge of the wheel well. The 205-55-16 is a little bigger than the stock tires too, so that doesn't help either. I'm running the same size tire with +40 offset rims and I also get occasional rubbing in the back - ESPECIALLY with it loaded with people. It will even rub with only me in the car if I go over a really big bump.

A rim with more offset (like +50) would more than likely solve your problem because "Ping" is running the exact same tires as me except with P5 rims and he gets NO rubbing at all. So either get rims with more offset or replace the tires with 1 size smaller. I haven't decided what I'll do but I think when my winter tires die in a couple of years I'm going to go with 205-50-16.

 

[Vassago]

Thanks, that makes sense. I am going to look into some different wheels like you recomended.

Scott

 

[sunlight_guy]

I'm having the same problem as you guys, whenever there is any weight in the back, the tires rub like crazy. All the paint is gone now and there is rust along the underneath of the fenders. These are rims and tires that the dealership put on for me. I'm am so pissed at those fu__ers right now!! They had better pay for the damage and for new rims. I can't believe they put the wrong offset wheels on my brand new car. You'd think they'd know what they were doing!