Admittedly, I know squat about tire/rim fitment, but I have run in to an issue.
-I bought new rims for the car, they’re 18x8.5(outside) and 7.5(inside)
Proper tires for these guys are 215/40
This set up will fin nicely under the wheel wells without needing to roll the fenders. BUT, it’s damn near touching the springs on the inside of the rim and tire.
Having never run in to this issue, I’d imagine I need some kind of spacers to change the offset. I’ve found 15,25,and 30mm spacers to be the most common.
If I add say, the 25 in the front, and 30 in the back, I will need to roll the fender and or get flares/some kind of widebody. I can roll the fenders but do not want to allocate $ for widebody stuff.
Can I get away with a skinnier tire? If so, can anyone do the math on the spacer used vs tire sizes? I don’t want the “stretched VDUB” look, but if I can get away with using a tire thats 7.5" at the least, and able to fit with the spacer, i’d like to do so.
If they’re hitting your spring, it sounds like your offset is not right for your application.
Also, as far as I know, 215’s are too skinny for that rim? (I could be wrong) but my stock rims are 8 wide, and they came with a 225 on it from the factory.
Using tirerack, thats the tire they recommended on an 18in wheel. I really don’t know what the offsets are, the rim is an ADR M-Sport, 4x114.3. The car is a 1990 240sx.
Also your coilovers may need to be adjusted (if you have coilovers) you may need to run some extra negative camber, which will cause uneven tread wear. it’s not the right way to go about doing it, but I know a ton of 240 guys still do it anyways.
yea 215’s are too narrow for an 8.5 in rim unless your a vdub kid who likes to strech your tires lol. Im running 215’s on a 7 inch wide rim right now. But there usually on 7.5’s. You should be running a 225 or higher.
to put this in perspective… a stock evo comes with an 8" wide rim and a factory tire that is 235 wide. most evo owners upgrade to 255 on that wheel. 215 will fit, but is not correct.
I ran -3.2 degrees on the front of my wrx, and it wore a little unevenly, but not excessively. It’s the toe being non-zero that causes them to wear excessively and pop with full tread on the outside.
The discrepency here is uneven vs. excessive. Of course neg. camber will cause the insides of the tires to wear quicker (uneven in comparison to the rest of the tire), but toe will really cause it to wear excessively as you’re dragging as well.
it’s all relative… a car with a lot negative camber that’s driven mostly is a straight line will eat tires. a car with no neg camber driven at a track day will eat tires (a lot more than if you had neg camber)…
it’s all about picking the right camber for your needs.
