legacycentral bbs

Hey everyone, i just put new GR-2's in the rear of my Legacy and i'm a little worried. I had 4 people in the car and some fishing gear (not really heavy stuff) and i noticed my tires rubbing the fender wells when i would go around bends and hit bumps. I know the car never did this when the stock struts were blown even (and they were definately blown, neither of them had any compression damping left). I don't know how this could have happened, my only guesses are that the spring perches are lower on the GR-2's than stock, or that i somehow took away negative camber when i put the struts on. I am still using the stock rear springs as well. Has anyone else had this problem?

They rub the fenders?

Simple solution, just roll the fender lip. You can do it yourself with a baseball bat (no lie) or you can have a shop do it for $100. Rolled fenders, you could probably clear a 225 wide tire with the proper offset rim.

What tires are you using?

New struts definitely will require you to get your car re-aligned... You may well have lost your negative camber. So you should get a 4-wheel electronic alignment as soon as you have a chance.

But just having the camber wrong shouldn't make it rub if everything else aside from the struts is stock.

I wonder if your springs are shot... if they're making the car ride low, couldn't that make the tires rub the fenders? I don't see why that would appear only after you put GR-2s in though.

If the rubbing is very, very minor, you might be able to reduce it by removing the molding along the edge of the wheel well.

It seemed to be a fairly significant rubbing, around bends it was nearly constant. I would roll the fenders, but i believe that they are too rusted, so maybe i'll eliminate the part that's rubbing when i fix the rust. I am using 205/55/15 tires on rims that were for my Celica, and the tires do seem to stick out more than the stock ones, but you would think i would have heard the rubbing before i put the new struts on if the tires were too far out. I brought all of my stuff home from college a few months ago, much heavier than the 3 passengers i had last week, and i didn't hear anything at all.

Ohhhhh.... Your problem is definitely that the wheels have the wrong offset, as you've noted. The Celica uses a significantly smaller wheel offset than the Legacy.

I also don't see why changing the struts would make the problem present itself, but I really think you should get wheels with the correct offset. It should solve the rubbing problem, and it'd also be nice to have them hub-centered. Your wheel bearings will be happier, too.

Wait a minute -- how do your Celica wheels fit on your Legacy? I thought the Celica had a hub center bore smaller than the Legacy's.

The hub center is smaller on the Celica than the Legacy, but the aftermarket rims had a large center opening probably because they're a generic aftermarket rim. I always wondered whether or not that was safe, maybe i should get rid of the rims altogether and buy new ones for both cars? I'll have to check the offset tomorrow and see if that is the problem. The rims themselves dont appear to stick out any more than the factory Legacy rims, just the wider tires. I know that the rims are probably wider than the stockers though.

Ah, okay...

Lug-centered wheels are sub-optimal, but as long as you install them properly they should be okay.

I can almost guarantee you that the offset on the aftermarket wheels is lower than the OEM Subaru wheels. The wider tires add somewhat to the problem, but 16" Subaru wheels do generally use 205-width tires.

I some generic steel wheels with a large center bore. I have always gotten vibrations at highway speed. The FireRock tires can't help the problem. But, what is the proper way to install these?

The big deal is to make sure that the wheels are actually as centered as possible by tightening the lug nuts as evenly as possible. Here's how my brother and I do it on his car:

Raise that corner of the car up.
Have an assistant hold the wheel in place over the lug studs without resting the wheel on the studs.
Thread the lug nuts on by hand in the star pattern, threading each one just a little bit before moving on to the next one.
Once they are snug, continue the star pattern with a 3/8" drive ratchet wrench, again going little by little.
Once they are tight enough that the wheel moves, have the assistant press the brake pedal to hold the wheel still, and tighten the lugs (again progressively and in the star pattern) with a torque wrench to their final torque.

But if you have a choice, it's really much better to hub-center your wheels... With some aftermarket wheels you can get hub centering rings that fit inside the wheels and over the hubs; if your steelies had the correct offset I'd suggest you get some.