Tire-eating wheel arches

[JimmyJazz]

Hi all.

Forgive the newbie question.

When the boot is loaded up in my FB (saw a few slabs + camping equipment) all that happens when I drive is the rear (but not the front) wheel arches try to eat the tires and there are all sorts of horrible noises. I don't know the history of my car, but I was wondering if this sounds like a previous owner fitting inappropriately wide tires at the back, or a collapsed/worn out suspension component. The only intelligible numbers I could read off the tires were "205" back, "185" front. There are a few more numbers on the tires if they're not the ones I need to be looking at.

Cheers,
James

[EKjimmy]

my blue Ek does that, 205 on the rear. if you're getting a ring of wear on the sidewalls of your rear tyres it will be the guard edge scraping. You can either get narrower tyres or get the guard lips rolled up to accomodate them. It won't change the appearance from the outside when done right but just depends if you really want it to look stockers

[JimmyJazz]

Thanks EKJimmy. Yeah, its just the edges that rub. Newbie follow up question - does this mean new wheels or just tyres. Anyone know the maximum width that you can get away with without this problem?

[EKjimmy]

I've got 13x7's on my grey/bare metal ek (can't remember what size tyres at the moment) and they don't rub because the rear lips are rolled. Standard wheels are 13x6, again can't remember size of tyres.
Basically if you don't want to roll your inner guard lips up, you might want to get narrower tyres (or stiffen up your suspension). Have a look at people's build threads and see what size wheels and tyres they run. Hope this helps

Jimmy

[Trev]

205's will fit no probs with the correct offset on your wheels.
Get you rear suspension checked out, might need to be stiffened up a tad.

[Devilrod]

Yep a Trev said, offset. Change the rim offset and your 205's can stay.