HELP! Big wheels = cracked wing!

[16v_er]

My mk1 16v has 17" 205/40s on it, and the car was lowered when I got it. Now heres the problem. The wheel has come up and touched the arch, thus cracking my wing!! I dont know how low it is exactly as I didnt do it, however I know its standard shocks with lowered springs. So I was wondering how to prevent my wheels from catching?

Should I get koni adjustables and put them on their hardest setting? or with the konis being shorter shocks, would this make it worse? If I knew how much it was lowered I could get slighty longer springs. Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

 

[Fred@BTM]

You can get these rubber things that fit in the coils on the springs to stop them from compressing fully, but as theyre rubber, they still have the ability to squash

 

[16v_er]

Are those the bump stops that spax do?

 

[SoLow]

sounds like the ones people use to stop their cars dropping when they tow alot. i used this a long time back and it worked for dragging the car as it made the rear suspension real hard (ie better launches).

 

[16v_er]

Its my front nearside wing thats cracked. The rear of the cars fine. Do I need to stiffen up the front shocks? would that prevent a cracked wing? My mechanic suggested putting standard springs back on......mmm it will look abit sh*ty i think. Thats why I thought of koni adjustables.

 

[Fred@BTM]

Theyre not bump stops, the go IN BETWEEN the coils on the springs.

Get some new lowering springs (only about £50) then youll know the drop for def

Konis seem to be very highly rated by the 16V boys on here

 

[Flying Scotsman]

Hi, These rubber doughnuts will screw up the handling of the car. (been there and wore the T shirt!) If the springs bottom out on these rubbers you will get some weird effects making the car very unpredictable on fast corners. They are designed as towing assisters to stop the car sagging at the back, and that alone. I think the only way to solve your problem is to get alloys with the correct offsets for your model. Also the larger section tyres are more likely to cause arch fouling if you are close to the offset limits. Larger section tyres on a car this size very often do not equate to better handling. Regards adjustable dampers, if you want to make the suspension stiffer use higher rated springs. Increasing the damping may appear to make the suspension stiffer, but again screws up the road holding, the tyres skipping over bumps on the roads due to slower bump/rebound. Will eventually kill the dampers. Dampers and springs should be a "tuned" pair with adjustment used only to fine adjust for road conditions and driving.

At the end of the day you have to ask yourself ....do you want a cool street low rider or a fast road car that handles well? If its the later you may need to consider the above. Hope this helps.

Neil

 

[16v_er]

Yeah I see your point, trouble is its been running on 17s since I got it in november and all of a sudden its started playing up. I think I will have to get some 195/50/r15s. Trouble is Ive been driving round and it never scraps, this cracked wing is the first I knew about it. The car only catches on full lock, so its not like Im doing mind bendin speeds to crack the wing?

 

[Flying Scotsman]

Are you sure that it was the tyre that cracked your wing or was it some dosey git with a shopping trolley? Funny that you should suddenly start having problems. Perhaps your standard shocks have given up the ghost and are no longer damping the movement of the wheels? If you didnt have any obvious tyre scraping must have been something ese. May have been a one off when the steering was on full lock?

 

[16v_er]

Yeah maybe it was. I mean I can live with the scrapin on full lock, my drive is on a hill. So as I drive up onto it maybe the front bumper hit the concrete and pushed it up ito the wing? although the dampers do feel abit pogoish now.