Problem with wheels scraping hub, suspension?

[limiter]

Hi, I have 17in wheels on my 2000 SE grand am, and they are wider than stock and a little taller than stock. I have had the wheels in for about 5 months or so, and they've worked good. The only time the wheel has scraped the plastic liner in the hub was on really sharp turns, but it would go away after the turn.

Recently, however, after a semi-sharp turn or semi-hard stop the wheels will scrape the plastic wheel hub liner, but continue to scrape in almost any turn, and even sometimes in a mild break. The problem goes away after the car sits for a bit (off). Some days are better than others.

My thinking was the shocks are not expanding far enough and fast enough after the break or turn in the cold weather, but I am not sure. The other thought is the shocks need to be replaced... dunno though, I'm not an expert. The car (and shocks) has 55,0000 miles on it. Thanks for any help!

[Macleod52]

We have struts not shocks :) One way to tell if you struts are shot or not is to push down on the front and the back of the car. If It doesn't bounce back into position and bounces a few times it means you need to get new struts. I believe 30-40,000 miles is about the average life of struts.

[PACE]

I think you mean the inside of the wheel well right? The hub is what holds the lug nut bolts....17s with 45s should not be any taller than 16 with 50.....or 18s with 40s. What size tires are you running?

It sounds like the after-market wheels you bought, have the wrong offset for the car.

[limiter]

Er, obviously I'm not an expert. Sorry 'bout the shocks struts thing. Er, and also the wheel well... DoH! I'm doing great today. I'm 0 for 2 on terminology so far, maybe I can break a record trying to explain what tires/wheels I have. :(

My wheels are Quantum Tek Alloys, the style is S-07 17x7.5 (so sayith the website). The tires are BF Goodrich G-Force T/A either 235/45 or 245/45 (or something else, I'll have to check the paper work later, but I think it's one of those... I could be wrong as proven by my previous post).

When I push down on the front of the car it doesn't really rock, it pops back up, with maybe 2 wobbles, and then is still.

[BIGDAN230]

It sounds to me like you have weak struts. the sizes you think you have such as 235/45R17 is 25.33in. tall the 245/45R 17 is 25.68in. tall the proper size is 225/45R17 at 24.97in. tall as the factory GAGT size 225/50R16 at 24.86in. tall. On my car i have 18x8.5 Konig Imagine's with 245/40R18 which are 25.72in. tall and have had no problems.The car is also dropped with intrax springs

[PACE]

the "height" of the wheel has nothing to do with it. Nor does bad struts.....

it is the offset of the wheel that would make it rub on the inside of the wheel well when turning......having 245's would also compound this problem......

in other words the wheels stick out too far from the car....add tires that are wider than the wheel...and boom...your tires rub on the inside of the wheel wells.......Try 225 tires and this "may" correct the problem....if not...its the offset of the wheel.

EDIT: where does it rub? the top of the wheel well or the front of the wheel well when turning???

[limiter]

Originally posted by ECAP
the "height" of the wheel has nothing to do with it. Nor does bad struts.....
it is the offset of the wheel that would make it rub on the inside of the wheel well when turning......having 245's would also compound this problem......
<snip>
EDIT: where does it rub? the top of the wheel well or the front of the wheel well when turning???

If it's the wheels/tires then why has it been pretty much fine for 5 months?

I don't know where it rubs, I'll check when I get out of work for wear marks on the wheel well. My tires are not sticking out the side of my car or anything, and it does not happen on every turn-- only after turning semi-hard then it continues on most turns until the car sits off for a while. I didn't just randomly pick wheels and tires. I went to a tire place (Belle Tire, people in michigan probably know who I'm talking about)-- you think they lied about that combination of tires/wheels working on the car?

[BIGDAN230]

There should be no problem with the Quantum TEC S-07 as they are only available in a 40mm offset for our cars.or any of the the tire sizes I wrote on last reply.One of my distributers has those exact wheels on his 01 GAGT with 235/45R17 TOYO's.I know this dosen't answer your question but it should eliminate the tires and wheels

[PACE]

BIGDAN is right, 40 mm offset should fit perfectly...... hmmmmm still to me, a 245 is really big to fit on the car...I always thought 235 was the best size for the car....maybe it rubs on the top of the wheel well when cornering b/c of the width of the tire....I guess we would need to know where it is rubbing to really know what the problem is...maybe it's somehow rubbing on the spring perch.....i don't know now........

EDIT: my logic is this: I have 225/40/18 with a 42 mm offset and no matter how low my front goes b/c of strut compression i do not scrape my tires on the wells...and my struts are shot from 2 years of eibach compression.....so to me, it is your tire width.....

[limiter]

Okay here is what's on my car (so sayith the reciept):

Wheels:
17x7.5-4.25/115 Quantum Tek Style S-07

Tires:
235/45ZR17 93W BFGood Ridge G-Force T/A

So some are saying the tire width, and some are saying nothing to do with the tire/wheels. I kinda cringe at replacing the G-Force tires as they were 600+ and that's a lot of money for me.

[PACE]

what is the offset? 235's are a fitting tire size for sure. you can rule that out now.... Find out what the offset is....and where it is rubbing.....

This is wierd....

[limiter]

Originally posted by ECAP
what is the offset? 235's are a fitting tire size for sure. you can rule that out now.... Find out what the offset is....and where it is rubbing.....
This is wierd....

How do you find out the offset? I can't really tell where the tire is rubbing... it is either equally worn, or the wear is not noticable. I'll take some digital pictures of it later today and post them up. When I'm looking in the wheel well, there does not seem to be a place it's too close. The only thing I can see that could come close is the end of the spring (where there is a like a metal plate guard) is quite close to the tire, but I assume that moves with the wheel... I'll take a picture of that too.

[limiter]

blah, I don't think the tire is scraping anything. I had a few people look at it and no one could see damage to tire/or poor tred wear, and no wear to the wheel well plastic liner thingy.

After some testing we found that it only made the noise breaking on left sharp turns. It's vibrating, and sounds like tire tread against something, but in a hard left turn with no break it does not seem to make the noise unless I already did a hard break with a turn left.

Seems like a break problem, which I guess is better than having to fix the suspension or replace the tires/wheels. <shrug> Thanks for the input from everyone btw.

[limiter]

So I brought it to a break place and they said it was bearings. Go figure. But on the postitive side supposedly it's covered under the extended warranty I got and the break shop didn't charge me anything for looking at it.

Thanks for the input everyone, sorry to throw you guys off about the tire size thing.

[PACE]

:thumbs: Just as long as its fixed.....damn wheel bearings!!

[limiter]

Okay get this midas said my wheel bearings were bad, the dealer said my Power Steering Rack leaked and burnt out the power steering pump. Go figure.

Either way it's covered under warranty, but the powersteering rack is "Special Order" item (of course), so I have to wait a few days. I'm glad I got an extended warranty.