Biscuit

I was pretty sure I had read of people running a 265/40R-17 on the stock wheels without rubbing issues. Since I wore out my Hankook Ventus V12 Evo's on the rear (Got 22k miles out of them if anyone is wondering.) I bought a set of 265/40-17 Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec (what a mouthful) to put on there.

Driving home when I hit the tiniest bumps I'd be rubbing. My first thought is it might be indicative of my rear suspension sagging a bit and perhaps needs replacement. Thought I'd check on here for thoughts / opinions.

Thanks,
Rich

Gramma_Benz

Does it only rub on the left side?

Biscuit

Funny you ask. It appears to only be rubbing on the left side. I was looking at the car and it looked like the left side tire is closer up to the body than the right side. I was parked on a slight angle though so I thought that might be the reason.

Gramma_Benz

it's seems to be a common thing that the left side on C32's are lower than the right side. I'm about to have the left side raised up as I have coilovers. I currently run 255-40-17's with no issues at all. However, when I'm running my 255-50-16 drag radials, it only rubs on the left side. Same thing when I was running my 265-30-19's, it mostly rubbed on the left till I lowered the car. Then it rubbed ALL the time, so I ditched them.

W203Ramos

funny you guys mentioned this "left" side thing. I thought i just gained weight or somethin' LOL.

tc1728

get smaller tires or a lift kit. TC

Biscuit

Something else that occured to me..... What if it's just that the camber is off on the left side? It wouldn't take much to make it rub on the body if it wasn't quite negative enough.

Adjustable suspension would be another option but that's a lot of money to drop just to keep tires. Then again after dropping 400 bucks on tires I'd hate to lose them. Unsure of what to do right now.

W203Ramos

I didn't do it yet but i read that shaving a 1 or 2mm off the tab of the bummper that meets the body does the trick. I just haven't gotten around to do it since I don't use the car much. I'll probably put some white shoe polish on the inner fender wells and tabs to see where it rubs specificaly. I'll try tom. or sunday. if so, then i'll let you know.

John

Biscuit

Yeah, let me know how that works if you don't mind. I found a place here in the Atlanta area, Butler Tire, that will roll the fenders for $85 per side. They heat the paint so it won't crack and such...read good things about them. I'm setup to have mine done Monday so I'll let you know the outcome of that.

One last question - is the rear camber adjustable on our cars? Had a car once where it wasn't so I want to be sure. If the fender rolling doesn't fix it I figure I'll add a couple degrees negative camber.

Thanks,
Rich

FrankW

type in "is the rear camber adjustable on our cars" in search and you'll see **** load of replies saying "you will need camber arms or camber kit to adjust the camber on the W203"

and just FYI the tire is not rubbing on the fender, so rolling it won't make a difference. you need to trim off the tabs inside.

AMG DUDE

I would look at the tire profile (round profile?) and tire manufacture by manufacture dimensions. Even though they are the same size, you will find differences in width and height.

saer1one

LOL..!!! I thought i was the only one with rubbing on the left side.. Im actually looking to buy adjustable camber arms that have a little extra negative camber so i can tuck in the rears a little more as my car does not have the squat look. I've already replaced two perfectly good tires due to punctures on the side walls. I've drimmeled the side tab but it still rubs..

Quicktwinturbo

How do you like the Z1?

W203Ramos

as per my little experiment with the shoe polish, the tires do not rub at all on the fenders, it rubs on the tab where the bumper meets the body. I plan to grind it down with a dremel when i have the time to take the tire off and do it right. BTW our fenders are rolled in stock form.

John

Biscuit

Thanks everybody for all the tips. I pulled off my left rear wheel yesterday and ground down the tab that was referenced. Made a world of difference and I'm only scrubbing when the suspension is near bottom. I'll pull it off and grind it down a little more to get rid of the rest of it.

The tire does run closer to the fender than I'm comfortable with though. I think I'm going to pickup a k-mac camber kit and dial it back a little.

As for the Z1's? The grip is...amazing. Better than the Hankook's I just took off by quite a bit. And they really aren't that bad price wise. I think I gave $161/ea off tire rack for these.

Thanks again everyone.

Quicktwinturbo

Did u have Hankook's V12 evo or s1?
Grip must be hella better though rite?

Biscuit

I had the V12 evo's - still have them on the front actually. I was really happy with them especially since they were only about $90 each. But my wheelspin off the line with the Z1's is significantly less. I'm very impressed so far.

Gramma_Benz

I have the Evo's on the front too and really like them, but I have PS2's on the rear and man do they hook up! Too bad they only last about 6K miles!

kent426

I had the same problems with 275 on the rear, rubbed bad on the left, minimal on the right. I chalk it up to body tolerance from manufacturing. Long story short, put tape on the inside of the fenders, drove over a curb with each side and stuffed a feeler gauge to find where it was dragging. The worst was the plastic side of the lower body panels that rubbers so a lot of grinding and its all gone.

W203Ramos

@ kent426...sl55 rims look nice on the car