Hi all,

I have a slight dilemma and i finally decided to ask u peps.

This is a problem.
At 2 inches, I can barely put people in the backseat b/c the weight would cause the rear tires to rub against the wheel well.

My 1999 ex coupe has
-16" rims 205/45ers
-with tokico struts with used honda oem rear springs. (I had these used pair replace my beat up eibachs hoping it would raise my rear a little - didn't raise it but the quality was admirably better)

I would like to raise it atleast 3 inches; currently it's barely at 2 inches. I've ordered a new pair of OEM honda rear springs with the expectation the used springs have lost their bounce. However, I'm beginning to wonder if it's the rims that need to go OR if i need to replace both the strut & springs to new OEM's to get the desired 3+ inches.

All comments and suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

 

blown shocks shouldn't cause a lowered condition; I've seen seized shocks that got stuck in the compressed position, but from my experience it's fairly rare. I'd say the rear springs you bought are probably weak, so the new springs should fix the problem.

Also, the offset of your wheels probably has a large effect with the whole rubbing thing. With 7" wide wheels, you usually need a fairly high offset (+42mm or higher) to avoid rubbing (I say usually because there are a few things you can do to run lower offset wheels without rubbing).

 

What should i do to cure the offset? Is there a way to adjust to a higher offset?
Thanks.

 

Sort of. The only real option I can think of would be getting thinner 195/50-16 tires; the sidewall will be a hair taller, but the tread width will be almost half an inch thinner. Honestly, I'm not making any promises that it'll keep you from rubbing with the sagging ride height though.

I'd say wait until you get the new oem springs on and see what happens. 16's really shouldn't rub at stock height no matter what the offset, so simply putting new springs in to raise it back up should be enough to keep you from rubbing.

 

kool, thanks~

i guess it's the rims i got and it's offset.. they must have sum major neg/pos offset.

the reason i'm assuming this is i've seen some rides that'll have the rear tires tuck right in w/ no worries.

ahhh the headaches!!!

 

no problem. Like I said, with new oem springs, you should be fine, even with the wheels. If I were to guess, I'd say the offset's slightly too low; like I said before, with a 7" wide wheel, you want about a +42 to +45mm offset. I've heard of people having rubbing issues with +40mm offsets.

And yeah, offsets with civics are kind of tricky... too low and it'll rub the fender lip; too high and it'll rub the inside of the wheel well. But yeah, with a nice high offset and a few degrees of negative camber, the tires tuck right in; my old civic tucked about 1" of the tire in back with my 17's with their +45mm offsets (3* of negative camber all around).

 

Should i get a camber kit? I basically need the tire to "push" in a bit more..

 

I don't know of anything you could do to the rear to add more negative camber... most of the parts you buy for the rear as far as camber adjustment goes can only add more positive camber, which is the opposite of you want. One thing you could do (if it's just barely rubbing, which it most likely is) is roll the fender lips. I'll see if I can't get a link for you to show you what it is and what it does. The only thing you have to be careful about is you can crack the paint if you're not careful.

*edit: here's a pretty good walk-through on the proper fender rolling method.

 

holy sh*t! i had noooo idea that was possible! lol

nice link man! but i don't think i have the ballz to fender-bender the walls! ^o^

i'm gonna get the oem's installed wed. *crossing my fingers it works!*

thanks for the help reaper! MAD PROPS!!!!!

 

haha, yeah... rolling the fenders is about the only way people with +38, +40, etc offset wheels can get away with lowering their cars. Luckily, with my +45s on my old civic, they were pulled in enough that I didn't have to tuck.

Anyway, let me know how it goes after you install the new springs.