IanM

Am I alone on this? My driver's side rear tire barely has any wheel-well clearance, while my passenger's side has loads of clearance. What's with this offset? Is this "normal" on our cars? Is there any way to alter the offset of the rear hubs in our cars, via springplates etc?

I've got 10" rear wheels of non-optimum offset (50mm I think), and the largest tires I can fit without rubbing on the driver's side are 255-40/17's. These tires are way undersized for my 10" wheels. I'd love to put something meatier on there, even 265's would be better, but I don't want to rub. BTW, my '89 model already came stock with rolled rear fender lips. Also, I'm not interested in machining away any material from the wheel mounting surface to increase the offset.

IceShark

No you are not alone and not the first to notice this.

Operator

same here

DangerIsland

The car I just bought has 275 wide rears, I see that danno has also put some really wide tires on his car. Where are yours rubbing? (or where would they rub, I should say. I guess you'd just have to find better offset wheels if you wanted to get bigger in back.

tifosiman

Been there, seen that, got the grinder out. Danno, post them pics of yours in action! (I didn't take photos when I was grinding, I was too nervous and not calm, cool, and collected like Danno........)

Tifo

IanM

Danger - If you stand behind the car and look towards the driver's rear tire/wheel well, the rim sticks out about as far as the outside of the fender. If it were to rub, it would rub on the outside fender - there's tons of room on the inside (ie. my offset is too low, wheel sticks out too far). My 255's aren't as wide as the wheel, and they squeeze into the fender when the suspension is compressed.

Tifo - Like I said, my car is an '89, which came from the factory with no rear fender lips, ie. there's nothing to grind!!

Short of pulling the rear fender out by a couple cm's, I guess my only other alternative would be different offset wheels (something that I'm not interested in doing). I don't "need" wider tires, my car gets excellent traction with my lsd and 255's as it is. It'd just be nice to put something wider on those 10" wheels, they are screaming for 275's or 285's.

I was just hoping there was some other modification possible to the rear suspension that would bring the hub in a bit.

tifosiman

Interesting. Would it be feasible to have a machine shop take a little bit off of the rim where it mounts to the car? This would effectively move the tire section inward somewhat. Is there enough material there to do that safely? Since your rear tires are probably directional anyway, it's doubtfull that you would ever need to swap sides, so as long as you marked the wheels "l" and "r", it may work?

I didn't know that that year came with the fender lips already rolled. Learn something new everyday, I guess!

Tifo

Luis de Prat

Since most tracks are left handed, could this actually be an advantage of some sort, considering that track cars often have asymmetrical camber adjustments, etc.?

Rich Sandor

Does a person sitting in the driver's seat change what it looks like?

Wormhole

This is bugging the crap out of me. There is about an inch difference comparing both sides. Has anyone slotted the frame support that houses the torsion bar mounts in order to slide the entire assembly over? My street wheels are rubbing on one side with the fenders cut to the max, and the other side hasn’t been touched. German engineering?

ninefiveone

I resolved that by putting a spacer on the passenger side.

icat

This is done at the factory to facilitate better traction during NASCAR high bank action...

Being German of course - they got it backwards....

nineeagles

my 17" cups rub on the drivers side when I hit a bump but not on the passenger side....although I didn't remove my spacers (factory) on the back before I mounted the wheels..... guess this would help.... have plenty of thread grab on the lugs....I'll try that and see if the rubbing stops...(I am about 190 lbs so it's not really me)....at least I keep telling myself that!

Serge944

I have nearly an inch of extra clearance on my passenger side front wheel well. :-\

944S2

Yep..me too. When I put my 17' Cup I's with 255/17/40s they rubbed on the left side. There is about 1.5cm difference. I took it straight back to the wheel and tire guy, who said that the guard on that side was pressed in. I then took it to Porsche, they had a look at it and said that everything was fine, no damage had been done to body or suspension, it was put onto a chassis jigg and all of the suspension was gived a full race quality check and realignment, which helped a little, but the problem still persists. the general consensis is that it's a manufacturing fault with the body, and they are all like that. They were never produced from the factory with 17' wheels or tires larger the 245/16/50s. I was very sceptical of this, but someone else pointed out "check out the panel gaps in a 944, the body's are not that accurate"...we can blaim Audi I guess!