[Biturbos4] rear suspension clearance

[John Koenig]

Don't forget that the shape of the tires may distort significantly under
load, and may get closer to the suspension than it would appear at rest.  If
the tires are rubbing on the suspension, you should see some nice polished
bits where the rubbing occurs.  If you're talking about wear of the tread,
that does sound more like alignment, especially with your heavy loading.

Regards,
John


----- Original Message -----
From: Rich Shiba <rich at pdi.com>
To: Audi S4 list <biturbos4 at audifans.com>
Sent: Monday, June 28, 2004 6:09 PM
Subject: [Biturbos4] rear suspension clearance


> Heya, I think i'm having some clearance issues running 235/40-18's.
> I'm sure it varies with tire manufacturer/shape and wheel offset.  i'm
> running 18" BBS CH (recommended offset for the S4) and Sumitomo HTR+.
> I'm guessing i'm getting a rub with whatever that suspension arm is
> that goes vertically up behind the tire and then bends toward the
> outside of the car.  The clearance between that arm and the tire is
> small, but i was told the space between the two remains constant as
> the suspension moves. Is this not true?  Maybe i should run a 225/40-18?
>
> I pretty much killed a set of tires driving from SF to Salt Lake City.
> Inner edges on both rear tires wore thru the rubber and into the belt.
> The place in Utah that looked at it thought it must've been an alignment
> thing, but the car was pretty loaded down and I'm hypothesizing the
> compression of the suspension caused some rubbing cuz i've not had
> this problem (that i know of) in "normal" driving.
>
> Anyone seen this?  I thought most 235/40-18's were a safe fit...Was
> my tire guy wrong when he said that gap doesn't change, even when
> the suspension compresses?
>
> Thanks!
>
> -rich, 2000 S4
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