chammond

I have Bilstein HDs, H&R springs and 18" MY02 wheels (just installed these) and a measurement of 25 1/4" height from ground to top of the wheel arch front and back. I have bottomed out a couple of times recently even on the interstates here in IL. I don't remember this happening with the 17" cups and I don't think my ride height changed any when I went to 18s.

Does anyone else have these problems? Would moving from 17s to 18s cause this? I love the ride height and look of the car, but is it too low?

Thanks,

Chris

993inNC

Have you checked the over all diameter of the rim/tire combo on the 17's verses the 18's? Maybe the 17's had a taller tire even though the rim increased/tire sidewall size decreased.

chris walrod

Please define 'bottoming out'.. Do you feel the chassis is bottoming on the ground, or the dampers are bottoming on the bump stops?

97Targa

Is your car hitting the ground? On bumps or pulling into driveways? Or are your tires hitting the body?

Ray Calvo

Considering you just changed wheels, are you sure that you're not rubbing a tire in a wheel well, esp, the top of the rear wells? If the wheels are offset too far to the outside, could very well run into this. I do on the Mille Miglia aftermarket 17" rears I have on some tire types due to them being offset outwards a bit too much. Could very well sound like a "thud" when they hit. Rub your hand on the inner lip of the fender to check.

akolodesh

You may be hitting your tires on the fenders. Check the inside of your fenders to see if you are getting black marks. Also check the outside of your tires for shiny areas. The sound of the tires hitting the fenders on a bump is very similar to bottoming out IMO.

akolodesh

woops. Ray beat me to it.

chammond

Something is definintely scraping when I go over some railroad tracks at a speed above a crawl, but I would almost expect that. I haven't gone into a steep driveway, but I would guess it would scrape there too.

The weird part is this "scrape" happens when I drive over a bump on the highway. I can't tell if it's the bottom of the car or the wheel hitting the wheel well. I can't see any physical mark on the tires to indicate the wheel is hitting the wheel well though.

Chris...I really think something is hitting the ground and it feels like it's coming from the rear end where most of the weight is.

I'll post a picture of the car when I get a chance. It doesn't look too low.

Thanks.

Chris

Ray Calvo

If you think the underside is hitting, stop being lazy - jack the car up and check. If it's bottoming, you'll definitely see it.

Personally, I would expect the car nose to be bottoming before the rear. If it sounds like the rear, I would bet that's the tire hitting the wheel well. And the mark might be more likely rubber being left on the wheel well lip edge rather than a mark on the tire. Run your hand along the wheel well lip edge to check.

cladd

Your tires are scraping the wheel wells until proven otherwise.

chammond

Looks like you guys are correct. The tires must be scraping. I looked underneath the car and didn't see any evidence of the bottom hitting anywhere. Ran my finger around the wheel arch and did get some black residue on it.

Many of you are running MY02 Carrera wheels here. Does anyone else have a problem with this? I know some of you have rolled the fenders, but is there any other solution here other than going back to my previous wheels?

Sorry for the dumb questions...I'm kind of a newbie.

Thanks,

Chris

Alon

You really shouldn't be having a problem with the OEM Carrera Lightweights. A few questions:

1- what size tires are you using in the back - 265s or 285s?
2- With the height of your car as stated, how much camber are you running out back? This assumes that you had your car aligned after the suspension install, right? More camber will "tuck" the top of the wheel/tire assembly inward (although you don't want too much)

I am running those wheels with 25 mm spacers (turning an offset of 65mm into 40mm to make it the same as my stock turbo twists). My car is a wide body set to the same rear height as your car (if not 1/8" lower than yours) and with my spacers and the body width difference between our cars, I am effectively running the same setup as yours. I have no bottoming issues at all and I am running just under 1.5 degrees of camber out back.

I'm willing to bet that you're running 285s in the rear and I don't know what other narrow body car owners are using with that suspension setup.

97Targa

No worries, EVERYONE was a newbie once.

Alon

Hey, I'm still a newbie to this car (less than one month). There's so much to learn and do.

kkim

What size are your MY02s? IIRC, there are 2 models of these wheels. Fronts should be 8x18 w/ 52 or 53 mm os and rears are 10x18 w/ 65 os? Someone correct me if I have the offsets wrong, but yours should be around there. The other set they sell is for a Boxster.

Where did you purchase the wheels?