Previous owner mentioned that he put on slightly larger tires - they look great on the car, as they fill the wheel well pretty nicely. They do cause my car to pull to the left, and I'll have to repaint the inner wells from where all the paint rubbed off. You guys think I should go with a smaller tire, or just replace them every 2000 miles when they get rubbed down to the steel belts?


Seriously though, I'm thinking about replacing these with 205x55. Anyone think I'll have more rubbing problems with that size?

I am currently running 205/60-15 on my car. They don't rub, except for when there is more than 250lb in the passenger seat and I have to go over a curb/speed bump.

You don't want rubbing like that on your tires. It wouldn't have been much fun had you totall worn through those belts while on the highway, or canyon carving, would it?

In this case, bigger is not necessarily better

I was pretty amazed when I pulled the tires off. At first I thought it was alignment, until I say the mirror image on the other side. I think 205x55 will be as large as I go, I was just worried that would be to large as well.

My impression after a search here is that most people are running 195-205 by 50-60, with the bulk being 195x50.

It all depends on the wheel width and offset, but from that picture it looks like you have 2.0L fuchs?

Yep!

Something is screwed with your car, there is no way the "tires" are causing the car to pull to one side unless you are running different sizes on each side.

as for the rubbing on the inside fender wall you can get a special spacer from Elephant Ra¬

that looks like a problem with your toe setting, rather than a "rubbing" problem. Is the car bottoming out on the tires to wheelwells?

perhaps you're right. Here are the symptoms that I see:

1. It is the same on each side
2. The outside tread is perfect, the inside tread is worn down to the steel belts
3. There are rub marks where the tire hits the side of the wheel well when you turn all the way either left or right. I had similar problems when I put 33" tires on my Jeep.

As for the pulling to the left, it's very slight - probably just alignment, but I wouldn't have it aligned with the current rubber.

Hi

My 205/50/15 rub on my 74 but not on the 73. 215/60/15 is just too big. The safest bet is a 195/60/15, a real nice tire for the street and lots of comfort for my crummy roads

Yes tires can cause a pull, I see it all the time, it is common practise to rotate tires from right to left after an alignment if it still pulls, this is usually do to the wear patterns caused before the alignment. I have had cars pull with brand new tires also, but to distroy these in 2000 miles, your car should be damb near undrivable, screaming around every corner. Too big.

The ideal situation is to use a buddies wheels and tires set, to see how big you can go on your car (914 are al different), get it alignment and put new rubber on it.

Pain in the ass, but worth it.
Good luck

There is no way those tires are rubbing on the tread, check your toe (front and back).
Tires wear very quickly on the inside if toe is wrong.

combination toe out and camber. You physically can't get a rub right there. That is a scrub as in Scrubbed off by the road.

That is a Fuchs wheel we are looking at.

There is a possibility of rubbing the inner rear fender well with a tire that fat.
I rubbed a 205/50-15 Kumho V700 Ecsta. Till I put a 1/4" spacer in there.

wow, I didn't think I'd spark a debate! I am pretty sure that the tires are just to big for the car. Here are some shots of the other tire that is still mounted.

Next week I'm going to go get a set of 195/60's like MecGen mentioned.

These are on the front? Did the PO lower the frontend? If the camber was not

corrected it would wear like that on the front.

To be honest, I have no idea what the previous owner did. It may have been lowered, but i"m not sure. Is anyone else running 215x60 tires?

That is your suspension geometry being wrong... (seriously wrong)..Take it to an alignment shop imediately after you get good tires on it. 205-55's are perfect, 215's and you'll rub, like shown. Get good one's.


(for the sake of argument, im at 255 40's on the front, and 285 35's on the back... lol)

If I simply ask for an alignment, will they handle everything that needs to be done (camber, etc), or is that normally not included?

take it to a shop that knows how to align Porsches especially 914s.
What do you use your car for? street? track? AX? combination..
This will decide how you align your car. for street less neg camber, for track/ax more neg camber. Type of tires you plan on running, how low the car is....what suspension mods if any.....

It all goes together and will indicate where the alignment needs to go...??????

You want a full alignment, you need to provide the factory specs. (or the specs you want..)

I'd go for 1/2in to 0 toe out on the front, 0 toe on the rear

Camber(negative) .5-1 deg front, and (negative).5-.75 on the back.. You will also need to provide spacers/shims for the back, (L shaped shims.. do a WTB or look on ebay for rear camber shims.)(more shims will give you less negative camber, or more positive camber however you look at it) Thats a good street setup... for some windy corners now and then... If you want a more specific setup (which I reccomend, because these numbers are from the top of my head) do a search.

GL

Joe is right. Severly toed out.

I see the front. 215's can fit there but, I've never seen 215's on stock Fuchs on the rear w/o some serious work.

I think you're spot on with the 195/60's.

I'll bite and pour some gas on the fire.


I agree it is a poorly set up suspension. It needs a quality alignment.

In addition, something should be inspected as to why the inner tire rubs at full lock. I'm guessing that the offset is not stock. The track car with 930 front struts and hubs does rub at full lock.

You can put shims at the ends of the steering rack to limit full lock (that is what the big thick washer in there is for). If these are removed (or not installed), the steering can turn further than designed and the tires can rub the inner front fenders. Similarly, if too many spacers are used on the front hubs, the inner portion of tire can contact the inner fender. Special spacers can be made to limit full lock on the steering rack (special washers).

To reiterate, the wear you have shown is due to misalignment, not the slight tire rub that you show.