Tires rubbing tie rods?

[paulyg]

Hey everyone,

 

I recently did my whole front suspension and took the car in for an alignment. The 14x7 basketweaves wrapped in Bridgestone Potenzas went back on. Alignment shop said they wouldn’t perform an alignment since my tires were from 2009 (understandable!) and sold me 4 new Aspen GTs. 
 

My car is definitely daily driver quality so I’m not worried about less prestigious tires on it. The thing is, they put balance weights on the rims that almost cut through the e-brake cables (they’re currently zip tied to the p clips until I do the rear subframe and not where they’re supposed to be routed: mea culpa) but I suspect the sidewalls are also rubbing on the tie rod boots. This concerns me. 
 

Has anyone had similar issues running e21 14x7s on stock 2002 hubs? 

[TobyB]

Quote

basketweaves wrapped

Well, unwrap them first, sheesh!

 

You most likely have E30 basketweaves, and yes, those are very tight

to the inside of the car.  ET34 or something like that.

 

The fix is, of course, a 10mm spacer.

 

t

 

[paulyg]

Finally took the wheels off and found this:

 

 

Brand new tie rod. Glad it didn't rip the boot apart. Took all the weights off. They were the clip-on variety. All the strange noises and vibrations are gone. If I decide to have the wheels balanced again, I'll make sure the shop glues the weights to the inside of the wheel, not clipped onto the rim. 

[TobyB]

Yup- you need at least 5mm of spacer.

Shiny spot on the strut, yet?

 

The tires move around quite a bit when heavily loaded in cornering.

And different tires move different amounts AND in different ways.

 

t

 

[Hans]

What size tires? How about tire to strut tower?

[7502]

When I mounted 14" basketweave they also rubbed.  As Toby mentioned spaces will fix that. 

Excerpt from an old post. 

 

 

Today I installed 5mm front wheel spacers since the tires were super close to the tie rods.  Could barely get a playing card between them

 

I'm happy with the wheel clearance now. I was just able to get 8 full turns of the lug nuts so I think I'm OK.

 

 

I also bought some 10mm spacers for the rear but will need longer studs.

[RichenFamous]

12 minutes ago, 7502 said:

 

 

 

I also bought some 10mm spacers for the rear but will need longer studs.

If replacing wheel studs, make sure to get the correct studs from Ireland Engineering and save some headache. 
 

I used a set of studs that I had from another build (non-BMW) and the back side of the studs hit the e-brake harp (circled - pic courtesy of @John76).

 

I did not have a whole lot of room, even a few millimeters. I notched the harp ever so slightly for clearance. 
 

?

Rich

[Gordon]

On 8/25/2022 at 9:30 PM, TobyB said:

Well, unwrap them first, sheesh!

 

You most likely have E30 basketweaves, and yes, those are very tight

to the inside of the car.  ET34 or something like that.

 

The fix is, of course, a 10mm spacer.

 

t

 

E30 basketweaves (style 5) are 14X6.5 with an offset of ET 30. E30 14X6 bottlecaps are ET35.   I used E30 basketweaves for years on my former tii and had no issues with 195/60-14 tires.  Key question, what's the offset of the 14X7 wheels? Recommend anyone contemplating running larger wheels/tires to spend some time in this thread before they pull out their wallet.  

 

Edited August 27, 2022 by Gordon

[TobyB]

Quote

E30 basketweaves (style 5) are 14X6.5 with an offset of ET 30. E30 14X6 bottlecaps are ET35.  

so the inner rim edges are almost exactly in the same place- 0.5" wider wheels with the centerline

moved outwards 0.20".  

 

Yarp, they'll rub with chubby tires.

 

t

redundantly again.

[Lorin]

I ran E30 basketweaves on our ‘68 with falken 205/60 which definitely run on the narrow side. That thing was stuffed like a thanksgiving turkey, couldn’t believe it didn’t rub. Some previous fender rolling had been performed. 
 

No pics, sorry. 

[paulyg]

My mistake on the wheel size- they're not 14x7s, they're your garden-variety 14x6.5 basketweaves. Car rides an inch lower on Eibach springs and Bilsteins. 

 

I took the weights off and the "thumping" is gone. Not sure about the rubbing. I ordered some spacers from Ireland for the fronts.