I recently purchased new wheels and tires for my 2005 SRT6 but after mounting the front wheels and tires, there is rubbing on the upper front control mount bolt. I went with 18x8 ET 32 up front (tires 245/40-18) and 18x9.5 ET 20 in the rear (tires 295/35-18). I absolutely love the look but the car cannot be driven due to the front contact when the wheel is turned. I was confident that my tire choice in the front will work but I guess I did not do my home work good enough. Is there a way to tell if my car was lowered by the previous owner? I bought it used almost four years ago with only 6k miles on it; it now has 14k miles. if it was lowered, I want to put the stock springs back on. All ideas are welcomed and will be appreciated.

 

I did a post a long time ago for doing the same thing, and grinding off the bolt for clearance. Was just in the way, and grinding made it safe for autocrossing and street - gotta be out of the way with that testing, Enjoy. Woody

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Thank you immensely for your insightful reply. I am hesitant about grinding the bolt but I know it has to be done. Will I also need a front hub centric spacer in conjunction with grinding the bolt or the grinding alone will suffice? Thanks again for your help.

 

You need shorter bolts. That's what Discount Tire did when they mounted my new wheels and tires.

 

Bill F, I have shorter bolts for the after market wheels. The problem is with the upper control arm bolt that Waldig is referring to that needs grinding due to not sticking with the stock wheel offset and stock tire size. I will grind it down and if the clearance isn't enough, then I will add 5mm or 10mm hub centric spacer to try and remedy the situation. Thanks for the input.

 

or you could go with a 225 wide front tire and not need to grind the suspension bolt.

 

NeedsWings, the 245/40-18 are already mounted and the seller will not exchange them and I am not ready to spend another $400 for another set.

 

iT IS REAL IMPORTANT TO ADD TO THE BOLT LENGTH TO ADD THE THICKNESS OF THE HUBCENTRIC SPACERS. You dont wanna add a spacer and have the studs not have enough threads to prevent pull out of the last few threads.

I ground the extra threads off to the nut and just a bit of the nut on the outer side, but did not weaken the bolt/nut assy. Nothing too deep is needed, especially with the addition of the spacers. Enjoy WY

 

Thank you, Waldig. Will you suggest a 10mm or a 12mm hub centric spacer? I will hate to order a spacer that is too thin to solve the problem. Thanks again.

 

Get some kids clay to mount on the bolt and install wheel and then see what is the spacing for sure. I chose 10 mm or about 0.4". Clay is your friend. Woody

 

This a neat trick!

 

What did you end up going with on your front wheel spacers? And did you grind the bolt?

Any pics of the bolt? I ran into this problem recently...and my tires were both toast, so I went with 225/35s'. It looks like it is good to go now, but I'd still like to hear your input!

 

ShawnQ, sorry for the delayed response. I did grind the two front bolts but was not satisfied with the clearance so I decided to order some Mercedes Benz staggered hub-centric spacers; 10mm for the front and 15mm for the rear. The rear did not need a spacer since I went with a +20 offset 18x9.5 wheel but I just wanted to have one. The difficult part was modifying the 10mm spacer to fit in the front hub due to the dust cover. I ended up grinding the spacer for it to fit over the stock hub. After the 10mm spacer, I have no clearance/rubbing issues when the wheel is fully turned. I am pleased with the end result. Whenever I am chanced, I will go out and take some photos; I probably need to take the wheel off for a good visual.

 

ShawnQ, I forgot one detail. I also molded the wheel well plastic guard with a heat gun because there was rubbing when the wheels fully turned.