Tire Rubbing Fender Liner Help
 

Hello all, first time poster, recent new owner of the FRS.

So earlier today I was attempting to do some donuts which ended up causing the tire to rub and rip into my front left fender liner/wheel well, melting away a portion. This was caused by having the wheel turned all the way to the right, and I'm assuming with some body lean, it was enough to make contact and rub away. In the posted picture, the angle of the cut lines up directly with my wheel turned fully to the right, so I know this was the cause.

I was doing donuts in both directions, fully turned into their respective directions. So what I don't understand is why doing right turning donuts would cause this, and not the other way (no problems on the other side), or why there would be enough body roll in the first place to have it make contact. I'm on stock suspension, and the tires are Hankooks which seem to provide enough clearance otherwise. I'm not completely educated on these components, but my guess is a bad spring on my driver side would allow the car to dip lower than the other side that didn't have the problem? Is that a possible reason? On an otherwise fully functional stock car meant for handling, some simple donuts wouldn't create enough body lean to cause this would it? I've seen much wilder videos online compared to what I was doing.

Note, this isn't the first time it's happened either. I actually just replaced the fender liner, except the first time around the damage caused my tire to rip it out completely, and it flew off into the highway so I never got the chance to make the connection with the donuts. Just looking for an explanation/advice. I don't believe I was doing anything too crazy, maybe 20 seconds of spinning in either direction just to try it out, so please no hate, was just having a little fun. Any help is appreciated and thanks for reading.

What size are your wheels and tires?

I've lost both my front fender liners from being slammed and having slightly oversized tires.

Stock height, wheels and tire size. Hankook Ventus V2 215/45R17

This is the first I've heard of any interference there with totally stock wheels. I have the same tyre on mine, (well, ventus v4 of the same size on a 7.5" rim) and they are not even close to rubbing there.

I'd be looking for previous accident damage not repaired properly. Is the LF wheel properely centered in the wheel cutout? Have you had a wheel alignment since you bought it to check that the wheelbase is the same both sides? Perhaps the guard liner was just not installed properly in the first (and second) place?

Come back.

Maybe some positive camber? Is anything bent suspension wise?

Weird question, but how heavy are you?

Hmm. From my recollections of drifting events, there often were different tire remain debris on the ground. Couldn't some of that get picked up and ripped liner? Imho with stock everything there should be enough clearance in all cases between all elements.
BTW, is alignment stock?

Same pressure both sides? What little experience I have pushing people to drive faster on skidpad, you never drive it quite the same both ways.

Thanks for the replies guys.

First off would like to premise that this is my first sports car, and that although I learn much from the forums, I'm not as technically inclined as y'all, so any details of what I can look out for/symptoms helps.I will try my best to give an educated answer.

That being said, I haven't had a wheel alignment done as the car drives straight and nothing alarmed me to think it needed one. The LF wheel does look centered in the cutout, and I wouldn't exactly know what to look at for other suspension damages. I did notice the previous owner installed Megan control arms in the rear (not sure about the front), so it is possible the previous owner messed with suspension. However, the car was purchased used from a Honda dealership that performed an "all wheel alignment" before sale.

The liner was definitely installed correctly the second time as I took all precautions to do so, since I couldn't understand how it happened the first time. Never looked under there before that. I highly doubt it is from any road debris being kicked up as I was on a wide flat open surface, and like I said the liner damage lines up exactly with a full right lock and some body lean. When I discovered the damage, the portion that ripped out was caught in between the wheel spokes.

The first time this happened though, I can't confirm if it was from donuts or if it requires a full right turn lock. I was simple driving on the freeway 70mph at a slight right curve, hit a few bouncy bumps, and before I knew it the liner crunched up and flew into the distance.

I weigh 160lbs, nothing out of the ordinary there. And true, possibly did drive at different pressures both ways, but not by too much. 1st gear, consistently feathered some gas, about 20 seconds, nothing too crazy. Any other thoughts or suggestions?

Pizzachicken: i suggest to visiting alignment rig at least once even for new stock car, as car tracking straight might not mean that alignment is completely fine, it being off may propagate in some scenarios other then cruising straight, eg. when braking, when accelerating, when in mid of fast turn, when driving with little of grip eg. on ice. After all, "butt dyno" is imprecise measurement device, and stock alignment ranges that still pass, at it's extremes may make car feel very differently.
That aside, on stock car/stock suspension/stock wheel & tire size there should be enough clearance even if something is a bit off. After all, one should be able to put even snow chains on. Yet you ripped liner. Are you completely sure there was nothing ever moded on it? For example, my tires slightly rubbed liner when i dialed in max camber i could at topmount camberplates. Stock car has rather shallow max steering angle, so some mod bits in front suspension (eg. different inner tie rod ends (also by Megan :))) to increase max steering angle for drift use. As there were megan LCAs in rear, imho there is high chance for that to not be only aftermarket suspension part. I'd compare height and max steering angle with another twin that has known stock front suspension.
Used car bought in dealership is not sure way for car to be in like stock state, just that they looked upon/performed some minimum set of tests, and it "seemed" for them "good enough". Those tests may not have involved bottomed out suspension and turned wheels to lock.

churchx: I see. I added to my post just after yours that the dealership I purchased from did an alignment before the sale. I understand that their tests may not be as intricate, but would that mean I'd still need to visit another alignment shop? I was thinking that the dealership would go just return the car to factory alignment.

As for any other mods, none that I've immediately noticed. The LCA's were blue and noticeably aftermarket, while everything else I can see is black and dirty. I don't always know what i'm looking at down there, nor do I have all the means / connections with knowledge to help out. Will try to inspect tomorrow when the sun is out. So you're saying even with a good alignment, it's possible that aftermarket control arms, tie rods can be the cause? Anything else to look for?

But for example - do dealership know specs what max steering angle is? Did they thought of checking it? On stock twins it's relatively narrow one, due boxer engine being wide/limited clearance. Thus i needed some getting used to as despite car being small it needed more steps when turning 180dg other way around.

Alignment was mentioned more as to what other things may introduce rubbing. There is little chance, but what if :). And good alignment .. good for what use? For example optimum alignment may differ for daily driving or track use (by possibly much more camber then in stock alignment). I also mentioned it as "worth doing at least once on any car you got", you don't know for sure, even if it won't get rid of rubbing issue for sure. Sometimes excessive camber with some of wheel/tire choices may cause that. But as you are on stock wheels/stock sized tires, imho there should be more clearance.

As LCAs were added, probably to add camber adjustment in rear .. people often do that if they want non-stock alignment (for eg. track use), or to dial alignment back & even out for car that is lowered. In addition to max steering angle, i'd check for camber/toe adjustment parts in suspension (eg. camberbolts, eccentric control arm bushings, camplates, offset topmounts, strut slotting), if car is lowered (stock shocks usage doesn't mean that car is not lowered, as it can be done via eg. shorter lowering springs). I highly doubt compared to parts above, but aftermarket front knuckles also is possibility, if one tried to increase max steering angle.
If compared to other, stock twin, car indeed is overlowered and/or with increased steering angle, imho simplest would be limit steering angle.

A bit pitty that one cannot get full list of mods from previous owner. That would be best, to eliminate need to diagnose or guess.

My car's fender liners were rubbed to shit when I bought the car. But, the wheels/tires didn't have any clearance issues that I could see. I chalked it up to the previous owner lowering or stancing the car or something like that. Everything appears to be stock now, but who knows what the 2 POs did with it.

This thread has me worried that maybe there is something up with my alignment or suspension that I'm unaware of... I guess I'll have to try and check if my wheels look like they might be rubbing.

How difficult was replacing the fender liners? Or, if you had a body shop do it, how much was it?

Something off with alignment and/or aftermarket parts that make wheel rub at full lock imho are relative rarity. After all, despite one may think from all the modding threads in this forum, in reality majority owners drive car stock and are not in this forum, at most changing some unimportant interior bits like eg. shift knob. Different/wide wheels and tires might be way more common then alignment/aftermarket suspension parts caused issues, i wouldn't get too set on it.
That being said, as i've wrote before, having alignment done at least once imho is worth in general, be it new car, or bought used. For example, uneven and even slight toe out in rear made my car (completely stock at that point, including alignment how it went out of factory) a bit too nervous driving on ice/snow, as it tended to always slide to one side when tires slipped under gas, and i needed to drive nervously/carefully often to "catch" slide with countersteer. Getting toe even and slight toe-in in rear allowed me to just drive. Even if tires slipped, car kept going straight.

Are you the original owner? Has the car been in an accident before?

A totally stock car should not rub tire to fender liner.