Noob Fitment Question
 

Hey guys,

First time modding a car but i want to do it right. Searching the forum didn't bring up what i needed or my searching skills are crap.

I want to run 17x9 +35 rims on 245/40/17 tires with Tein Flex Z coilovers lowered about 1.2-1.5 in.

Would there be any issues with rubbing? I've seen threads on people running stock suspension and having rubbing issues but i know aftermarket coilovers could be different. I would of course have aftermarket LCA's and camber adjustments made to compensate for the drop.

Anyone running a similar setup who can tell me if i need to make changes?

Thanks

Common setup, it will fit fine. I only had rubbing issues with the stock struts and lowering springs with that tire wheel setup. I'd recommend running less drop if your car is your DD. My car is a little more than -1.5 and it is a bit too low on the street, I also rub the front fender liner under hard cornering. Your rear camber should be fine without any aftermarket LCA's and the Flex Z's will have adjustable top hats.

Thanks for confirming and the advice. Im planning to probably drop about 1.3 and see how it is. Just going for a nice even finish without compromising too much functionality.

In regards to the fenders, would rolling them help? As for the top hats, whats the benefit of adjustable top hats? Tried searching but didnt come up with much. It helps with shock travel?

No, you do not need to roll your fenders this is not super aggressive fitment. As far as the top hats go you can get camber plates which will allow you to adjust your camber to your liking and you can achieve a lot of camber with those too. Alternately, you can also get front camber bolts that would fit in your strut assembly, but the bolts only allow a limited amount of camber.

I only mentioned rolling because NoHave above mentioned he rubs his when cornering aggressively.

As for camber, so camber plates can adjust front camber while LCAs control back camber?

With coilovers you should have more inner clearance as coils dont have the stock style spring perches so i dont think it should rub too much, but again this all depends on how low you decide to go.

Yep, on these cars you can either get camber plates or camber bolts to adjust camber in the front. For rear you would need LCAs to adjust camber. Also, you can try and dial in some front camber so you dont rub the fender if you do get rubbing that is.

I think it is more of an issue with the amount of camber I am running in combination with ride height. It is rubbing the inner liner so fender rolling won't help. The top hat is one of the places you can make camber adjustments. The ones that come with the Flex Z's are adjustable. I'm at -3 and there is a bit more room to go further.

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Alright, well i think that answers all my questions for this setup then. Use the adjustable top hats at the front to get the camber evened out there and then use LCAs in the back to do the same.

Thanks for all the help.

How much camber are you running? I heard having some negative camber like -0.5 to -1 is good for handling?

Handling wise depends on during what kind of driving and on what kind of pavement. Static negative camber is used to compensate tire sidewall flex during turns to make tire contact patch more even and grip better. Also some add more negative camber to front to change grip bias vs grip bias of stock alignment to make car less understeery.

On dry track where turns are taken fast with high side-Gs, so lot of flex, so car there benefits from lot of negative camber of eg. -3 to -4 degrees depending on tires.

When driving on public roads within speed limits or not overcoming them too license-loosing much and without endangering self and others at too high rates, there are no high side loads, tire doesn't flex much, so for optimum contact patch and most grip optimum camber is way less.

When on low grip pavement, such as in wet, or even more so, on gravel, snow, ice, tire looses grip very soon, again before lot of sidewall flex happens, and again here less camber is better.

Stock camber for twins is ~0degrees front, -1.2dg rear. For only street driven car, if some change it for handling, then only slightly, eg. upping front camber (eg. -0.5 to -1.5 front, same -1.2 rear). Such modest camber amount should work well during wet and in winter too. If you track your car .. or in other words, most of your tire wear happens on track (eg. 5-10 or more trackdays should wear out most of tire set even if daily driven mileage is way way higher), then it's worth to go with track oriented alignment (eg. -3 front, -2.5 rear). If driving pattern, how tires are worn, is somewhere in between, eg. just 1-3 trackdays per year, maybe somewhere in between (eg. -2F, -1.5R). I wouldn't single out "spirited canyon runs" from daily driving. If it's still within speed limits, not going 1.5-2x faster then those, sideloads won't differ much from daily driving, unlike on track, where one pushes much closer to own, car and tire grip limits.

This all depends on what you are going to do with your setup. Is this purely DD and occasionally tracking/autoX or canyon runs? If you are just daily driving you can just get camber bolts up front which will be much cheaper than getting camber plates. For track use you definitely want camber plates so you can run more camber. Yes you want to run some camber in the front for better handling and grip. The main thing to remember is toe is what kills your tires you want 0 toe up front and 1/16th toe-in rear.

I do track days with my car so I am at -3 front, -2 rear which hasn't been enough. I am running way hotter on the outer shoulder of the tire then the inside. If you are in the ball park of -1 front for street it should be fine. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

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