Tyre rubbing on strut

[al_bey]

Hi all,

Since lowering my car i have had a whiring noise coming from the passenger side wheel. After further investigation it is obvious that the inside of the tyre has been rubbing slightly on the knuckle that adjusts the height of the suspension. I recently had it in at the garage and asked them to look at it. The obvious thing they checked was the camber, but this was exactly the same both sides, and according to the garage, it wasn't even close to rubbing on the drivers side.
They don't do camber adjustment so they said take it to a place that can adjust it and see what they think.

They are standard 15" GTI wheels by the way. The tyres are 205/50

Does anyone have any views on what could be causing this?

Cheers

[justalex81]

mine did the same. only on the back though. you can either fit spacers or put 195/50/15 tyres on.

[dom]

mine did the same. only on the back though. you can either fit spacers or put 195/50/15 tyres on.

+1 The first thing that I would do would be to get your alignment/camber checked properly.

If that doesn't solve it you could switch to 195/50/15 tyres. You could use spacers, but as your running wide tyres that would increase the chance of scrubbing on the wheel arch instead, it all depends on how low are you?

[Wayne]

I would say your camber is out.

[justalex81]

I would say your camber is out.

i think you've got a shagged wheel bearing which has made the camber on your wheel worse and therefore caused it to scrub against the strut. would also explain the whirring noise

[Stirring Moose]

Just out of interest, who's kit or components have you used for the mods?

S.M.

[Len]

Are you on standard wheels? If so and the offset is correct then you have other problems!
As Wayne said could be camber.
You can go to 215 wide without rubbing the strut so its definitely something wrong!

[TDIgadge]

Hi all,

Since lowering my car i have had a whiring noise coming from the passenger side wheel. After further investigation it is obvious that the inside of the tyre has been rubbing slightly on the knuckle that adjusts the height of the suspension. I recently had it in at the garage and asked them to look at it. The obvious thing they checked was the camber, but this was exactly the same both sides, and according to the garage, it wasn't even close to rubbing on the drivers side.
They don't do camber adjustment so they said take it to a place that can adjust it and see what they think.

They are standard 15" GTI wheels by the way. The tyres are 205/50

Does anyone have any views on what could be causing this?

Cheers

First things first.  If you cannot do this sort of thing yourself then you really must find a GOOD garage that you can learn to trust and build a relationship with.  I'm not talking kwikfit sh!t or the like, a specialist VAG garage, someone who not only knows the cars but where most of the workers are likely to own a one.  As for the fault, hard to say without looking but could be anything from cheap nasty tyres (sidewalls differ for different tyres), Camber most definately, camber bolts loose on strut, play in wheel bearing etc etc.  Annis run a fatter tyre as standard and I have ran these fully cambered with original steels with the splitter on the floor without issue.

Long winded way to say, take it to someone who cares about VAG mate, not the first set of guys you see, cheapest doesn't always work out that way in the end.

[Retro_look]

had the same problem with my coilovers when first fitted, it was the camber 

[Stirring Moose]

Long winded way to say, take it to someone who cares about VAG mate, not the first set of guys you see, cheapest doesn't always work out that way in the end.

+1 on this. Always pays to find someone who really knows what's what when it comes to fiddling with suspension geometry. There are a lot of subtle interactions between the various angles and settings that need to be understood. This is even more important when a car is lowered as things like roll centre heights and camber compensation rates will be altered, meaning that VW's original settings won't really be ideal for the car any more.

S.M.