Wheel and Tyre Fitment: Fitment & Clearance Checks
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Fitment & Clearance Checks
02.26
| 00:00 | Having pulled the trigger on a new set of wheels with different dimensions, it's not always a case of just bolting them up and going for a drive. |
| 00:08 | In some cases, the risk of fitment issues might be little to none, but it's best practice to check for clearance as it can prevent some serious damage to our wheels or our car if we've got something wrong along the way. |
| 00:21 | Further to this, if we want to set up our coilovers properly for our new fitment, we need to do most of this work anyway. |
| 00:29 | But this is covered in the HPA suspension tuning and optimisation course, so I'd recommend checking that out if you want to know more. |
| 00:36 | Briefly put, the first step is jacking up the car and supporting it safely on axle stands or a hoist. |
| 00:42 | Then we can remove the spring and bump stop and reassemble the suspension. |
| 00:47 | With the tyre fitted to the wheel, be sure to carefully fit the wheel to the hub. |
| 00:52 | If there's any contact between the brakes and wheel, we don't want to scratch anything. |
| 00:57 | Assuming the wheel bolts up flush with the hub, we can rotate it to confirm there's no contact and make sure we have at least a few millimetres of clearance between the caliper and the spokes or the barrel. |
| 01:09 | At full droop we can turn the steering from lock to lock and look inside the wheel well for any contact with the chassis or suspension. |
| 01:16 | Then we can use a jack under the suspension to move the wheel through its entire travel. |
| 01:21 | It's also worth continuing to check lock to lock on the steering throughout this travel and rotate the wheel on the hub to help ensure everything is moving smoothly with no contact. |
| 01:33 | Ideally, we'll want to maintain at least a few millimetres of clearance at all times but some cars that might have more suspension compliance could need more. |
| 01:42 | The same process is completed on the rear axle but without the steering, unless of course the vehicle has some form of rear steering that we can manipulate. |
| 01:51 | Once we're happy there's no risk of contact, we can reassemble the suspension with the springs and bump stops, ensuring everything is torqued correctly and then install our new wheel and tyre setup, torquing the wheels and checking our tyre pressures to finish up. |
| 02:06 | This process of cycling the suspension through the entire travel without the spring and bump stop allows us to check for clearance under all conditions, but it's important to remember that if the clearance is tight, there'll be some movement under load when the vehicle is running and that could cause interference. |
