Front Rubbing - Tires, Suspension or Wheels?
Here is what I found. The wheels on the front right now are actually 15x6 with 3.375 back spacing. The rear are 15x9 with most likely 6.5 backspacing. I'm guessing on the back spacing by looking at what's available to purchase new (yes I know I could take the wheel off and measure, but I just haven't had a chance).
I went to Discount Tire today to get their input. He didn't actually measure anything except the wheels I already had and then made some recommendations. With that said, I thought I would post his recommendations and see what the consensus is here.
For the front, he recommended a 17x7 with a bs of 3-3.5" with a 225/45/17. I can get a TTII in a 17x7 with 3.5" bs.
For the rear, he recommended a 18x8 with a bs of 3.5-4" with a 275/40/18. I can get a TTII in a 18x8 with 3.75" bs.
Thoughts? The guy seemed to know what he was talking about, but since he didn't actually put a measuring stick to the car, I'm a little hesitant. If I order what they recommend and they don't fit, they'll have to take them back and get me the right size, but I don't want to go through that hassle if I don't have to.
Wow. Those won't even come close to fitting.
Not even close.
In the front, even for a 7" rim you need 4.25" of backspace. Less than 4" will cause you problems with a 225/45/17. I know this because I have 15x7's with 4.25" of backspace and 225/60/15's on my Duster right now, and there's very little room to the fender. 3.5" of backspace will NOT work on a 7" wide rim with a 225.
In the back, again, not going to fit. For an 8" rim you're going to want 4.5" of backspacing for a 275. Also, I seriously doubt you have 6.5" of backspace on those rear wheels. I say that because if you have a stock A body 8 3/4 your tires would be about 1" on the inside of the inner fender well. By the looks of the picture, I'd be surprised if you had more than 4" of backspace right now, since the tires are hanging out of the quarters.
What's REALLY surprising to me is that he recommended a 275/40/18 on an 18x8", because the smallest recommended width for a 275/40/18 is 18x9". I'm not saying you can't fit a 275/40/18 on an 18x8, but I can tell you that it's against the manufacturers recommendations for EVERY 275/40/18 that I've ever seen.
If you want to run 17's and 18's, this is what I would do.
Get a 17x8 with 5.3 to 5.6" of backspace in the front and run a 245/45/17. In the back, get an 18x9" with 5" of backspace for your 275/40/18. But, in the back, if you're spring's aren't offset you're going to be shoehorning those 275's in there. You might be better off just going with a 255/40/18, or even a 265/40/18. If you do have a spring offset, then you shouldn't have any issues, and should probably run more like 5.25" of backspace.