On 07:00 PM 06/26/02 -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] said... >on a 89crx how big of rims can u put on it. cause i know someon that said >they had 17's on theirs and it rubbed on the wheel wells. so if u couls >write me back and let me know what u think
You can actually cram a set of 18s but personally (and a few other people) feel that it looks way too large for such a small car. It's been argued yet heavily agreed that 16s gives the best fit and look. I'm running 16 x 7 inch rims with 205/40 tires. If you go to my web site (URL listed in my sig) it shows my car with a 3 inch drop which is the lowest I can go due to the body kit. Otherwise I'm pretty confident that I can go the full 4 inches that my adjustable coil over kit offers. Anyway, sitting at 3 inches, the tires nor the wheels rub. The only time it does rub is if I happen to bottom out the front while driving ~ it touches the top of the fender well. In all honesty, you probably don't want to be running at 3 (or lower) inches for long periods anyway. If you're still set on getting a set of 17s, I recommend a 17 x 7 rim with a 205/40 series tire. This should fit with little to no rubbing even if you lower the car (while I recommend not to go any lower than 1.5 inches with this wheel and tire combination). If you are entertaining the idea of 18s, then an 18 x 7.5 inch rim with a 215/35 series tire is what I recommend. Most of the wheel/tire rub that I've seen with rims in the 17 and 18 inch size tends to occur with the rear. Even with the rears lowered only 1.25 inches. Another concern is the wheel offset. I've seen some that had too much positive for the rear of the Honda CRX and their owners had to either flare the fenders or do the old-school modification of "rolling" the fender lip using a baseball bat (wood, if possible...). Typically with the 18s, you get too much negative offset which is why it tends to rub on the rear control arm and even the rear torsion arms. If you don't plan to lower the car, then you shouldn't have too much to worry about. You will probably get some rubbing when you hit a bump or something depending on the condition of your bump stop (however due to the rather tall wheel and tire, the bump stop may never get a chance to do it's job as the tire will most likely hit the fender before the bump stop hits the top of the shock). And lastly, you will lose acceleration going with a larger wheel and tire. The amount of loss will vary. Even with 16s. I've noticed a slight drop in off the line acceleration which is most noticeable when I have the AEM cam sprocket set to 0 (zero). :^) I tend to run my gear slightly advanced so there's a bit more pep at the wheels. And it's been argued and reported by many that 16s (and larger) will also decrease not only fuel economy but ride comfort. Fuel economy I can see (I think I loss about 2 MPG for city driving, highway, maybe 1 MPG if that...) but ride comfort, that's a matter of personal opinion. I suppose some comfort it loss with the low profile tire. But other things to consider is the suspension setup. If you keep it at stock (or near stock; 1 to 1.25 inch of drop) and you run a good shock you're probably not going to notice much difference in the ride quality. So.. if you don't want to lose any acceleration or MPG yet want to get something larger than the stock 13 or 14 inch rims, you can go with a set of 15s (even though it won't look like they're any larger than 14s). Otherwise I still recommend that you consider 16s. But to answer your question 17s will work and the amount of rubbing that will occur will depend on what I stated earlier in my reply.... Hope this helps. If not, please feel free to email. Please let me know what you end up doing as I am curious... Robert K. Kuhn CRX Owners Group President (http://www.crx.org/southcal) 1990 Honda CRXsi (http://drive.to/jiggy) ICQ # 3714283 (nickname: godzilla)
