Front wheel shifting forward?

[snoopios]

Hi guys,

Does anyone know if it's possible for front wheels (or just an individual one) are able to be shifted forward/backwards?

Getting ready for the Blyton park track day, I bought some new tyres and wheels, #allthegearandnoidea, and they seemed to be running fine after putting on some second hand wheel arches and some universal fender flares however, on Saturday/Sunday, I popped to the shops only to find that the passenger side tyre is catching on the metal tab on the fender that attaches to the bumper. It's quite bad and I've tried putting on the original fenders and they have the same issue.

Thing is, when I first did all of the mods to get the wheels to fit, they didn't have any issues and it seems as if something has happened after that.

Is it possible that one of the lower control arm cam bolts could have rotated out of place, twisting the lower control arm and push the front wheel forward?

I've attached a couple of pictures for reference. The first one is of the drivers side which is fine and the second is of the passenger side which is the one that's catching.

In both pictures, I've rotated the wheels so that it's at the point in which the tab catches on the wheel on the passenger side and then mirrored on the drivers side - if that makes sense

Thanks in advance

 

[Sturneyrx7]

You can adjust caster which effectively moves the wheel back and forth, best bet would be to get a full geo set up done.

 

[snoopios]

You can adjust caster which effectively moves the wheel back and forth, best bet would be to get a full geo set up done.

I guess a full laser wheel alignment would help with that?

 

[bash]

Yeah caster needs adjusting as Sturney said. Yes unless the laser alignment guy is an idiot.

 

[snoopios]

Yeah caster needs adjusting as Sturney said. Yes unless the laser alignment guy is an idiot.

Well, I thought it could have been that and went to a garage today to have it all aligned but it wasn't quite full laser wheel alignment that I was expecting. They had the kit that you could easily adjust toe with a red line pointed on a guage but that was about it. Guess I better try and find somewhere that has some better kit.

 

[Sturneyrx7]

Well, I thought it could have been that and went to a garage today to have it all aligned but it wasn't quite full laser wheel alignment that I was expecting. They had the kit that you could easily adjust toe with a red line pointed on a guage but that was about it. Guess I better try and find somewhere that has some better kit.

Yeah, check they can adjust camber, caster and toe. You can’t do it without really when adjusting the camber will also change the caster

 

[JDK]

Can you raise the height of the car?

 

[bash]

Well, I thought it could have been that and went to a garage today to have it all aligned but it wasn't quite full laser wheel alignment that I was expecting. They had the kit that you could easily adjust toe with a red line pointed on a guage but that was about it. Guess I better try and find somewhere that has some better kit.

Yeah thats not full alignment. You need to find a company with a hunter system preferably.

 

[snoopios]

Yeah thats not full alignment. You need to find a company with a hunter system preferably.

That's what I'm looking for now. Apparently Kwik fit have one so I'm going to give them a call tomorrow morning.

Thanks for the help so far.

 

[snoopios]

Can you raise the height of the car?

I haven't got any spanners unfortunately. Also if I did adjust the height, wouldn't i still have the same issue when the suspension compresses under load?

 

[AdamG]

You might strugle to ge it done with so little room between the wheels and the arches because of the way the recievers are clamped to the wheel

 

[snoopios]

Interesting finding from getting wheels aligned is that there is not issue with them, it must all be in the body work....

 

[Sturneyrx7]

Interesting finding from getting wheels aligned is that there is not issue with them, it must all be in the body work....

Sounds ominous.....

 

[snoopios]

Sounds ominous.....

Yeah, not the best news really.

 

[bash]

erm. Hold up.
1). What specs are the wheels you're running?
2). What has 'Alignment Man' set your caster to?
3). Is it the same on both sides

 

[snoopios]

erm. Hold up.
1). What specs are the wheels you're running?
2). What has 'Alignment Man' set your caster to?
3). Is it the same on both sides

1) Enkei RS05RR 18 x 11j et 16
2) He didn't set it, he found that the caster was exactly the same on both sides
3) Yup, same caster both left and right

 

[bash]

Do you have a print out of your alignment

 

[jdmr_neil]

18 x 11j on the front!!! I think that's your problem there. That's very wide for a front wheel.

 

[snoopios]

Do you have a print out of your alignment

I don't. Admittedly I was in a bit of a rush because I had managed to make it to 4 different garages around Worcester to try and find one with the right kit (Kwik Fit who apparently have the hunter system said that they could only do rear wheel caster adjustment....) so I had to leave the car over lunch and rush to pick it up. In fairness to the guys, they didn't charge me anything so it's not a complete loss.

I have managed to stop the wheel catching on the tab now by shaving a bit of the tab off (the tabs are pretty rusty anyway and the wings were second hand for £30 for the both so I'm not too fussed).

 

[snoopios]

18 x 11j on the front!!! I think that's your problem there. That's very wide for a front wheel.

Yeah, they are very wide and I know that the diagonal distance between the left and right edges of the tyres has significantly increased from stock or my other wheels that were 9.5J which does mean that when the wheel turns, it protrudes towards the front and the rear of the car (depending on which way I turn the steering wheel) more.

I have seen FD's with this exact same wheel setup but most of the time they are running wider wings (FEED ones for example), like this one -> https://blog.modbargains.com/unicorn-sighting-widebody-mazda-fd-rx-7-turbo-visits-modauto/