T6.1 20” Wheels Rubbing Under Max Compression

[DubDavid]

Please can I revive this old thread, as seems relevant to my snapped undertray.

My van is only a few months old. I'm running 20 inch MOMO revenge wheels with 245/45R20 tyres. It's been lowered about 70 millimeters. I did my research, including extensively on here and speaking with recognised experts from this forum, and thought all should be fine.

On full right lock the left tyre bit into the undertray and pulled it down until it snapped where the bolt is. The bolt is fine, just the left side of the undertray is now snapped.

Here's the thing, when I first had my van the steering wheel was a few degrees out - the van would drive straight when the steering wheel was pointing slightly right. I took it to VW and rather than re-center the steering wheel they adjusted the tracking. Essentially they would have turned the wheel left a bit so that it was centered which would have turned the wheels left slightly and then adjusted the tracking on the wheels back to center.

Question is, would this have adjusted the end points of my steering: does it mean, when I am now on full right lock that my left wheel is more likely to make contact with the undertray?

Also, will it affect my camber or cause uneven wear?

All thoughts welcome. Thanks.

 

[BognorMotors]

What are the offset of your wheels and width of them? Any pics.

 

[DubDavid]

What are the offset of your wheels and width of them? Any pics.

 

[DubDavid]

Here's the broken bit. The wheels are 8.5J and 45 ET. Thanks

 

[BognorMotors]

Sorry I meant of how the wheels sit on the van.

And that set up shouldn’t have any issues - is your alignment set correctly would be my first check point. Get it checked - we would hunter align it.

Were you on a level ground when this happened?

 

[The Van Cave]

Please can I revive this old thread, as seems relevant to my snapped undertray.

My van is only a few months old. I'm running 20 inch MOMO revenge wheels with 245/45R20 tyres. It's been lowered about 70 millimeters. I did my research, including extensively on here and speaking with recognised experts from this forum, and thought all should be fine.

On full right lock the left tyre bit into the undertray and pulled it down until it snapped where the bolt is. The bolt is fine, just the left side of the undertray is now snapped.

Here's the thing, when I first had my van the steering wheel was a few degrees out - the van would drive straight when the steering wheel was pointing slightly right. I took it to VW and rather than re-center the steering wheel they adjusted the tracking. Essentially they would have turned the wheel left a bit so that it was centered which would have turned the wheels left slightly and then adjusted the tracking on the wheels back to center.

Question is, would this have adjusted the end points of my steering: does it mean, when I am now on full right lock that my left wheel is more likely to make contact with the undertray?

Also, will it affect my camber or cause uneven wear?

All thoughts welcome. Thanks.

You could pop a 5mm shim behind the wheel to aid clearance. The recent Revenge centre bore is same as VW so that rules out a hub centric spacer of 10mm, so try a 5mm shim.

Is the van a T32? I’m assuming yes and that’s why you chose that tyre size.

Are you sure it’s a 70mm drop? Has that been measured from wheel arch to wheel centre to confirm?

 

[DubDavid]

It's a T30. It would be great to get a view on the original question about the end points (a few comments ago). I'm confident the lowering isn't the issue as was done by an industry legend. Will post a photo of the wheel in the wheel arch.

And, yes, it was on full lock and the suspension would likely have compressed a bit as was coming off the sloped drive onto the level road.

Thanks for all the input!

 

[DubDavid]

Here's how it looks

 

[The Van Cave]

It's a T30. It would be great to get a view on the original question about the end points (a few comments ago). I'm confident the lowering isn't the issue as was done by an industry legend. Will post a photo of the wheel in the wheel arch.

And, yes, it was on full lock and the suspension would likely have compressed a bit as was coming off the sloped drive onto the level road.

Thanks for all the input!

I would have gone with a 255/40 front tyre for the T30. 245/45 is bigger than necessary, the 255/40 is perfect for T30 with 8.5” wide wheels and meets the required load rating. I don’t expect you want to be changing them when they’re new though.

It’s possible that the end points are slightly different and that there’s more steering in one direction, but that’s possible on any van. We’re talking very small amounts though. More important that the steering is straight and alignment is spot on though.

The only way to know for sure how low the van is, is to measure from wheel centre to wheel arch.

The ET45 is usually OK, but running a 5mm shim would help and effectively create ET40 which is a good offset at the front.

I would also pop a 15mm spacer on the back if it were me, just to get the look consistent from front to rear.

 

[DubDavid]

What I'm trying to work out is if VW Service Centre, when they adjusted both wheels so they point a little more right (rather than re-center my steering wheel) made it so the end points where further right too. If toe on wheels are adjusted 5° right, is the end point on full lock 5° further right? If so that may be why my left wheel caught the undertray (as only the left wheel rubbed on full right lock).

Thanks.

 

[DubDavid]

Just measured from wheel arch to wheel and looks like I have about 6mm more travel on right full lock vs left. Thanks for the tip on how to tell the difference @The Van Cave .