Rokkor / Raceland coilovers rubbing?
 

I have a 95 clubsport with factory 16" 5 spoke wheels. When I bought the car it had rokkor coilovers and 205-60r16 snow tires (car was from up north). I recently bought some all seasons in the stock size (225-50r16) but upon mounting them the inside sidewall is rubbing BADLY on the springs and bottom spanner nuts of the front coilovers. I've read about ppl running these coilovers all over the various bmw forums but no one has mentioned this problem. currently it would seem that my options are to A) by different tires or B) buy wheel spacers. Has anyone else had this issue?

I think that this is the main complaint with the Raceland CO's. I'm not sure if it is specific to the knock-offs (Raceland, Rokkor etc..) or this may just be the case with all coilover set-ups to some degree or another since they are all basically the same concept.
On my set-up there is probably about 1/4" of clearance between the tire and coil over strut (Raceland), I am running 215/40/17, Sport Edition A7 rims 17"x8.5" wide (not sure of offset) and there is no rubbing. Just got lucky with the rim/tire combo I guess.

Raceland sells spacers to address this: Raceland Website

Spacers are a little tricky because when you add them it changes the suspension geometry depending on offset you need and you are pushing the tires closer to the fender which can also cause rubbing. Installing longer bolts/studs is also suggested with this option depending on the offset.

I've also heard of people removing the keeper spring (the smaller spring on the bottom) and running the adjuster nuts up to get rid of the rubbing problem. I don't know how well this works, but I've seen it out there as a potential solution too.

Getting a set of M3 rims that are staggered is also a solution, but then you have a staggered set-up which means that you can't rotate the tires because the rear is wider than the front. But, you can run some fat meats where it counts and more narrow tires up front to get the suspension clearance your looking for...

dang.....yea I have read many threads about these coilovers but never any that said they rubbed with stock wheel/tire combo. Then again, they were probably not on the 16" 5 spokes...

yea I went ahead and purchased some spacers and extended lug bolts, they should be here in a few days. I had some universal 10mm slip ons laying around but of course theyre not hubcentric. I threw them on for mock up purposes and took a look/ measure. 10mm cleared without the suspension fully settled with a little room to spare however I was fearful that once it is settled it might be too close for comfort so I ordered 15mm. Hopefully they wont rub the fenders now....according to my measurements they shouldnt (crossing fingers).

I've had the same issue when I first got my KW's installed on stock style 18's with 225/50/r16's. It depends on the wheel offset too, anything higher than et35 will more than likely rub on the struts in the front, depending on how wide of a tire you run.

That seems crazy that it rubs with the stock wheels. I have coils (without tender springs) and when I run a 245/40-17 on 8.5" et41 wheel there is 3mm of clearance. So running a 225/50 should not come close to rubbing, it would have 14mm more clearance than my 245 setup.

I'd probably toss the helper springs, lots of coilovers make due without them.

Stock style 18's on the sport are et46, I used 12mm spacers from H&R which did the trick and brought my fronts down to 34 offset. Which does not give you rubbing issues on stock fenders(unless your tucking of course).

How did u solve it? Spacers? Remove the tenders?

That is crazy! You ran a MUCH wider wheel/tire combo AND higher offset with no rub??!

Clearance wise I think you're right. Removing the tenders would shift the lowest point of my spring / nut assembly up quite a bit, probably clearing the "meaty" portion of the sidewall. However, and someone correct me if I'm wrong because I'm by no means a suspension expert, but I thought the purpose of the tenders was to allow full suspension travel? With this is mind, the coilover (this particular one, not all COs) was designed with a tender so it, logically speaking, SHOULD operate optimally with the tender and less than optimally without it. If this is the case, I'd rather just use spacers (which also isn't optimal-- optimal would be them not rubbing in the first place haha). But honestly speaking it probably wouldn't make a noticeable difference haha.

That definitely makes me feel a little more confident in my measurements.

Thanks to all for your input.

Tender spring is there so when your suspension is at full droop the main spring doesn't unseat and rattle around. Depending on the main spring length and where the collar is set, this may never be an issue.

On my TCK coils, if I put the collar all the way down with my 6" springs it could potentially unseat. I've never had an issue with that though.

Just FYI, there is a good write up on wheel spacers specific to BMW over on BFC 'Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Wheel Spacers'. Good info if you're interested...

yea, thats what I meant without as much detail :) tender allows for proper full suspension travel.

awesome find, link>>> http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1364210

just to wrap this thread up: spacers arrived today and I installed them. No more rubbing inside, and no rubbing on the fender either!