Are my wheels supposed to be like this?

[98redcamaroV6]

hey guys, I haven't been around much but I am finally finished with college! !

So I have been fixing up my camaro a bit and planning on ordering some new parts, but i just noticed my tires dont seem to be in the center of the wheel well. Is this normal?

I Had a muffler shop weld on my BMR relocation bracket for my BMR lower control arms. I immediatly noticed the tires were pushed forward like 2 inches and were rubbing the wheel well so the shop adjusted the lower control arm and the tires were pushed back a bit and there was no more rubbing. This was over a year ago, and I never got an alignment check, because they never told me. . .

So I had firestone check my alignment and told them my problem, the rear-right wheel has 2 fingers worth of space between the tire and the wheel well, and the rear-left tire had 3 fingers worth of space.

They aligned my tires and they are now both 2 fingers worth of space.

But i'm worried that if i upgrade to 17" rims that the tires are to close to the rear of the wheel well, take a look at these pics and lemme know what you think.

I want to order the 17" Z06 C6 Chrome rims and i dont want any rubbing.

Thanks.

I haven't posted images in a while i hope this works.

Passenger-Rear





Driver-Rear




_____
1998 Camaro
V6 3.8L Manual

[FirebirdGT]

Re: Are my wheels supposed to be like this?

No.

Either the BMR relocation brackets are installed wrong, or the BMR lower control arms are too long.

[98redcamaroV6]

Re: Are my wheels supposed to be like this?

I called firestone and they said they dont do welding, so they referred me to a collision shop nearby.

Hopefully they will be able to cut and re-weld the bracket in the right spot this time.

I ordered the bracket and control arm from texas speed and performance a while ago, and i'm sure its the right part.

I dont have the instructions the relocation bracket came with, and i couldn't find any install pic/document from bmr's website. Do you think this collision shop will be able to fix this?

[Fireball27]

Re: Are my wheels supposed to be like this?

If you get 17" wheels your tires will be lower profile so they won't actually be any closer to your fenders than they are now.

[Kronic Budz]

Re: Are my wheels supposed to be like this?

If you get 17" wheels your tires will be lower profile so they won't actually be any closer to your fenders than they are now.

yep, he is right.

[FirebirdGT]

Re: Are my wheels supposed to be like this?

I ordered the bracket and control arm from texas speed and performance a while ago, and i'm sure its the right part.

It may be the "right" part, but that doesn't mean the part is "right".

I don't trust any aftermarket LCA except Hotchkis, and original GM. It is just too critical of a component. And tubular LCA w/poly bushings are terrible products anyway, if you understand how the suspension works.

:rant: rant over

[98redcamaroV6]

Re: Are my wheels supposed to be like this?

i like hotchkis a lot, and ordered their strut tower brace and subframe connectors. I dont know why i ordered the bmr control arm hehe, i think they were on sale.

so i'm headed over to the shop now, after they get done i'll post a pic.

Thanks for the input, i didn't know that the 17" would fit the same and not be any closer to the wheel well.

[98redcamaroV6]

Re: Are my wheels supposed to be like this?

update: tires are now in the center of the wheel well :)

I'm going to firestone to get another alignment check just incase, i paid for the lifetime alignment service so its free.

[notsonic]

Re: Are my wheels supposed to be like this?

so what turned out to be the problem?

i have bmr boxed control arms and the bolt in relocations brackets. everything went together just fine.

so im guessing yours were welded in wrong?

[98redcamaroV6]

Re: Are my wheels supposed to be like this?

When the mechanic lifted the car up, the problem was obvious . . the relocation bracket wasn't welded. So he used a crow bar to pry the bracket into place to make the tires fit in the center of the wheel well, then he welded it in place.

So when I had a shop install the bracket originally, they only bolted the lower control arm to it and didn't weld it.

I dont know how the "bolt-on" bracket works, but I ordered the "weld" bracket and I told the mechanic that it needed to be welded, so i'm guessing he thought it didn't need to be welded.

So for a small fee, i got my tires aligned corectly and the bracket has a nice weld :)

[CAMAROWIDBASS]

Re: Are my wheels supposed to be like this?

nope.........

[notsonic]

Re: Are my wheels supposed to be like this?

wow thats ****ed up. so instead of lowering your control arms, they just lengthened em.

the bolt in ones are great because you can do it yourself, add an extra connection point, AND you can always have em welded later.



its a little hard to see since its black, but it wraps around to go between the axle and shock to get bolted in, as well as being bolted in the stock control arm location.

[Disruptore4]

Re: Are my wheels supposed to be like this?

When I switched from 16" snowflakes to 17" SS wheels/tires, the SS wheels/tires were actually about 1/8-1/4 of an inch smaller diameter than the 16's w/ tires. Don't worry about the wheels and tires... But yeah, that does look like something isn't right.