Rear Wheel Rub When Cornering Under Load

[slobberingant 0]

When ever I have any passengers in the rear seats in my car and I do a corner at a normal speed I will get a wheel rubbing sound.

My tyres are 195/50/15, distance between shock mounting bolts is 322mm and my rear beam has just been refurbed.

This is a very standard set-up but I cant find any1 else complaining about wheel scrubbing when cornering and having passengers in the back. (All threads on rubbing seem to be about super low race cars or regarding 309 beams)

My main purpose with this post is to find out if this is just a normal result of the wider tyres or if there is something else involved. I'll start investigating if its something else.

 

Does anybody else have a similar problem?

[Tom Fenton 1,526]

What rear beam is it? A drum braked 1600 GTI beam sits the wheels slightly more inset, if you have this coupled with the slightly bigger tyres this could be your problem?

[one-lady-owner 1]

I get rubbing when I have passengers in the back of mine too, it's only on one side, and it's the side with the missing bump stop, I run 185/55 tyres.

[pugdamo 111 2 Cars]

Make sure your bump stops havnt fallen off,may be that the extra weight in the back and cornering is causing the wheel to go so far in the arch and foul something.

 

Also im assuming it is a GTI and not an XS or something similar as 15" wheels always rub on the arches of 205's without the GTI style arches.

 

Cheers

[BusEngineer 7]

When mine was doing this it was my rear beam mounts knackered, replaced for GrpA solid mounts never done it since

[slobberingant 0]

I've got a late model aussie delivered 1.9 gti. I am quite certain that it's the same as the UK delivered 1.9 gtis so the wheel arches shouldn't be a problem.

Bump stops are there. They seem all good but this is my first 205 so I have nothing to compare them to.

I've also taken a picture of the rear beam mounts and my ride height.

The scrubbing only happens when I turn left and the sound is coming from the right side.

When there are passengers in the back the rear gets really low. Is it possible the torsion bars are faulty in some way?

Is it possible that something else could be rubbing?

 

[welshpug 1,626]

looks rather too close to the rear bumper, any history of a rebuild?

[slobberingant 0]

looks rather too close to the rear bumper, any history of a rebuild?

 

I replaced the bearings and trailing arm shafts myself about a 8 days ago if thats what you mean. I couldn't find any permanent damage to the beam.

The problem was present before and after the refurb.

What could cause the wheel to be so close to the rear bumper?

[welshpug 1,626]

is it a 1900 beam?

 

if so I'd check the orientation of the front mounting plates, the bits with the 2 studs on, when fitted to the wrong side they push the beam about 10mm back as the studs are offset unlike all other 205/309 beams where they sit central.

 

edit, one quick way to see where the beam is sitting is to take the nut off the bottom of the rear sandwich mounts, the hole into the beam bracket is slotted, see where in the slot the stud comes through.

Edited April 6, 2009 by welshpug

[slobberingant 0]

I wasn't aware that the beam could be replaced in the wrong direction. Now that I think about it, it is possible that I may have done that. It would explain a lot.

Thanks for that welshpug. I'll check when I next have the chance through the sandwich mounts. I'm assuming that if the beam is set right then the bolts are supposed to pass through the middle of the slot?

[dino20vt 3]

is it a 1900 beam?

 

if so I'd check the orientation of the front mounting plates, the bits with the 2 studs on, when fitted to the wrong side they push the beam about 10mm back as the studs are offset unlike all other 205/309 beams where they sit central.

 

edit, one quick way to see where the beam is sitting is to take the nut off the bottom of the rear sandwich mounts, the hole into the beam bracket is slotted, see where in the slot the stud comes through.

 

Why is it only the 1900 that has the ofset bolts as a 1.6 is just a 1.9 beam with discs but no ofset bolts?

[welshpug 1,626]

I can only think it's because the 1.9 standard fit 185 55 15 is slightly larger in overall diameter to the 185 60 14 of the 1.6 (it's not a lot, about 8mm)

[dino20vt 3]

I can only think it's because the 1.9 standard fit 185 55 15 is slightly larger in overall diameter to the 185 60 14 of the 1.6 (it's not a lot, about 8mm)

Sounds feasible, its just I never noticed anything untoward when I had 15 inch speedlines on my 1.6 but I did have 195 50 15's on which do have a smaller rolling radius

[powermandan 0]

Sounds feasible, its just I never noticed anything untoward when I had 15 inch speedlines on my 1.6 but I did have 195 50 15's on which do have a smaller rolling radius

 

if your stub axle is bent you will proberbly get rub, not obvious unless you remove the hub/stub.

[slobberingant 0]

After looking under the car I found this.

Welshpug was right. The front mounts must be the wrong way around as the rear ones are offset differently to original. You can see this from the shiny metal thats visible under the washer.

But there is another twist in this mystery.

I wanted to check the gap between the guard and the tyre. On the right side where there is rubbing I got this.

Ye, all makes sense until you go to the left side where the gap is a lot larger.

 

As you can see from the picture there is more room on the rear left side than on the rear right side.

 

Does anybody know what could be causing this?

My first thought is body warp Any way to check this?

Could this be caused by the stub axle?

[dino20vt 3]

Why is it only the 1900 that has the ofset bolts as a 1.6 is just a 1.9 beam with discs but no ofset bolts?

 

Are 1.9 205 offset mount plates needed when fitting a 309 beam with 15 inch speedlines?