MONTE CARLO WANT TO RAISE THE RIDE

[Ribbedroof]

[QUOTE="fleming442, post: 618431, member: 18209"]I don't know of any cons to a coilover setup- it's really the height of adjustability (no pun intended). You can raise and lower, control the shock compression and rebound, and swap springs for ride quality. I guess the only con could be the fact that you can't do any of that while driving.[/QUOTE]

I do.

The shock mounting points are not designed to carry the suspension load. Think 1st gen F body or Tri-5 Chevy. Broken/ripped shock mounts are super common, and that's just from air shocks.

A properly designed and fabricated mount system for the coilovers is fine, but entails more than a stab-it-in-and-go mentality.

 

[The Last Don]

Ok, so I have 22 inch rims - they were on the car when I bought them. I am not fond of the big rims but they look so sweet on the car... The rear end no issues. The front end when I turn the wheel all the way to one side it hits the car/wheel well/frame, etc... Also when I hit a bump to hard it hits as well. I would like to keep the rims if I can solve these problems. You all have given me really good info - just in a state of confusion. I want to make the right choice, do it right and only need to do it once. I will change the rims for smaller ones if I cant solve the issue. Does anyone know if having big rims is bad for the car?

 

[fleming442]

A properly designed and fabricated mount system for the coilovers is fine, but entails more than a stab-it-in-and-go mentality.

Understood. I was leaving that as a given. Don't most bolt-in kits come with proper reinforcement bracketry, or am I assuming too much?

 

[ck80]

Ok, so I have 22 inch rims - they were on the car when I bought them. I am not fond of the big rims but they look so sweet on the car... The rear end no issues. The front end when I turn the wheel all the way to one side it hits the car/wheel well/frame, etc... Also when I hit a bump to hard it hits as well. I would like to keep the rims if I can solve these problems. You all have given me really good info - just in a state of confusion. I want to make the right choice, do it right and only need to do it once. I will change the rims for smaller ones if I cant solve the issue. Does anyone know if having big rims is bad for the car?

The "is it bad for the car"... well, if you like to do burnouts, or drive in an.. umm... spirited manner, those 22s will place more stress on your transmission than say 17s would. Bigger rims &tires normally equal heavier, which places more stress on the drivetrain. A quality rebuild fixes that, so short term maybe, long term no big deal. If you drive it hard a 30-40 year old trans is gonna die anyways.

Rubbing is going to be an issue with any BIG tire package, especially if it's wide. It's less the height that gets you (although that does happen to some extent with springing action in the suspension. Instead, think like this. From the hub to tire edge on a 32" tall wheel/tire you're talking 16" poking back towards the frame. Now, how much distance there is from the back corner of the tire to the frame/wheelhouse depends on three things - the offset of the rims (how far from the centerline of the wheel to the edge that the hub surface sits), the backspacing (how far from the hub surface does the wheel project inwards towards the car) and how wide is the wheel and tire - some tires are too wide for a wheel and balloon outwards.

Lemme try this

---------- ----------- ------------
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Image on left is a wheel with what's meant to be a neutral offset. You're looking from above as if you see through the rim. Pretend it's in the middle. If that vertical line moves left, or right, towards either edge of the rim is what they call negative or positive offset.

Notice how on three wheels meant to be the same size above you can have more of the wheel/tire tucked in behind where you bolt it on, or less? Thats that backspacing I mentioned.

Wheels with more backspacing tuck under the wheel lip more, at the expense of getting closer to the frame. That's easier to handle on the rear wheels, but creates rubbing sooner on the front, esp when turning to the stops.

Wider wheels/tires without a lot of backspacing can turn further, but tend to stick out past the fender lips and at best can look goofy, and at worst can be down right illegal and get tickets like in Massachusetts when I was there 2 decades ago.

If you run too big a tire for a rim width you get ballooned sidewalls, you don't want that:

------------- -----------
| | | |
\ / | |
------------ ------------
| |
| vs |
| |
------------ ------------
/ \ | |
| | | |
--------------- ------------


Does that kind of make sense?

On the rim itself it should give an offset in a +/- with a larger value for the backspacing. That, with the tire size, will let us know what yoube got for rims/tires. Heck, you may already even have adapters on there which is a whole nother item/option guys use to put incorrect wheels onto a car so they fit more properly.

 

[ck80]

The "is it bad for the car"... well, if you like to do burnouts, or drive in an.. umm... spirited manner, those 22s will place more stress on your transmission than say 17s would. Bigger rims &tires normally equal heavier, which places more stress on the drivetrain. A quality rebuild fixes that, so short term maybe, long term no big deal. If you drive it hard a 30-40 year old trans is gonna die anyways.

Rubbing is going to be an issue with any BIG tire package, especially if it's wide. It's less the height that gets you (although that does happen to some extent with springing action in the suspension. Instead, think like this. From the hub to tire edge on a 32" tall wheel/tire you're talking 16" poking back towards the frame. Now, how much distance there is from the back corner of the tire to the frame/wheelhouse depends on three things - the offset of the rims (how far from the centerline of the wheel to the edge that the hub surface sits), the backspacing (how far from the hub surface does the wheel project inwards towards the car) and how wide is the wheel and tire - some tires are too wide for a wheel and balloon outwards.

Lemme try this

---------- ----------- ------------
| | |
| | |
| | |
---------- ----------- ------------

View attachment 85642
Image on left is a wheel with what's meant to be a neutral offset. You're looking from above as if you see through the rim. Pretend it's in the middle. If that vertical line moves left, or right, towards either edge of the rim is what they call negative or positive offset.

Notice how on three wheels meant to be the same size above you can have more of the wheel/tire tucked in behind where you bolt it on, or less? Thats that backspacing I mentioned.

Wheels with more backspacing tuck under the wheel lip more, at the expense of getting closer to the frame. That's easier to handle on the rear wheels, but creates rubbing sooner on the front, esp when turning to the stops.

Wider wheels/tires without a lot of backspacing can turn further, but tend to stick out past ten fender lips and at best can look goofy, and at worst can be down right illegal and get tickets like in Massachusetts when I was there 2 decades ago.

If you run too big a tire for a rim width you get ballooned sidewalls, you don't want that:
View attachment 85643
------------- -----------
| | | |
\ / | |
------------ ------------
| |
| vs |
| |
------------ ------------
/ \ | |
| | | |
--------------- ------------


Does that kind of make sense?

On the rim itself it should give an offset in a +/- with a larger value for the backspacing. That, with the tire size, will let us know what yoube got for rims/tires. Heck, you may already even have adapters on there which is a whIle not her item/option guys use to put incorrect wheels onto a car so they fit more properly.

My little pictures didn't show up right when posted... but did in editing... so I screen shot what they should have been until someone wants to tell me what I did wrong (other than pretend it was 1988 on my animations)

 

[Turbolq4]

Air ride. Can adjust easily to meet the needs of the road you're on or to make it look good.

 

[melloelky]

I hear what you're saying about liking the look with those wheels but even if you raised the ride height two inches it's still gonna ride rough due to the lack of side wall. very low profile tires like that have nothing to slow the energy transfer through the tire on to you.think of a car with a fifteen inch wheel with a big sidewall,it soaks up a lot of that energy and you feel less of it.naturally you're running a low profile tire because the wheel is so big.again even with the lifted stance the wheel/tire's gonna rub because it's so tall.
That size isn't that good for handling or any type of smooth cruising.ultimately it,comes down to what you're looking to with the car.

 

[michmalibuman]

With coil overs you can set you're ride height where you want it. If you use the bearing kit it is easier to change it. 😎