My passanger side rear tire has been rubbing the inside part of the wheel well for sometime. I have 195 70R 14 on the car. I'm getting ready to replace torque rod bushings that show excessive movement and cracking. Would that be at all related to a wheel rubbing? I don't think it is but I'm lost on what I personally could do to figure it out. Otherwise I guess its taking it to a shop. The other thing is that one of my front wheels is a little different from the other. Meaning a perfect allignment is impossible. The camber I believe is what the name is for the angle of the wheel unit. I suspect a slightly bent control arm. Anyways anyone ever deal with such a problem?

My only thought was to get 185's on the car and see if that helps. Its just a slight amount rubbing and it looks like on the tire it self the rubbing stops for about 4 inches or so. Meaning I have a wobbley tire? Thanks

The tire rubs during normal driving, or does it only rub when going over uneven driveways, etc, that cause the axle to tilt up on one side relative to the body? You can easily gauge the distance from the tire to the lip of the fender using your fingers and see if it's about the same on each side, or is the rubbing tire clearly more inboard than the other. Torque rod bushings would have little affect on the tire rub you describe. The panhard bar locates the axle and determines the lateral location of the axle. I don't see much wear in the panhard rod bushings on 240s, certainly not enough to cause slop or a shifted axle. Accident damage is plausible.

Not sure what you mean about one wheel being different. If you look at the car from the front, camber is the top of the wheel tilted in or out. That is adjustable at the strut mount, so a shop can make changes to camber. A bent control arm usually gives excessive toe out. The way the control arm bends is the reason for this. In the direction that it would have to bend in order to alter camber, it is fairly strong in design. But if you hit a curb directly such that the tire were perpindicular to the curb, the control arm would bend back and you'd be left with a lot of toe-out. In that situation, the control arm is weak by design and meant to bend rather than allowing the chassis mounting points to be damaged. The control arm is shaped like a box, but the bottom side is open. By "boxxing" the control arm, it is made stronger and more rigid by welding a plate over the open side underneath...common for racing applications when using factory control arms.
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Adjusting the camber is done with the strut mount? I recently replaced my strut mounts/stuts/ ball joints and tie rods. I just ordered a Bentley book and hope it tells how to adjust it in there. But if anyone wants to explain this one now I'm happy to hear it.

How do you adjust the camber via the strut mount? I'll think a bit here, you have the ability to move the strut mount via the two bolts towards the front of the car that are accessed through the engine compartment. My guess is that you just have to adjust the rotation of the mount but how? Should I take it back and tell the shop that they should have adjusted the camber when I had my allignment?

Has the car been crashed? It sounds as if the axle is mislocated over to one side, instead of in the middle. Those 195 tires are not the problem -- they are affected by the misplaced axle, but they should fit just fine, as I've routinely kept 205 tires (and others here report that they've used up to 225 tires).

Very possible. I bought it from a man who bought it from a person who took crashed cars and made them "new". My guess is that the car was hit on the rear passanger tire area and that moved the axle. I could tell when I first bought it that the rear of the car felt like it was trailing off center, a bit like a snake. I'm hoping the problem isn't worse than just having to re-center the axle. A bent frame would be interesting too.


Thank you for giving me a good sense as to what can be done. I'll check the clearance of the tire to well as the car is on even ground. For now just knowing its not rubbing all the time will give me a little comfort cruising down the freeway.

without a doubt, panhard bar and associated bushings.

personally, i have yet to see a 240 that had equal distances from the rear fender well to the tire -unless it had new suspension components.

this is why when you lower a 240 an adjustable panhard bar is so important. it gives you the opportunity to center everything under the car.
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