[cooltsi]

So my stock 215/70R16 Toyo Open country tires rub on hard turns on my 96 Rav4. Car has seen some off road and to be honest the previous owner may have had it airborne. So....I'm assuming the front strut isolators and springs may have sagged. I can put 5 fingers in the front springs and the rubber looks reasonable and not pushing too far up in the engine bay. Top cap is pretty much flush with top of metal outer.


I measured the tires and they are 28" across, slightly larger than the calculated with of 27.83" of a stock tire but well within reason. I measured the fronts today in our slightly slanted parking lot from the ground to the highest portion in the fender well which is pretty much dead center on the wheel and got 30 15/16" and 30 6/8" for an average of 30 5/8" or 77.8cm. Does this seem reasonable for a stock suspension?


As a note I measured the rear which sits quite a bit higher at 32 1/8" and 32 1/2" (passenger side was lower here as well) at the rear of the fender arc just in front of the plastic cladding.

 

[SlimJim16v]

Just measured mine, about 30 1/2" both sides. Do you haave the std wheels?

 

[cooltsi]

Factory 16" wheels. Picture of the day I bought it. (recently)

 

[SlimJim16v]

Looks good. Are those alloys std in the US?

Have you turned the steering when stationary to see if they're hitting anything? The front tyres are very close to the rear of the wheel arches, so may hit your mud guards and driver side tyre is very close to the gearbox casing.

So, could be completely shot front or rear damper, broken front anti roll bar link, loose arch liner, or steering not centered. I can't think of anthing else. Maybe someone else knows?

 

[cooltsi]

Yep, I'm in the process or restoring them. Clear coat stripped right off with one application of aircraft remover.

 

[Aussie50]

I'm not 100% sure on what goes wrong in the RAV's suspension apart from collapsed strut assemblies, but you gave me a great idea for fixing up alloys without having to send them out and get them sandblasted!, I can get aviation supplies locally so aviation paint stripper is on my shopping list now , nasty stuff tho, also need good PPE to go with it!.

Normally you can go a couple of sizes over in tires and not rub so I would start looking at the condition of the struts, and make sure the wheel arch liners are not deformed or drooping, I have had that issue on my ML270 when I put big tires on it, one was melted from radiant heat at some stage and would rub on a hard right turn.

 

[cooltsi]

 

[leon r]

When you say "hard turn", do you mean fast, so that car is leaning a lot or do you mean sharp, so that steering wheel is turned all way? Or both? What size tires are those?

 

[cooltsi]

I haven't tried it very fast, 15mph or less, like turning around in the street. Rubs while parking in front of my house. 215/70R16.

 

[leon r]

One good thing about rubbing is that it usually leaves a mark, so you should be able to see where it was rubbing. But rubbing at extreme turns usually isn't suspension related, unless you have it lowered a lot.

 

[cooltsi]

Yep, worn right through the inner fender well plastic up front.