Howdy folks...First post

My wife and I just bought a 1999 Civic SI which had 14" stock wheels on it and a set of 17" Maglia H3's with 205 45 17" tires. The 17's weren't mounted because there wasn't enough rubber left on to certify it but we were told they would fit fine. After purchasing some shenck nuts to mount them I did so on friday. We went for a drive and after hitting some bigger road bumps we heard something bottoming out.

There is definitely significant shock travel when I get in the car(220lbs) and there is 3 fingers of space between the tire and fender at its lowest point with no one in the car. I can't find any evidence on the tires of fender rub. I'm not sure what's rubbing but we're concerned.

Should I be okay to run these rims and tires on stock suspension that is 7 years old? What do people do when adding rims of this size? Stiffer shocks? What could be rubbing and how would i test?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

thanks

 

hummm..i have 17s on my car with it lowerd and it had never bottom out or had tire rub on the fenders, its definitly not bottoming out, and with that much of a gap i cant see why it would rub eather...but mabey the shocks are worn out creating alot of bounce, you could go pick up some new shocks..are you sure thats what the sound was?

go to a 4 coners of your car, on each corner push down on the car and if its really bouncy that means that your shocks are gone, if you push down and it just comes back up then your good

 

I'm not 100% sure what the sound is, but it sounds like something is hitting something metal. When i sit in the car, it definitely goes down a bit. The offset of the wheels have it sitting under the fender but like I said there's no evidence on the tire of a rub. We do have the original rubberized undercoating in that fender which sticks down a bit from the fender. Perhaps it's that and because it's rubber it's not marking the tire?

What is a typical stiffer or performance shock for this car if we wanted to stiffen it up and improve handling?

thanks!

 

theres not really a typical stype of spring, if you do a search you will find lots of threads about what springs to buy, most populer brands are H&R, tein,Arospeed,Eibach,tokico, ect..

and if you did rub, you wouldnt see it..i have this big bump going into my drive way which i always go slow over, but if i go at it a little fast with my wheels turn, it will give a little rub, but you cant noticed were it hit

 

you need 40 series tires, not 45

205/40/17 is the correct size

also, yeah, your suspension might be shot at this point.

 

Holy crap dude! Your car and my car are twins!

 

shes a she..post some pics of your car

 

i just put on some 205/40/17s and so far ive only bottomed out at a HARD DIP and it was realy lite....
no where NEAR what it sounded like before on much lighter dips!!!!!!
but then again my offset isnt quite right... afew MMoff at least what i was told about them... never realy measured myself.

try some 205/40/17s in front and see how that does.
i asume youve already bought new tires or are these the old tires that rub?
i wouldnt worry about the rear tires cause im still runnen my 215/45/17s on the rear. but if they all need replaced id also sugest 205/40/17s all the way around...
only reason im not swapen out rear tires is cause they are just about brand new! and i dont ever hear them hit! probably due to the motor in the front giving it alot harder bounce.