russellw

In my experience, it just isn't worth the hassle - read on.

I have a Sept 97 model Subaru Impreza Turbo 5 door which had 15" wheels fitted as standard. Having run the car for almost a year I was looking to find improved grip (particularly in the wet) which the original Bridgestone RE71 tyres failed to offer.
After looking at various options I decided to go for the 'safe' option of buying a set of official Subaru 16" wheels & Bridgestone RE010 tyres (trade in but un-used) from a later model Impreza Turbo (98/99).

Within only a few hours of driving, I noticed a marked changed in the handling of the car :-
1) Little or no noticeable improvement in grip
2) Firmer ride
3) Adverse affects on the steering and handling ie. twitchy, nervous, tramlining, etc

I have to say that I am disappointed that the new wheels/tyres have not offered the increased levels of grip that I was expecting although the firmer ride I can understand. However what I am must unhappy about is the affect on the steering/handling of the car.

Having spoke to a number of people about the handling symptoms following the change of wheels I got my local Subaru dealer to check and adjust the suspension geometry. This was corrected to the nominal Subaru settings but the adjustment showed no improvement in the handling. A few weeks later I returned to the dealer and got the car adjusted to the Prodrive settings (see FAQ on SIDC web-site). This has made a slight improvement in the handling but I was warned this adjustment could lead to increased tyre wear as a result of the toe-in and negative camber settings.

The underlying problem still persists but worse than this, since that adjustment the car is now using considerably more fuel than before ie. 10 percent lower MPG.

As this has now been going on for so long, I decided to contact Prodrive direct to see if they could offer any advice on why I was suffering from these problems. Their response on the phone was interesting. Prodrive have said that the handling problems can be attributed to a difference in the wheel offset of the 16" wheels compared to that of the original 15" wheels which I was quite surprised at.

It looks like I have almost no alternative but to revert back to my original wheels/tyres as this whole saga has cost me a great deal of money, time (on repeated garage visits) and frustration.

Has anyone else had similar experiences ?

justy

I have checked with Mike Wood at Prodrive about this and he assures me that your car has no setup faults, the dealer who dealt with you can also call Prodrive for tech help, which means any percieved faults you have are probably not there in the first place !
Good Hunting

mike wood

I have also recently changed to 16" wheels on my 96 5-door .... i fitted gold SPEEDLINES bought from my local dealer .and had them fitted with Yokahama tyres - A520's if I remember correctly.... I have noticed none of the adverse effects except possibly for tramlining. I have noticed no change atall in fuel consumption

ikinder

I changed to 16" wheels on my MY97 UK Saloon, I did notice a difference in handling, but only an improvement.

What tyre pressures are you running ? I've found 35 psi front and rear fine.


I did find the new tyres took about 200 miles before the grip was at 100%

Regards,

Ian.