Will a taller tyre affect suspension geometry?
Asked by Guru3G2X1 Jul 20, 2020 at 11:43 PM about the 2007 Subaru Legacy 2.5 GT Wagon AWD
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
I've upgraded my tyres to something taller (235/45/17 vs 215/45/17) which has
raised my ride height by about 1/2 inch overall.
Does this lift affect the geometry of my suspension and thus my ball joints?
Or does it remain the same regardless or tyre size?
3 Answers
It won't change the suspension geometry. I see no trade off except for possible tire rubbing when making sharp turns. Personally I would have looked for 40 series tires to keep the diameter closer to stock.
TheSubaruGuruBoston answered 4 years ago
235 is a bit wide for these chariots. 215-225 is the Goldilocks zone used even now. If increasing ride height to start to approach OB clearance was the goal I would've used 225/50R17, which is just shorter than the 225/55R17 size used on the OBs. Your 235/45 should work just fine, but with a bit increased drag and some slight loss in fuel efficiency. You might like the perceived increased grip, but you don't have enough power to take advantage of the +10mm tread. But they'll fit fine. And yes, use a GPS to recalibrate the speedo if you want, but note that Subaru always erred up in calibration, so you might not see as much of a negative speed error as tire/wheel calculations would predict. It might be only about -2 or 3 mph at highway speeds....
TheSubaruGuruBoston answered 4 years ago
Ed, the calcs may be correct, but in practice the delta will be closer to plus 4-5%, and not bother anything.