I'm trying to get the front end sorted in my 120Y

The front brakes/struts are MR30 and need a 14 inch rim to clear the brakes.

The 185/65/14 rally tyres on the rims in the pics are hitting every where.








Ive worked the guards with some exhaust pipe but its still FAIL city.

Now I am a complete noob when it comes to tyres/rims

Is my problem likely to be the rim offset or tyre size or what???

Ideally I would like to just get some narrow low profile tyres.

Does anyone have any sugestions for tyre brands that make a narrow, low profile item or does such a beast only rarely get made??

Any help would be appreciated as I'm drowning here.

cheers, Jon

Hey Jon,

It'd be a combination of offset and tyre size. Some tyre shops will fit a range of tyres for you to try but that's if you're pretty friendly with them.

Going by the combo you've mentioned I'm leaning to work too much positive offset, but I think you can get around it by using a narrower tyre, those style rims like a bit of rubber though so I'm not sure how it will look.

Otherwise I would have thought a shallower ratio tyre would work as well but I'm not sure what ratios come out.

185/65 means the width of the profile/tread is 185 and the height of the section is 65% of 185. So if you get a narrower tyre with a tighter/shallower ratio you'd most likely clear it altogether.

By the way if you were after a spare one of those rims I have one here that you can have for nothing.

In my instance I am running 165/65/R13 which when put on my 13 X 7 wheels makes the profile narrower than the rim itself so the side wall is having to stretch out further than the width of the profile to land on the rim bead. The stretching makes the profile of the tyre somewhat conical rather than square, and because it is a narrower profile it clears the guards, just. My ideal combination would be 175/50/r13's but I'm so low on cash I don't have that money. But this profile would clear everything and give a lower ride height again.

Does that kinda make sense or not really? You could find narrower shallower profiles for those rims but I can't say what will clear as I don't have your car in front of me.

Hey Chris,

I've got a tire shop that I'm pretty friendly with so I'll have to hit em up about that, good idea!

I was hoping that a narrower/shallower tire would work, but yeah just don't know whats available in "standard" tire sizes

Also I would like that rim, can't hurt, let me know post costs.

Cheers Jon

175/65 might be a bit better but sometimes too much offset is too much. And I'm not sure that ratio would even make that much difference.

Maybe the treads on the rally tires protrude more than stock tread so you might have a win there.

But yeah talk to your shop, tell them you'll buy from them but you want to try the different profiles. I'd remove two of the rims and take them into the shop to have two different profiles fitted (one on each) so you can take them home to try out. You could take the back ones in just be sure they're the same rim width etc as the front ones.....no point bringing in more variables.

Yeah the rally tread is damm chunky so a road tyre would prob make a bit of difference, I guess I need to just try a few variations and see.

It drives with them on and there's only 4 corners between me and the tire shop so I might drive it in and they can have a look to see what is required,

Cheers again

Rally tyres are pretty high profile usually and they also have a very square shouldered profile that would be causing a lot of the problem.

A properly sized road tyre would go a long way to fixing your issues.

Also, as a side note, if those rally tyres have the statement "for competition use only" or "offroad" or "not for road use" on them, you wont have any insurance etc should you have a accident etc.. Just a warning..

Yup - "For Rally Use" is on the side, it'll be interesting, I hope I can use these rims as I like them more than most others that will clear these brakes in my collection

Gonna try some 175/65/R14s today, they're getting fitted and I should be able to pick em up tonight, I hope they work, I wanna get the 120Y back on the road

So the tires clear no probs, but there is a noise that is generated when turning the steering wheel, tracked it down to the springs rotating in the perch when turning.

Is this bad???

meh, they will usually just locate again when you turn back but did you chop the spirngs?

they shouldnt do this usually- so it can be bad if it comes off the perch.