Good day all,

I have a 996 turbo, my winter rims are rubbing on the inside of my wheel well. What spacer should I use on the front and rears in order to achieve the stock flush look. The rear rims are 11 ET51 and the fronts are 8 ET57. Rear tire size is 295 35 18, fronts are 235 40 18. Members are suggesting 7mm in the front and 14mm in the rear. However, I'm not sure if that will give me the stock flush look I'm trying to achieve. (Maybe its just wishful thinking anyways) Just want to make sure so I only order these once. I didnt realize it was going to be this confusing trying to install winter boots on the car.
TIA

 

Unfortunately the tire size is going to give you an issue. Those rears are over 26" diameter. You should have 30's in the back with a 295 size to work. Both your et front and rear could easily handle 15mm all around. That will help the fronts. The backs are going to rub with that tall a tire regardless of what you do.

 

I agree and have run it. 14-15mm (whatever you can find) all around will be nice and clear. But yeah that rear tire is TALL. Not good for the diff either. OK for a few miles in the winter but really not good.

 

I agree. I'm running with (4) 15mm's, but my tires are the stock sizes.

 

Tirerack recommends running 35 in the rear with 40 in the front for winter setup. That's what my tires are so I don't understand how it would affect the diff? Are the tires too wide at 295?

 

No, it is the diameter that is too large. Tireracks recommendation is 225/40/18 front and 265/35/18 rear (also Porsche's recommendation in the manual for winter tires). Those match in height. Your front tires are almost 3/4" smaller in diameter than the rears which is a problem

 

Oh I see. Makes sense. I guess I will be buying another set of tires for winter and installing them on the stock turbo twists. Thanks for your help!

 

If you find any, let me know. 265/35/18 do not fit on 11" rims. Heck they look stretched on 10" rims. I ended up buying a whole new set of wheels and tires. I could not find any 295/30/18 snow tires anywhere.

 

Hmmm interesting, I thought 265's would fit on the stock turbo twists. I'm pretty sure guys are running that setup.

http://www.porsche.com/usa/accessori...sanddownloads/

 

The stock twists are 11" wide. All the wheels listed on that PDF are 10". Tire rack is also a great resource for max wheel widths for particular tires. For the 265 size, the max wheel width is 10.5". I have heard of people running them on 11" rims, but that is beyond the mfr's rating. As I said, they have stretched sidewalls on 10" rims as it is. On 11" it must be a struggle to set the bead.

 

These are 265/35/18 blizzack lm60 on 10" rear rims. Look closely and you see they are stretched. Adding another inch would really angle those sidewalls.

 

Nik, yeah you are right Tirerack has 275, 285, 295, 35 18's. These should fit better on the stock turbo twists.

 

Yes, accept you will see the same issues with height. Even the 275/35/18's are too tall at over 26" and will rub just like the 295's you already have. Wish I had better news for you, but I researched the crap out of this last winter. I finally bit the bullet and bought the wheel tire package you see in the image I posted. I would have loved to find a set of 295/30/18 snow tires and save the money. O'well, the OZ wheels are really nice and not that expensive. Also that picture was before I installed the 15mm spacers. It looks much better now.

 

Nik, so you're running 18 x 8 rims in front with 225 40 18 rubber, rears are 18 x 10 rims with 265 35 18 rubber? Plus 15mm spacers all around? This is the setup I will be looking for now. Thanks for your help.

 

That is correct.