I've posted details more than once, but it's simple really - take a front wheel off & look into the space left... In there, you'll see a bunch of Hex Heads that protrude into the wheel well. Take one out, it's a screw - find enough Pan Head (ie, almost completely flat without becoming countersunk) screws, with heads that will fit flush into the recesses left without protruding - you need sufficient to replace
all the Hex Head screws, & once you've got them, do just that -
replace them all! That's so the Hex Heads won't be left sticking out into the wheel well where they can scrape on the tire :thumbup:
Then look for any wires running up the insides of the Fender Support Struts - if there are any, move them so that they aren't projecting into the wheel well & secure them in place with zip ties or whatever won't intrude into the wheel well space! That'll stop you ripping the fender light wires out, or wearing them thru!
Once all that's done, refit the wheel & inspect it & the wheel well closely looking for anything that might get close to a 10mm wider & taller tire - fix as appropriate! If necessary, you might need to remove the Fenders & their Support Struts so that you can fit a couple of washers under each of the bracket ends between them & the mounting points - but not under the bolt heads!
The idea is to space the Fender Support Struts/brackets further away from the points they mount on in order to give the wheel more room. If that doesn't give you enough, you can always gently bend the struts away from the wheel a little, but you probably
shouldn't need to do that for anything less than a fairly large 185 tire!
Now, all that said, unless you
REALLY do a lot of long hot miles, you will probably be doing more harm than benefit by fitting any tires much wider than 165 up front! Even with the 165 wide tires your Spyder is already somewhat
OVER-tired, and once you've got the alignment & ride height, camber etc right, just about anything up front will last for ages cos quite simply, the 165's are
already wider than is strictly necessary, so they aren't working too hard at all - but neither are they providing a massive amount of 'grip'!! With the OE tires, it's pretty easy to induce a front end skid in just about any conditions &/or circumstances; and that's
still possible even with high performance road/track tires that are up to temp given appropriate conditions!! All of which means that you really need to keep your alignment up to speed or you riskmscrubbing tires out very quickly, but you are
REALLY walking a fine line when it comes to wet or otherwise compromised/slick surfaces, all largely due to the
almost excessive WIDTH of the front tires!! :shocked: . So if you don't want to be riding on your tippy toes all the time in the wet/marginal conditions, or having the Nanny cut in all the bloody time whenever you're pushing it thru the twisties in the dry/better conditions, then I'd
REALLY think twice before going
too much wider than 165 up front (& a 225 on the rear too!
) regardless of what make/type/profile
OR pressure you might run in them! :lecturef_smilie:
From what I can recall of your NZ roads (& it's only been a few years!
) you don't really get the opportunity to do the long hot miles that we can do over here in Oz; and your '
less well-surfaced roads' would be better addressed by running a higher profile tire than a wider tire too! So in the absence of any other info/detail that might sway me towards recommending otherwise, I'd suggest that
a 165/60 would probably be a much better fit for you & your local roads than a 175/55! :thumbup: . Unless of course you just want to go wider for the looks
& don't really care
too much about improving or even just maintaining the levels of ride, handling in the dry & the wet, tire longevity, etc that you currently get? :dontknow: But, it still
IS your Spyder....
hyea:
