[Balzac]

Went to have a set of tires mounted on my MCS today...
( I brought the tires I got from Tirerack.com to a local shop )

215/40 -17 Yokohama AVS ES 100's on stock Mini 17" 8 spokes....

So I give them the keys, they tell me it will take an hour, so I go for a walk.

Come back 50 minutes later, shop is closing up for the night, MCS hasn't moved and the tires are still in the boot.

I ask the manager what happened...

So he tell's me that there were two issues.

1) they might rub, to which I replied, OK I can live with that
2) The tires are against the law in Pennsylvania, ( were I live )

He explains that the load rating on the stock run flats is like
1,100 lbs and that the Yoko's only have 1,070 lbs rating.

He says that its against the law, because if I go to get the car inspected, and they fail it due the insufficient weight rating, he could be liable to buy me 4 new tires.

Is this a load of bunk or what.

I could see if he was really worried about the rubbing, but the TIRE POLICE.
Holy Guacamole, that's the worst excuse since,

"Seriously officer, I didn't know she was 14"

Am I being unreasonable or has everyone in this world go completely off the deep end.

Any thoughts ?

PS... What about the rub, will it be bad enough so that I can use this to get the wife to part with enough cash for a set of Konig Phropets with better offset ?

[obehave]

Quote: Originally Posted by Balzac

Went to have a set of tires mounted on my MCS today...
( I brought the tires I got from Tirerack.com to a local shop )

215/40 -17 Yokohama AVS ES 100's on stock Mini 17" 8 spokes....

So I give them the keys, they tell me it will take an hour, so I go for a walk.

Come back 50 minutes later, shop is closing up for the night, MCS hasn't moved and the tires are still in the boot.

I ask the manager what happened...

So he tell's me that there were two issues.

1) they might rub, to which I replied, OK I can live with that
2) The tires are against the law in Pennsylvania, ( were I live )

He explains that the load rating on the stock run flats is like
1,100 lbs and that the Yoko's only have 1,070 lbs rating.

He says that its against the law, because if I go to get the car inspected, and they fail it due the insufficient weight rating, he could be liable to buy me 4 new tires.

Is this a load of bunk or what.

I could see if he was really worried about the rubbing, but the TIRE POLICE.
Holy Guacamole, that's the worst excuse since,

"Seriously officer, I didn't know she was 14"

Am I being unreasonable or has everyone in this world go completely off the deep end.

Any thoughts ?

PS... What about the rub, will it be bad enough so that I can use this to get the wife to part with enough cash for a set of Konig Phropets with better offset ?

Welcome to the land of litigation

There are at least 9 owners listed on the Tire Faq page running that size tire. There's probably more than that running them on OEM rims that aren't listed since they haven't responded or let MINIAC know.
Never heard any issue of them rubbing on stock or near stock offsets.

So uh, nice try with the Konigs. Offset greater than 42 will get you in trouble.

[sergio rollerfunk]

I have a set of snow tires (205/50) on my Konigs (Model Driver, 17x7 42mm offset) plus KW2s coilovers plus 12 mm spacers (all part of the Digi-Tec suspension pack), and even though my coilovers were set all the way up to its highest position, I still experienced some rubbing.

You shouldn't have any rubbing issues with 215/40s mounted on a 42mm offset wheel, but like obehave said, don't go any further with that offset.

btw, I'll be replacing soon my OEM runflats with 215/40s too...

[paddy]

I have Toyo Proxes 4 215/40R-17 for the daily driver part and 205/50R-15 Falken Azenis Sports for autocross - no rubbing. Both of these are w/40mm offset.

[obehave]

Quote: Originally Posted by paddy

I have Toyo Proxes 4 215/40R-17 for the daily driver part and 205/50R-15 Falken Azenis Sports for autocross - no rubbing. Both of these are w/40mm offset.

Stock ride height right?

[Balzac]

OMG, I finally got them mounted today ( 215/40 17 )
What a difference they make...

Feels like I put double stick tape on all four corners.
Ride is smoother, bumps not as bad
( go figure, 45 - 40 and less impact on bumps ? )

PLUS THEY LOOK DOWN RIGHT BALLSY !!!
Little MCS looks like it went to the gym.

Only issue is a precived vibration at higher speeds.
( really only noticable when I jerk the wheel hard, back and forth at highway speeds )

Thanks for all the input.

I drove an hour or so pretty hard and did not find them to rub once.

Next mod is the SKUNK2 Cat Back exhaust.

( Kind of excited, as I have seen Zero feedback about the SKUNK2 unit so it's going to be like a blind date. )

I hope I get a nice tone, and I'll take any HP I can get.

Then a CAI, again, I want the sound, I'll take any HP that may come.
( any recommendations on a which intake, I like the look of the ALTA, but I'm open to suggestions )

Then Swaybar, pulley, chip and divorce laywer as I will be broke and wife will be out for blood.

Cheers and thanks for your time and help.

[LordOfTheFlies]

I would take two additional passengers and put 'em both in the back seat and go on the highway where there are several dips and doodles to see if you rub.

I mounted Pirelli 215/45/17's on SSR Competition 17x 75 with a +42mm offset and got rubbing whenever I had even ONE additional passenger.

I did the inner wheel well trimming mod and it alleviated most of the rubbing. 2000 miles since then and the rubbing (what little remained after the mod) sorted itself out.

Rubbing is not the end of the world, though it sure is embarassing with passengers.

Here's my thread on it:

http://www.mini2.com/forum/showthread.php?t=60724

Also, I can't seem to find the original post on NAM about the mod...but basically all you gotta do is jack up the rear, take off the wheels, remove 4 plastic screws and 2x 10mm bolts (plastic as well) and pop the inner liner out. Look for evidence of rubbing and dremmel the heck out of it. I just shaved off the pieces that were rubbing.

I'm thinking I should probably spray some undercoating of some sorts since the inner metal is now exposed but it looks like there already is some anti-rust protection.

I'd be interested to know if you do get rubbing with the additional passengers....

[Poisonedwell]

I say find a different shop

[cristo]

Quote: Originally Posted by Balzac

Went to have a set of tires mounted on my MCS today...
( I brought the tires I got from Tirerack.com to a local shop )

215/40 -17 Yokohama AVS ES 100's on stock Mini 17" 8 spokes....

So I give them the keys, they tell me it will take an hour, so I go for a walk.

Come back 50 minutes later, shop is closing up for the night, MCS hasn't moved and the tires are still in the boot.

I ask the manager what happened...

So he tell's me that there were two issues.

1) they might rub, to which I replied, OK I can live with that
2) The tires are against the law in Pennsylvania, ( were I live )

He explains that the load rating on the stock run flats is like
1,100 lbs and that the Yoko's only have 1,070 lbs rating.

He says that its against the law, because if I go to get the car inspected, and they fail it due the insufficient weight rating, he could be liable to buy me 4 new tires.

Is this a load of bunk or what?

In my end of Pennsylvania, the shop that does my inspection also told me they
have to fail cars if the tires don't meet the load rating of the car....I was putting
185/60/14 (82) Blizzaks on my wife's VW Cabrio (which is actually heavier than a
MINI MCS), whereas the car came with 195/60/14's (86). I had to show them the door
jamb sticker that lists both the 185's (82) and 195's (86) before they'd mount them.
I guess if you can put 82 load rated tires on the front of vw cabrio, the minimum
rating of 84 for an MC or MCS is probably a little bit conservative.

[cristo]

For those subject to the tire police, there are a few 215/40/17's that have a 87 load rating,
instead of the usual 83 rating for this size tire:
Continental SportContact2, BFG Scorcher T/A, Kuhmo Ecsta ASX, and Yokohama Avid H4S.
The first two are summer tires and the last two are all seasons (the Kuhmo and Yoko
also come in 205/40/17 with an 84 load rating).