AirCooledRules

basically theres a set of wheels available forsale right now that i want pretty bad but they are a staggered fitment and ive been told that running a staggered wheel will cause problems with the AWD.

True or Not. Thanks.

gmbchef

but different diameters or tread patterns will make your life hell.

abatis

The early Porsche C4s (1989..) are proof that different width tires work with a similar 4-wheel system. I remember having the winter and summer tires switched out at a shop and the fat ones were on front when I showed to pick my C4 up. Last time to that shop after I had them corrected.

groupbq

I ran 225/50x15 front and 205/55x15 rear on 8" rims for a while. Even though the tires were the same brand and had the exact same outside diameter, they caused a mild torque steer condition. Switching back to the same size all around cured the problem. My car has a Torsen center diff, which may have amplified the situation.

quattro v1.0

Run staggered offsets, not dimensions.

AirCooledRules

yeah i know its ok to run staggered offsets, i was more asking if its ok to run different widths of actual wheels.

I see the answer is definetly not.

Thanks guys.

520

and FWIW, if you plan on running wider in the back you'll only hurt more what's already bad on these cars -- understeer.

shortyq

Agree with 520 that narrow wheels/tires in front is the wrong way to go. I remember long ago, Graydon Stuckey used nissan app wheels and did the wider up front/narrow back, worked great!

That said, with locked center diff and 3.89 front and 4.11 rear, the car won't move until you unlock the diff = Effective 6% tire circumference change.

The best rule of thumb is to use other tuning methods to change dynamic handling with either a locker or a torsen.

HTH and my .02

Scott aka "torsen boy" J

squidix9

I ran this once while doing some work on a RWD car and it just didn't feel like it should have. When cornering the amount of roll front-rear wasn't the same and when approaching the traction limits I could really feel the difference.

I also don't like mixing different brands of the same diameter either. I just had a Dodge Caravan in the shop and it just didn't corner or handle well on bad surfaces. I was changing the tires anyways and when I was dismounting them I found that front-rear the sidewall stiffness was very different. After mounting a full set of matching snows the handling was completely different.

The suspension was designed for equal stagger/width and without other consideration I'd say unless you have a very good reason to do it, think twice.