Selling car, how to fix rear tire rub...

Question for the geniuses of the forums..

I've finally decided to sell my fourth gen. My brother in law is having trouble making his car payments for his 2002 Si, so I am going to take it over.

The only problem I might have selling the car is the right rear is out of toe. 0.70 or somthing to that effect. This and the rear disc swap means the tire rubs on that side if I hit a large enough bump. I have rolled the fenders about as far as I care to, and it still rubs if I hit enough of a bump.

Other than replacing the rear trailing arm, to hopefully correct the toe, is there anything else I can do to fix the rubbing? I have heard of using negative camber to correct the rubbing, but that might make the tire wear reach extremes I would like to avoid. I have also heard of machining down the rotors, but I am not sure about the safety of this. I assume this means grinding down the outside of the rotors that fit directly between the wheel and the hub. How much can you machine and still be safe? 0.125....0.1875"? Are there any other options?

Thanks for your help, for this and in the past.

Thrill

put some stock springs in is my first answer...

do you have aftermarket wheels? if so what size and offset?

i have 16's, rear disc conversion, camber corrected, and it's lowered pretty good in the rear... i don't have any rub. that is why i ask if it's an aftermarket wheel and what is the offset. the offset can make or break the tire rubbing

I think before I replaced the springs I would go ahead and replace the rear trailing arm. Less cost and not too much more work. I also think the lowered suspension is a selling point.

I do have aftermarket wheels, but they are cheap ones. They look like a set I found on Pep boys web site. When I do a search on the part number and brand I don't come up with anything. So I can't really tell you the offset. They are 15" wheels, and the site says they are 6.5" wide. I have considered buying different wheels that have a better offset, but since I am not keeping the car, I don't know if I can justify the purchase. What wheels do you have? Are they pricey? I'd have to sell the old wheels, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem on e-bay.

Thanks LadyinRedSi.

correct offset for hondas is 40mm, maby a little shallower if your really low. Rear disc swap should have nothing to do with the toe of the rear unless you used the wrong parts. You may have gotten a bent trailing arm or something.

if it's rubbing on both sides of the car then i would guess it to be the wrong offset.

you would be suprised...as much as being lowered is a selling point, it will also scare off people. we have better luck selling cars for more that are stock than lowered. i get a lot of kids who look at my lowered cars but then the parents (who have the money) steps in and starts with the "it's lowerd...you're going to have troubles" or "hmmm, this looks like a racer car, i bet they were hard on it" we recently started selling cars stock and then offer to lower it :grinno:

my wheels are enkei, unfortunatly not on the cheap side. my advice there is to stick some stock wheels on and you can offer the wheels you have to sell on the side. or you can try and pick up a set of 5th gen Civic "hx" or "vx" wheels for cheap. they are a 13" and 14" stock wheel that looks really nice on a 4th gen. i actually have both sets of wheels and had the opportunity to take pics of both to note the subtle differences betwen the wheels:
http://www.4thgenerationcivic.com/hx_vx.htm

It was rubbing on both sides of the car before I rolled the fenders, and it started after the rear disc swap. Now it is only on one side, so I am assuming the right rear trailing arm is bent. What's real great is that the toe was already out before I decided to do the rear disc swap, that was the main reason I did the swap. Now with the swap, the toe problem has switched sides. From driver side to passenger side. :banghead:

I am pretty sure the offset is not correct. The wheels are too cheap to be made well. Just looking for a relatively cheap solution to fix the problem. I'll look for some cheap replacement wheels, but I am guessing a different rear trailing arm will be cheaper. Hopefully the urethane bushing will come out without too much trouble.

LadyinRedSi, I usually stick with the stock selling mantra as well, only in this case I am looking to recoup at least some of the cost of materials I put into the car. If I was planning on replacing the car with another 4th gen there wouldn't even be any question, I would just pull all the good parts off and reuse them on the new car. If you know of a good place to look for hx or vx wheels on line that would be a great help.

Thanks for your help Lady and SilentChamber.