My S2000 was hit in the rear left quarter panel area, and the rim and tire in that section were damaged along with the panel. The body shop (non-dealer) replaced the damaged rim and tire with new ones (both OE, as are the rest of my rims and tires). For some reason, the new tire looks quite different from the other tires, which I got a little over a year ago (again, OE tires). The sidewalls of the older tires are flush against the rims, but the sidewalls of the new tire angles outward from the rim. Anyone know why this is? Would really appreciate some thoughts.

 

When you ordered your tires (the ones you got a little over a year ago) what size were they? My guess is, you ordered standard 225 SO2's in the rear, which are differert than the OEM ones (which are actaully closer to 245). By the sounds of things, the shop ordered the correct ones which would explain the difference.

Just a guess...

 

Sounds to me the camber got knocked out of stock settings. You might want to consider getting an alignment check, of course letting the party at fault be responsible for cost.

 

Did they perhaps mistakenly buy a front rim for you? Check the rim width (embossed on the inside of the spoke in the casting), and make sure that you truly have an OEM tire of the correct dimensions. If you remove both rear wheels it will make the comparison easier. to have them sitting side by side.

 

Coral Doc, at first I said "No way," but you were absolutely right. They put a front rim in the back. Can anyone tell me what sort of damage I may have caused by driving in such a manner? Thanks.

 

Bozos!

No, you didn't cause damage as long as the rolling diameter of the tires is the same on either side of the rear of the car. If a different sized tire was used than is recommended it is possible that some extra wear occurred to the Torsen LSD.

Now I'm worried that you may have a rear rim mounted in front. This is a bad thing because the rim will not be correctly seated against the hub and can work loose and fall off. Here's the skinny on S2000 rims so that you can make sure it's crystal clear to the repair shop. I would double check everything before you take it in so that you can tell them exactly what's wrong and then double check their repair/replacement.

The front rims are 16" in diameter and 6.5" in width and the rear rims are 16" in diameter and 7.5" in width.
The front tires (OEM) should be 205/55/16 and the rears should be 225/50/16 [Note: aftermarket rears should be 245/45/16]. The correct tire should be mounted on the correspondingly correct rim. Also, OEM tires (and many other aftermarket tires) are unidirectional. That means that they must be mounted in the correct direction. When the tires are correctly mounted on their rims, the left and right side wheels should be mirror images of each other.

The centerbores (hole through the center of the rim) of each rim are different with a larger diameter in the front and smaller diameter in the rear. The hubs have a small flange that the centerbores are designed to just fit around. This hub-centric design allows greater concentricity of the wheel and means that a front wheel can be used in the rear in an emergency, but the rear wheel will not sit flush against the hub if used in the front. I have seen S2000s driving around with their wheels mounted in the wrong place, so make sure this isn't happening to you. It could be that you do have 2 fronts and 2 rears, but the tires may be mounted on the wrong rim, and/or the wheels are mounted in the wrong location.

Please let us know how this is resolved - it sucks that it's turning into more of a headache.