The offset on my 16" factory wheels are different front and rear. would it matter if I ran 4) front offset rims all around?

 

you can run 4 fronts with no problems at all. you cannot however use rears on the front without a spacer

 

Then why did GM go through the effort to produce rear offset wheels?

 

Thats a good question. I wish they wouldn't have for sure. Prolly to make it really costly to rotate tires..

 

the rear end is a bit wider than the front end on our cars so to make the wheels stick out equal from front to back they made different offsets

 

Is the deeper dish rims supposed to be on the back? I went to get new tires and they ****ed it up the first time putting the deeper dish on one side in the front. I had to go back and they switched it. Is that right, deeper dish offsets in the back?

 

Deep ones go on the front.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't most of the 16" rims labeled front and rear? Mine are, but I have the "early" 16" 5 spoke style.

 

Where are they labeled I have an 86 ta with the black/charcoal diamond spoked wheels. If they are labled then these guys are even more stupid than I gave them credit for

 

They are clearly marked front and rear. And the deeper dish goes in the front. If you have the rear wheels on the front I am surprised they are not grinding away on the strut and tie rod end

 

Mine are labeled on the spokes, but they are Iroc rims. Not sure on the Firebird honeycomb style.

 

Crosslaces are marked right on the back of the center hub

 

Crap, i don't hear any noise, just noticed today that the guys put the deeper off sets on the back. I smelt rubber burning the other day and i was not even going fast (in the rear).

 

You owe them an apology, because they did it correctly. I didn't even make it out of the parking lot before mine started rubbing on the tie rod ends, when the shop put my backs on the front one time.

 

But how? Everyone is saying that the deeper dish is supposed to be on the front and not the rear? I have them on the rear.

 

Fronts fit the rear just fine. 99% of the time, rears do not fit the front. I have only seen a couple that got away with rears on the front & then it was only because of tie rod ends with the smaller joints. Those are were the rubbing occurs. If yours aren't rubbing, then you either have those or, like my daughter does, have the thin factory spacers made for the rear one the front, preventing them from rubbing.

 

I haven't changed anything on the suspension yet. Everything is factory. What kind of noise would be heard if they were rubbing? A grinding noise when you turn from a stop? or when you brake? I will take a pic of the tires so you can see.

 

Mine was fine when I pulled away from the building. As I turned the steering wheel to get to the driveway....SCREEEEECH/GRIIIIIIND from the rim spinning around & rubbing it.

Look under the front end & you can check yours.

 

I couldn't get my head under the car this morning. From what I saw there was nothing. My front end does grind when i turn from a stop. But it did that with the stock gatorbacks when i got the car out of the garage. There's a problem where one of my calipers grabs more, and the car shoots over when there's a huge bump or cgulley and i brake it'll go into the gulley

 

I run 4 front wheels. Not really something most people will realistically do due to costs and effort required and the lack of benefits from it. I just had an extra set of front wheels. Got em cheap, wanted to experiment with polishing aluminum wheels, turned out well. So I put em on the front of the car and polished the wheels that came off... and voila - four front wheels on the car.

The rears stick out like a half inch or so I think on each side. Not sure, but it's not noticeable. One of those things you cant quite put your finger on if you look at the car, but it definitely doesnt look bad. The only drawback is the front wheels are slightly heavier, so you have more rotating weight in the driveline.





Edit: Just to be clear, when I said they stick out a half inch, I mean tehy stick out a half inch further than usual, they do NOT protrude past the fender. They're about even with the body accent line.

 

Oh, i see. I noticed my rears stuck out more than usual but didn't think nothing of it. Nice Camaro. Looks good. Why did they put deeper offsets on the front and not the rear. It would make sense to have it deeper in the rear no?

 

Thanks guys, they were wrong. No wonder the car was all over the road. So much better now

 

The different offset gave the rear a slightly narrower track width than the front. The result was better tracking down the road.

But that being said...I have run 4 fronts on all 4 corners, fronts & rears switched (daughter has that car now) and 4 matching offset aftermarket wheels. All that & I have never thought the factory setup was that much better nor regretted having the rears match the front.

 

If i have to do that, i will do it if necessary. They also did the directionals wrong. Car felt like it was fighting itself. I wouldn't mind running all four fronts on the car. As long as the rims look nice. Then i wont have to worry about front and rear rims anymore

 

There was the handling problem. Sounds like yours might need to be unmounted & put back on correctly, if the directionals are backwards yet the wheels aer where they should be. The back of the wheels are clearly stamped FRONT & REAR, so if they did it wrong, they didn't pay attention.

Now that you know, you'll hafta let the tire/wheel shop know before they start, so that you don't go through this again. I always even take the clack plastic lug nut covers off myself, so that they don't bust them with the air ratchet.

 

Yeah, thanks. They fixed it yesterday. And i stand over the guy and make him do it by hand first for the plastic covers. I also make him hand start the wheel lock and lug nuts. No one knows how to do their job correctly anymore. Damn. Thanks blackbird. You've been a lot of help. It's too bad we don't have a thirdgen.org car meet somewhere. I would love to see all the thirdgens cruising down the highway. Get to meet you guys too