I thought my first post would be..."Hey, check out my '02 ES300!!" Not a cry for help, but here goes. In the last two week I have spent about $2500 installing Sat. Radio, GPS, Sound, Remote Start, new brakes, and the last additional were the 20-inch rims. In my haste, I neglected to research the proper offset and instead relied on the seller when they asked what type of car they were going on. They finally came and looked great on the car other than the four finger gap in the from and a decent two fingers gap in the rear. After driving on them, I realize I would rub in the rear on bump or certain turns and the trim inside the wheel well was tearing up my brand new tires with just me in the car....it was much worse with a passenger in the front seat....don't even want to image if I had even tried a rear passenger. Never had experience rolling fenders so yesterday I called around til I found a place that said they could do it. The guy removed the unnoticeable plastic trim and rolled the fenders a bit. He said he didn't want to do more because he didn't want the fender to buckle. I rode on it and for most bumps it was gone, but I would still noticed rub on a large bump or a hard turn...still with only me in the car so I was worried about the occassional passengers.

This leads to the problem at hand. Went to a local wheel and tire dealer and asked if there was something they could do like spacers to keep it from rubbing down on my tires. Left my car at lunch and told the guy I didn't want the Tonka truck look....come back after work to my new Tonka/Lex. I figured I might go from a two finger gap in the rear to maybe a three finger gap....Not a SIX finger gap with my car higher in the rear than the front!! They said that it would still rub when they tried to level it out, but it should settle some.....how much is some....and when??? No answer.

Now I'm stuck running low on funds and literally with a "jacked-up lex". Only had my car about a month, so I've been pouring out money, now I'm not quite sure what the next least costly move should be.

I can:

1) go back and ask him just level it out and let me take my chances since I rarely ride rear passengers and the the small fender roll had stopped most of the rubbing.

2) first, find out what the offset is and see if they come in a higher offset then try to sell these on Ebay. I just hope they will sell quick. Have seen them on there for $1300 new but I paid $1100 through a wholesaler with the help of a friend that is an auto dealer and just want to recoup what I spent.

3) Have them just remove the spacers altogether but I hear that the spring will be shot and I'll need new one to just get back to where I was yesterday. I've read about the coilovers but I'm trying not to be out of another $1000 plus labor.

Sorry for the long post. I'm just way past frustrated!! Anyway help would be greatly appreciated. Rims are Platinum Reflex 20x8.5 with 245/35/20. I'll call for the offset tomorrow.

 

Wow sorry man that does look like your ready to take your es off road. What I would do and your gonna laugh. Is to spay paint a color paint onto your tires load your car up for a couple people drive around and see where the paint rubbed off. Of course this is after taking out those awful spacers. Then all you should have to do is see where the paint rubbed off and try to remove/grind down the spots it rubs on.

 

20 inch rims are waaay too large for the es300
GL on the fitment issues.

 

lol, man youre crazy. and what happened to your car is crazy. lmao
why dont you just cut the whole fender lip off? and then just get some clear nail enamel, and cover it up. youll find that most people just cut the rear fender lips off. if only i had a pic, you would see that i literally removed all of it off. there is not even a mm of lip left on mine, and my wheels scrub the body, but the body is still fine.
goodluck
Charley

 

I've been trying to laugh at it myself but I'm just too dang stressed out. Plus the problem is I'm not the DIY-type unless it minimal stuff like changing a light bulb, so I end up trying to find some shop to do what I read here and hope they will do it right. Well, I guess you can see the above results so far....LOL <----Hey, i finally laughed about it!!

The first shop removed some trim piece and said he smoothed the inside of the fender so it wouldn't have any sharp edges if it did rub. Now I'm worried that if I take it back and say just cut the whole fender lip off, I'll come back from work to the first ES300 convertible!!!

 

Keep it up and you can come over to the RX300 forum

Actually I am trying to move toward more realistic car tires to get some performance going from 235-70-16 to 235-60-16, Toyota Harriers of my era run 215-70-16.

I feel your pain. It seems a good chunk of my spending money goes into my vehicle. All I know is that such money is well spent in the end, unlike some women I have been out with.

 

Haha don't buy such big wheels and tires then. If you want to keep them on with stock suspension don't complain. If not then go with some coilovers or some eibach sportlines(2" drop)

 

At least you're not pushing it up there like this Caprice I passed a couple of weeks ago:


does not equal this:

 

Thanks, Slooooooow. That does give me a small bit of comfort...lol

 

I hate to say it but you need to buy new tires 225/35/20 will fit easy or maybe a 225/30/20. You could even try to get a 215/30/20 to fit I fit a 225/40/18 on my rear two and they are 9" wide. Also I know that the first number is the width but I know for a fact the a 255/40/18 is taller than a 225/40/18.

 

Thanks, Choas....I've been toying around with that unfortunate conclusion myself. I did let a friend take a look that actually bought the car at the auction for me. He drive Porsches and has had fenders rolled and modified to fit fat tires. Of course, the first thing he said was to have the god-awful spacers taken off. Then he advised me to go back and have the fenders rolled more. He felt like they should have been able to roll them much more than they did. I think I'm going to try that and see where it leaves me and if that doesn't work, it looks like I'll be buying a new set or tires!!