Confirmed -- Brabus rears fit on the front

[silverbrabus]

Originally Posted by Brabus

So is it possible to put 4x 17s Brabus 451 wheels with or without spacers?

17s all 4 corners fits without spacers. Will probably want spacers at the rear though to restore the front/rear stagger.

[babybenz]

Yes i would do a 10mm spacer in the rear

[Brabus]

Originally Posted by babybenz

Yes i would do a 10mm spacer in the rear

There are some 10mm spacers on Smart Madness, but I think I'd need to see what it looks like before spending $187 ($169.99 + 12.99 shipping/$3.99 insurance). I mean that's a lot of $$$ for 3/8" of an inch.

http://www.smartmadness.com/servlet/...spacers/Detail

[Brabus]

Originally Posted by silverbrabus

Just tried it. They fit. Very close though -- inner sidewall is ~3mm from lower spring perch. Fills out the fender nicely but still very slightly tucked. I'm thinking 20mm spacer at the back to match.

I just tried it, too. From what I can tell there is no way will it work unless you added 20mm spacers to the FRONT. You know how there's the spring on the front suspension and that spring sits on a metal cup-like plate, well that metal cup-like plate is literally touching the tire. I grabbed a piece of paper to make sure it wasn't applying pressure on the tire as I didn't want to ruin the tires. I can move the paper between it but that's it, I mean we are talking a fraction of a mm. Then the spring is literally above the tire by about the distance from the tip of your finger to the first finger joint, which I guess is about 3/4". So it's definitely not drive-able.

I took pictures some pictures of what it looks like and it's a neat look, but it'd either require some suspension work or a spacer. A 10mm spacer on the front wouldn't do it and I'd say even a 20mm spacer would be cutting it close, then it's going to stick out even further.

Taking pictures of it from the side, it looks rather sharp, however taking a picture from up front of the Smart, the tire sticks out quite a bit near the front spoiler/valence (whatever it is called).

The wheels offset or whatever it is doesn't allow the Brabus 17s in the rear to work up front.

I mean I'd love to be absolutely wrong, but I don't see it as a possibility. Although I have to say I can't say I like the quad 17s any better than the 15s/17s. Ideally, I wish they were 16s/17s. I can't speak for other 17s as I haven't seen them in person, but the Brabus rear 17s offset really make it stick out quite a bit in the lower to mid area of the quarter panel (not on the top of the quarter panel).

[Brabus]

Originally Posted by babybenz

yes I put brabus 17's on a smart today it is very close to the spring perch but it will definatly work and yes we test drove it no rubbing issues at all!

So BabyBenz confirmed he put them on a Brabus without problems.

I guess my problem is since I don't have tire pressure sensors installed in my extra set of Brabus wheels, what I did was put two 17"s on the drivers side and the two 15s on the passenger side. I wanted to see what it would look like in person. That configuration must be pushing the spring toward the wheel thus making the spring literally 1/4" above the tire and touching on the sidewall. I don't know. I'm not an expert in these things. I suppose it's the wheel off balanced configuration doing it. I haven't driven with it like this as it's pretty severe.

I mean I can slide my finger in between the tire and the spring and the tire has my fingerprint and the spring has my finger nail touching...in other words probably 1/4" from the spring to the wheel and about 3/4" deep...I know confusing, I can't figure out how to explain how much that spring is sitting on top, but it's quite a bit).

I'll get my tire pressure sensors installed onto my extra set of Brabus wheels and put all four 17s and report back in a couple days.

[tbone28]

Brabus - are you test fitting on your brabus car or your passion? If test fitting on your brabus car, then that may explain why you have different results than babybenz. The spring perches on the brabus suspension may be different than the ones on a passion

[Brabus]

Originally Posted by tbone28

Brabus - are you test fitting on your brabus car or your passion? If test fitting on your brabus car, then that may explain why you have different results than babybenz. The spring perches on the brabus suspension may be different than the ones on a passion

I'm test fitting on my Brabus. Babybenz said he put them on a Brabus, too.

Only thing I can come up with is if I put 17s on both sides then it'll somehow move the suspension inward.

Right now it is two 17s on the drivers and two 15s on the passenger. I need to get tire pressure sensors for the second set.

[Brabus]

Okay, I'm starting to agree with BabyBenz regarding the spring. Eventhough the spring is directly over the tire, from what I can tell the spring does NOT get significantly closer to the tire due to perch being at the level of the tire.

[Brabus]

However, the concern I have is the perch (I'm assuming that's the name of what the Spring's foundation rests). I tore off a piece of this very thin USPS envelope to give you an example of how close that spring's foundation is snug next to the sidewall of a tire.

If the two touch, it would cut into that tire like butter. I've had this happen on a vehicle that I've put wider wheels on the front than the vehicle was intended and it took over a year for it to do it but sure enough I was sitting on the side of the road with two ruined run flat tires stranded at midnight. This was outside of Atlanta and apparently the high speed of the Interstate along with the dips made that special occurrence that I didn't experience on the slower northeastern Interstates.

The perch is snug next to the sidewall of the tire. The thickness of this piece of envelope barely goes in between. Now the corner of the envelope (the area where it is 3 ply) only goes through if you move it up and down like flossing your teeth. It's that close. Then I lifted up the passenger side of the Smart to see if it moved the perch closer and it make the envelope even hard to move. So what it seems to me is flat highway driving might be fine, but putting this car on a windy parkway at 55mph+ would really test someones faith that it wouldn't rub. This is a rather thin paper envelope. I think it needs a 10mm spacer OR a narrower tire unless the wheels and tires are really that secure that they don't flex from side to side. I think this is an accident waiting to happen without some kind of modification.

[Brabus]

17s front



Here's the 15" front same camera position (These are the wider Brabus 15", I suspect the narrower stock Passion 15" wheels fit without going over. One thing I've noticed with a vehicle of mine that I put wider wheels than intended is the paint gets sandblasted away at the edge of the quarter panel's wheel well. I guess that's the price you pay for bigger tire look, that and poorer gas mileage and a substantially higher risk of a bent rim.).




But my overall perspective I think the 17s look really sharp on the car and the 7.5" offset sticking out at the lower qtr panel doesn't stand out enough to make it look off unless you get down in front which nobody would really do and even then it's minimal.