need advice, please tyres and the thingie above

[SUZIE]

Hi guys, I have an RX400h second hand. When I bought it I noticed that this - whatever it is - above the tyres are too close to the tyres.  I checked other cars but my conclusion was that it is normally covered by the car design or mudguard type of things.

Where I bought it, I was told that this is totally fine and as should be - of course they did - but everywhere else was said the same... It went through 6 services (4 different ones) and 5 MOTs and nobody has said anything about it.

I rolled into a tyre shop this week, where they noticed that I actually have the wrong tyres - ALL 4... nobody noticed this before... Which will give a tiny bit more space between the tyre and that thingie but not much.  The tyre shop kept saying that it must be touching the tyres, but I do not feel it and if it were touching it would be an instant drag on the tyres and I am 100% sure that it would have shred the tyres to flat in the past 5 years... so of course I can see they want to sell new tyres.  Regardless that is going to be done as I am worried about the size being wrong etc.

I wish men would not treat women like we do not know anything or we would not understand anything or perhaps we are not worthy... I do not know, I am honestly tired of fighting men all the time.. 

However, I thought I give one last chance, perhaps this club will shed some light on this, why is it like that, is it for you guys as well or mine has some issues... what is it called, what do I need to say, and if I have to ask a friend's husband to roll into a service with my car and say these things and ask for advice, then I will do that...

Many thanks in advance 😻

[Malc1]

Suzie hi ……bit of common sense here ….. . maybe check out your actual tyre size to what’s recommended in your Manual / Service Book ……,, and if they’re incorrect then get them changed promptly ! 
 

if they are the right tyres …… and wheels ……. for your car then maybe your regular garage people can investigate further for you …… 

Good luck 

Malc 

[scythe]

First, the tyre size.  Two different sizes of tyre were originally fitted to this model of car. The size of tyre is either 235/55R18 or 225/60R17.  This is because there have been two different sizes of wheel hub fitted.  One type has a diameter of the metal hub of 18 inches, the other 17 inches.

You can check the size of the fitted tyres by looking for a set of letters and numbers, with the slash in the middle, in big writing on the side of your tyres.

The bit above, is the metal dish that holds the bottom of the spring? Try passing something between it- such as a bit of cardboard. If it's not touching (and it won't be, because, as you say, you'd have worn down that bit of tyre) then everything is ok.

Incidentally, if you look at blackcircles.com (who sell tyres online), and put in your car registration, it should tell you the size of tyres that your car needs. 

The reason you can see so much spring is that the body is higher than a saloon car. This means the wheels have the space to travel up and down if you're driving off road.

The only issue that I can see is that if the tyres are 5 years old then they may start to perish very soon - but they will have been checked when you had your last MOT.

: o )

[Spock66]

If it is rubbing you may have a fault with the suspension rather than incorrect size tyres.

[welland]

6 hours ago, Spock66 said:

If it is rubbing you may have a fault with the suspension rather than incorrect size tyres.

There should be no movement between the tyre and the lower spring perch.   If there's a gap, however small, there's no problem with either the tyres or the suspension.   

[wiccan2]

That all looks fine to me, as others have said the car sits high because it's an SUV. My 400h looks just like yours, lots of spring visible.

[Malc1]

Just to note the OP hasn't been back once to check the replies ............ in 12 days !

Malc

[Greisingel]

my 400 has 235/60s. The spring pan or cups on mine look very close to tyre. But they move in unison. They will never touch. Never have done.