Tire Rub in Front Wheel Well After Discount Tire Rotate & Balance. Why?

After visiting Discount Tire today for the first rotate and balance on my KO2's purchased in November 23, the driver's side front tire rubs against the interior of the wheel well when turned hard right. I took it back to Discount Tire who swears that it didn't fall off a jack and that nothing unusual was noted. Simple 20-minute routine service included with the purchase.

Then, I took it to my trusted suspension gurus who added my Cornfed spacer last year - 1" lift, front only. Offroad Addiction in OKC, they're awesome. They did an alignment and said that the strut looked normal but still rubbed.

Here's the factors:

• 4Runner is a 21 Venture
• Tires aren't over-inflated. They are at 36psi.
• KO2's are factory OEM size 265/17. Not oversized.
• 51K miles on the Venture.
• 5k miles on the KO2's.
• Rubbing is on the driver's side only - not rubbing on passenger side at all.
• Truck hasn't hit any obstructions that would bend the strut.
• It didn't rub when we handed the keys to Discount Tire today and it did when they gave us the keys back.

Any thoughts of what might be happening? Two pics attached are (i) a side view of the Venture and (ii) a shot of the wheel well with mark-up showing the area where the rubbing is happening.

Thanks in advance you guys!
Brad showing where the rubbing is happening.

 

I put 265/70R17 Goodyear Ultra terrians and they rubbed on my front passenger at times.

 

Same here when we got the Toyo ATIII's on ours. Nothing that a heat gun and screwdriver handle couldn't fix.

 

It's a common occurrence....nothing that they did. Tires will vary in size as they wear on a vehicle based on alignment, caster, etc. Take a heat gun on low and heat the area where it rubs and push it forward and "mold' it until it cools.

 

Same truck and tires other than I have suspension lift. As mentioned has to work with heat gun pushing fender liner forward.

 

Toyota put TINY little wheel openings on these trucks. I've never (!) had a truck that was close to rubbing or rubbed with stock size tires, but here we are. What you're experiencing is normal. And, I bet before the balance and rotation, the other tire was .005mm from rubbing and the slight variance in tire size (manufacturing, wear, etc.) is the difference. Also, don't sweat the one side only rub - that flimsy plastic fender liner is not a high-tolerance piece. Your suspension is perfect.

Here's my 2020 with the same tires - 265/70/17 KM2s. They're new.

 

Many AT tires have a wider tread pattern and wider shoulders than the car tires they have from the factory. Toyota modifies the fender liners on TRD PRo's because the difference in offset between the TRD Pro wheels and the other options is enough to cause rubbing.

I swapped wheels to a 0mm offset and now rub with 27k miles on my stock size Toyo AT3's. A little time with a heat gun is in my future (but so is a lift)...

 

Thanks ya'll !!!

The weird thing about it IMHO is that it didn't rub at all (zero times) from the day I had the KO2's installed 5k miles ago (back in November) until yesterday when it was finished at Discount Tire.

Heat gun remedy is a good choice either way tho - just to give it a bit more clearance. I'd do that for sure.

Still would like to figure out what the difference is that caused it to start at this point. Something in those 30 minutes at Discount Tire (no disrespect to them intended) = didn't rub before, did rub after.

 

Two things that could cause/eliminate the rub happened:
1. Tires were swapped, e.g, the tire that was on the driver's front is not the same tire - same size, same age... but not the same tire.
2. They aired it to 36psi. Can you be certain that tire wasn't at 32psi? 44psi? The shoulder is what rubs. It could be that a lower pressure would be more likely to cause the shoulder to rub. As the pressure goes up, the center pushes out, that causes the side to... yeah, I'm totally guessing here. The opposite could happen.

The punchline is that the rub is sooooo slight, that any variation in pressure, wear, manufacturing/casting... would make the rub happen

 

Quality control on tires is not precise. Plus or minus on sizes is probably the answer. One tire is a little bigger than other and therefore rubs.

 

Good points. But the PSI was 36psi going in and 36psi coming out. I watch it closely. DC did a front to rear swap and then when it rubbed, I had them undo the swap. It still rubbed. Something was different after they did their thing.

 

Aaah... I get it now - the same tire at the same PSI back to the same place. Hmm... That's definitely not as easy to chalk up to all ^that^.

 

Exactly.

So, here's my current theory - considering all the factors in my original post above, plus the observations from the brethren here.
See if this makes sense:

• November 2023: The wheel well clearance on my Venture was microns from rubbing after the KO2's were installed but didn't.
• Yesterday: Discount Tire did the rotation per their normal workflow - front-to-rear/rear-to-front rotation.
• The rear tire was ever-so-slightly larger in diameter than the front and just enough to cause a minor rub.
• The rubbing pulled on the wheel well interior plastic (as shown in the images above) just enough to bend it.
• When the front tire (which had just been rotated to the rear) was put back on the front, the now-bent wheel well was then close enough to the tire so that the tire that originally didn't rub, now did.