Car is 6 inches off the ground(with car skirt), need bigger tires?

**winter** · August 14th, 2012 11:01 AM

help! I have a toyota yaris with skirt and it's 5-6 inches off the ground, any kind of hole or bumps in the road hits the skirt

My mechanic told me to get 16 inch tires/rims I currently have 14 inches

please advice! I wanted to remove the skirt but he said my car would look bad without the skirt

Should I get 16 inches or 17 inches? How does it affect my car? How much does 2nd hand mags usually cost? Is the 2nd hand mags worth it or should I buy a new one? (cost wise)

thank you in advance!

**robot.sonic** · August 14th, 2012 11:10 AM

tanggalin mo na yung skirt. ayos lang yang walang ganyan. tingnan mo yung itsura ng mga stock na yaris.

kung lalakihan mo ang gulong mo kakainin nyan ang fender liner. Mas lalo ka pang mag ingat kung naka 16 o 17 ka. mas problema yan sa mga pot holes.

**ZENMasterTYL** · August 14th, 2012 11:16 AM

Originally Posted by winter

help! I have a toyota yaris with skirt and it's 5-6 inches off the ground, any kind of hole or bumps in the road hits the skirt

My mechanic told me to get 16 inch tires/rims I currently have 14 inches

please advice! I wanted to remove the skirt but he said my car would look bad without the skirt

Should I get 16 inches or 17 inches? How does it affect my car? How much does 2nd hand mags usually cost? Is the 2nd hand mags worth it or should I buy a new one? (cost wise)

thank you in advance!

sayad na yan sa fender paps. lalo dadami problema mo. let go of the skirts

**dfopiso** · August 14th, 2012 11:19 AM

sounds like meron gustong kumita from the new sets of tires/wheels

**zero** · August 14th, 2012 11:27 AM

removing the skirts sounds reasonable and less expensive.

i wonder if getting a thicker tire, R14 80 or 90 series would help your vios stand a little higher without changing your current rims?

**niky** · August 14th, 2012 12:26 PM

Increasing tire diameter can result in fender-rubbing, loss of power, poorer fuel economy and odometer error.

The simplest solution is to remove the skirts. The simplest and cheapest solution that does not require removal of skirts is to install higher spring perches or spring spacers, which will raise your car roughly half-an-inch for every 1 inch thickness. This maintains the stock tires, stock spring and shock damping and stock fuel economy.

Personally, 5-6 inches of clearance is not really that low. There are modern cars that are just 5 inches low without skirts. If you're scraping the ground after every pothole, then it's not the skirts, it's because your suspension is suck-tacularly soft.

(that's on the road, the tires aren't squealing, and yes, it's bottoming out.)

Just learn to drive around it... drive slower... or buy stiffer springs and shocks.

**ecneret** · August 14th, 2012 02:14 PM

^^
agree. it's not really that low. yung ek ko dati 3/4 nung kaha ng yosi ang ground clearance pero ok naman. sumasayad minsan sa humps pero pag tama yung approach mo sa mga humps walang sayad.

**basti08** · August 14th, 2012 02:55 PM

Originally Posted by winter

help! I have a toyota yaris with skirt and it's 5-6 inches off the ground, any kind of hole or bumps in the road hits the skirt

My mechanic told me to get 16 inch tires/rims I currently have 14 inches

please advice! I wanted to remove the skirt but he said my car would look bad without the skirt

Should I get 16 inches or 17 inches? How does it affect my car? How much does 2nd hand mags usually cost? Is the 2nd hand mags worth it or should I buy a new one? (cost wise)

thank you in advance!

I think you are currently rolling on 15s. 185/60R15 if it's stock.

I also agree that it's not that low yet. Learn to drive around humps more carefully, change your approach/passing/departure angles.

**winter** · August 17th, 2012 11:26 PM

thank you for the replies! your answers help me a lot, thank you. you are very helpful!

I think the reason why other answers say that 5-6inches isn't low enough is because you live in the big city. I live in mindanao, which a lot of the roads have holes and our humps are huge and some roads aren't even cemented

my tires read 185 / 60 r14 - 14 means 14 inches? I am not the first owner of this car so i'm not sure if it's stock or not

also when parking, you know the parking bumper? that was my first damage because I was taught to hit the tire into the bumper, but the tire wasn't the one hitting the bumper, it was the skirt huhuhu :'(

picture of parking bumper for reference

also I'm having doubts on removing the skirt because I don't like the look of the car without it, I am interested in this

"install higher spring perches or spring spacers, which will raise your car roughly half-an-inch for every 1 inch thickness"

thank you very much!

**niky** · August 18th, 2012 12:57 AM

I live in the province. I used to drive a lowered Sentra that had just four iinches or less clearance at the front chin. Even over potholes and ruts, completely fine. I had to go all the way to Makati to rip the front chin.

You just have to get used to eyeballing what your car can and can't clear. Even some crossovers and SUVs scrape their front chins on humps and parking stops.