I have a 2002 986 base model that has the sport classic wheels.
I'm chasing down a steering wheel shake at 70mph and as part of my investigation I switched the front and rear wheels on both sides to see if it made a difference.
The wheels are the same size, as are the tires ( 235 / 45R17 ), however when I swap the fronts with the rears the rear wheels now appear to be set further inside the wheel arches, and vice versa for the fronts ( they're further out in the arches ). I don't understand this as the wheels and tires are the same size and I don't see any spacers installed anywhere. I've tried to show it in the pictures below.
Here's how the car looked BEFORE the swap:
The only difference between the front and rear wheels is the model of tire ( albeit the same size ), surely this can't make a visual difference like this?
The car absolutely handled better with the original set up ( that makes the steering wheel shake at 70mph ), but with the wheels switched that shake altered for sure, potentially lessened but overall handling was worse.
Not sure what learnings to take away from this experiment. I feel like I'm missing something here...
Other work I did prior to this to try to fix the steering wheel shake was:
New front inner and outer tie rods
New front sway bar drop links
New rear sway bar drop links
Alignment
Wheels balanced ( twice )
New rear sway bar bushings
Threaded Mode
