Running Staggered Wheels on FWD - good idea/bad idea??

I really want to put a set of staggered 19s or 20s on my Diamante, but I've been hearing a lot of conflicting reports about how smart this is.  I was on the phone with a rep from TireRack who literally got so pissed off at the thought of me doing this that he hung up the phone....

Here are the issues I've heard about, I need help to distinguish fact from myth...

1 - I'll have more understeer

              I really dont give a shit if I do, I drive a 3500lb boat not an evo.  I never drive my car hard.

2 - I'll ruin the "ball joints" on the rear suspension

              The TireRack dude claims that the extra weight and width of the wheel will put more stress on the "ball joints" of the rear suspension causing them to fail.  And he implied that they would fail QUICK.   I think thats bs....  He went to say that RWD vehicles because of their beefier rear ends and rear axles are better suited to handle staggered wheels.  I agree, but is my Diamante's suspension really gonna implode with the added weight and physical strain of staggered rear wheels?


All I want to know is if running a set of staggered wheels on my FWD car (8.5" front /9.5" rear) is going to have any negative impact on the physical structure of the car itself.  I'm not worried about clearance, not worried about understeer.... just am I gonna F up my car??  She's daily driven, but I baby the shit outa her.  Any insight would be greatly appreciated.  And I did try searching...

We've run staggered wheels on FWD's plenty. . And we stagger them the OTHER way. .  EK civic. . 17x9.5+10 Front. . 17x9+18Rear.  no problems at all. . 
The car doesn't give a shit. . 
Just do it.
 
G.

You can run wider wheels in the rear, but the car will not handle like it did with matching or reverse staggered setups.  But, that won't matter, since it's a VIP build.

As for Tire Rack, I love their ability to ship tires in no time flat, their prices, and their overall selection of tires... but they lack in the creativity and/or knowledge department.  I made the mistake of calling them (instead of shopping online) to order some tires for my tracked Civic, and they nearly had a heart attack when I told them what size tire I was looking for.  They were like... "245/45/16's... on a Civic?! That's impossible, and could set an entire county ablaze."

If I was doing that I would run the same size tires all around but stagger the wheels.

Its gonna drive different and you might get some marginall additional suspension wear on the back( but no more than u would get if u put wider wheels on the front) but really, its not that serious.  Stagger that shit on some flush fitting wheels, slam it and post some pics! I like diamantes.! If u are REEALY REALLY anal, you could allways get all4 wheels the same width and just run a lower offfset in the rear

ive always run stagger on the fwd and it runs fine..didnt really notice any difference, but then again it was on a van...

staggered on the girls I35 9F and 10R.  Runs just fine...
[IMG]http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h255/burgy240/Cool%20Cars/PonsCar028.jpg[/IMG]

i did it to my 2002 tl back in 2004, now all the tl guys is doing it.

On newer FWD cars, as long as you keep the front & rear tire diameters
pretty close you won't have any issues with VSC or ABS.

I've been thinking about staggering the widths on my '08 Odyssey, but the
front almost has more room than the rear.

I say do it.

Do it, ran 225/35ZR19 with 19x8.5 front and 19x9 rears on my 07 Accord Sedan, no problems.

Nice, I'm gonna do it.  Almost got enough cash for the wheels I want, cant wait

I've got staggered fitment on my Pro - 8 and 8.5, all in 205. Not a huge difference, but regardless, it's a slow as fuck car that's just made to look good. It's definitely not a big deal.

had it on my vw never had a problem

speaking of the VW guys do that all the time.  TireRack must hate them with a passion.lol

I have staggered  setup on my accord, too no problems at all for 2 years now.

[QUOTE=toyomatt84;250467]They were like... "245/45/16's... on a Civic?! That's impossible, and could set an entire county ablaze."[/QUOTE]

haha, my alignment tech said something similar when i told him i needed -7* in the rear to fit the wheel + tire combo i have

I was going to do a staggered set of AME's on my TL, but since it is a FWD, I decided not to and got the same width's, sizes, and offset on all 4 wheels. Plus, I can also rotate my tires too as well. But to each it's own.

do it so i can later do it lol. bags kill ball joints anyways ive already changed out both of my rears but then agin my car is 9 years old and stays slammed lol

It'll be fine, and actually using a wider rear wheel will allow you to run a higher offset wheel with the same aggressive fitment, prolonging the life of your wheel bearings, ball joints and all.

it doesn't do anything... i used to run the same size tires all 4 corners on stag widths... it does create more over steer but whatever.

make like nike and just do it

if you dont do it youre a puss, like the tech advisors at tire rack

DO it!!! Dont be a sissy.... DO IT!!!!

stagger offset on the smaller wheel all around
like instead of a 9j/10j
go 9j all around a lower offset rear

fuck titrerack. theyre a bunch of pussies. euro dudes have been running crazy staggered setups on their FWD shit for yearrrrs. its totally fine. better than doing so on an AWD...and people do that all the time too!

Tire Rack "techs" don't know anything other than what is in their guidebook. Either that or they pretend not to because it's a liability. Even when it comes to lug nuts, if it's not in the book they don't know it.

VSC > TireRack!