What to know before installing new rims?

[hasassinator]

So im planning to buy some rims for my n16 pulsar so it can look decent. But I'm completely oblivious about hubs and stuff with rims.

[martinijosh]

Go to wheel shop.

Tell them what you want

They will do the rest

Fin

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[Scotty88]

google your car and find out what sizes it is, find rims that match. Or you could even ask a wheel shop as mentioned above and they will do all the work

[MartZink]

Good to know the offset and bolt pattern, e.g. 5x110

Offset


And you can measure like this if there's no data printet on the rims themselves.



Here's hoe to measure offset:
http://forum.jdmstyletuning.com/show...T-on-your-Rims

[LowFlyin']

Pulsar is probably going to have a higher offset (most FWD cars do). I'd suggest staying away from a +0 or +15 offset unless you want to work on the body, too.

You can use sites like this to play around with diameters if you have a good reference point to start with - i.e. the stock wheel dimensions >

http://rimsntires.com/specs.jsp

[Gabe]

The missus has an N16. I think it's 4x114.3 from memory. Find ones that are maybe 17" and 7j (wide) tops. That'd by my suggestion for now, but I haven't looked too far into getting her car a new set of shoes

[nff]

also if the hubs are smaller than the hole in the middle of the rim get hub spacers that match the rim and the hub it helps prevent breaking lugs.

[Murcie_LP640]

Here are the rules from the RTA concerning aftermarket wheels (PDF file)

http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/registrati...vsi09_rev4.pdf

That's all the legal stuff. Now for the actual wheels. There's a few important things to consider when fitting aftermarket wheels on a vehicle and sometimes, as I had found out with my WRX, it can go a bit awry.

ROLLING DIAMETER

Essentially this is the diameter of the tyre combo that you will be choosing. The key is to be going as close to stock as possible so that things like your speedometer and brakes are not affected too greatly.

A great calculator I've used for this is the one here on 1010tires.com:

http://www.1010tires.com/Tools/Tire-Size-Calculator

You plug in the stock tyre dimensions (profile, width, and diameter) and you can choose up to 4 different aftermarket varieties to compare. It will also bring up possible tyre choices in the respective sizes to choose from though, being an American site, I'm fairly sure they don't ship to Australia and if they did, the shipping would cost a fair whack. But it gives you an idea of what you can search for at the wheel shop to fit to your new wheels.

Here's an example I did for my WRX (stock wheels - 16x7" +53 with 205/50/R16 tyres; I went for 18" wheels on it so I put in 4 different 18" tyre sizes)


tyresizes by Murcie_LP640, on Flickr

CLEARANCE

This is the main issue I had with the WRX. All cars are different though, so the Pulsar may be easier to fit some fat wheels and rubber underneath the guards but for mine it was a little more tricky. Wheel width, tyre width and profile, combined with the offset of the new wheels can wreak havoc when it comes to clearing both the suspension components and the wheel arches, specifically the lip that's underneath the wheel arch, out of view from a side-on position (once again using the Sexy Rexy as an example ):


guardlip by Murcie_LP640, on Flickr

In my case, it was the rear arches. The tyres were both too wide and too high profile so that, if the suspension was under load (example: vigorous cornering, or with passengers in the car), the lip of the guards would scrape along the tyre. This both damages the tyre if left for too long (which I don't exactly want with Bridgestones that cost $1300-odd bucks a set) and leaves quite ugly rubber marks all over the guards. This is just in my example of course, and the GC8 Imprezas notoriously have very little room to work with in the rear wells. Guard work isn't that big of a job if you have the right tools and the know-how. I myself didn't have the know-how but I got someone who DID, to do it for me

So to drag it back on topic, here's a couple of tips to ensure you don't get scrubbing like I did on the WRX:

- Don't get wheels that are too wide for the car's wheel wells. It kinda stands to reason really. It's both illegal and can cause major issues with clearance and, since the bigger wheels tend to be heavier unless you go for ultra-expensive forged RAY'S or SSRs, it can cause extra stress on the wheel bearings if they're TOO heavy.

- Similarly, get the right size tyres for your new wheels. Use the tyre size calculator above to help you out with this.

- Don't variate the offset too much. The offset is the distance the outside of the wheel sits from the wheel hubs. Front- and all-wheel-drive vehicles tend to have a quite high offset (I believe the Pulsar is a +45mm; my WRX was a +53mm) whereas RWD vehicles tend to have a low, sometimes even negative offset. I used the calculator that LowFlyin' posted to make a few estimates as to how the new wheels were going to sit. If you go for wider wheels and/or tyres it won't be detrimental to go for an offset a few mm off of stock (ie. +42mm or +48mm) if it will help with clearance in the wheel wells. If you stick with wheels of the exact same width as stock though, you want the offset to be STOCK or as very much close to it as possible.

FITMENT

Once you've got all the techy research and calculations out of the way, it's a matter of choosing the right wheels for your car. Arm yourself with whatever size you think will be best for your vehicle and go hunting. Wheel shops will of course be of the best help here, they'll be able to tell you what styles you can and can't get in the size you need. And of course, unless you have your own tyre fitter sitting around in the shed rusting away, get a wheel shop to fit the tyres.

Some wheel shops will bring up some red tape if you happen to bring in your own bits. Originally to keep costs down I wanted to bring in my own tyres and wheels that had been shipped in from interstate or overseas however all the wheel shops down here said that I could bring in my own wheels, but not my own tyres as they would be liable if things turned to shit and something were to be damaged. Being in a major city I would be sure that there would be at least a few shops that will fit both wheels and tyres that you have brought in yourself so long as they're to ADR standards of course. They will more than likely charge you a fee to fit the tyres as opposed to if you buy the whole package from them, however it will still end up being cheaper 9 times out of 10.

So as an end to my example, a before and after shot!

Before - 16x7" Subaru MY99 Impreza wheels in black; 205/50/R16 Toyo Teo Plus tyres:


DSC_0015 by Murcie_LP640, on Flickr

After - 18x8" Enkei GTC01 wheels in Hyper Silver; 225/40/R18 Bridgestone Adrenalin RE002 tyres:


Untitled-10 by Murcie_LP640, on Flickr


IMG_20130409_172433[1] by Murcie_LP640, on Flickr

I did have to roll the guards to fit these wheels and tyres but they sit nice and neat in the guards and now I have no scraping whatsoever. This was mentioned as a to-do by my tyre dealer if I wanted these tyres.

Happy wheel hunting!

[AUSupra]

Murcie literally covered it all, haha! Great information, the only thing I know which would be a concern when changing wheels is to check the speedometer and check that is reading correctly (Try a GPS speedometer VS your actual speedometer)

My Integra, in going up from a 14" to a 15" wasn't greatly affected because it's just a 1 inch go-forward, however there are other things that can affect the speedometer reading such as width and all other technical stuff.

[turbojoe]

i have a 91 celica and i went from a 13's to 15's and 185 to 225 so all you really have to do is make sure your bolt pattern is the same and you can get hub rings if you need to so dont worry so much about that

[Jenga]

In most states of Australia I believe you cannot go 2" larger in diameter or width than the largest wheels your vehicle could get from the factory.

I'm not sure what the rules are in SA, but for NSW, that is incorrect.

There is no such thing as the 2" rule in NSW. It does not exist. Tyres (the tyres, not the rims) can be up to 15mm larger in diameter. The rims can be any size you want, as long as the tyre itself is still within 15mm of the factory tyre diameter.

For a Pulsar, rims can be up to 1.5" wider than the widest optional rim width.

Rim offset cannot change more than 12.5mm either way (so if you had +45mm offset, you can go down to 32.5mm offset).

Here's where all that info comes from, it's handy to have when you're looking at buying aftermarket wheels.

Or as others have said, take it to a wheel shop and they'll look after all that for you if you're really unsure.

[Murcie_LP640]

I'm not sure what the rules are in SA, but for NSW, that is incorrect.

My bad. I was originally just going to leave that blanket statement in there but decided instead to go the whole hog with my experiences and forgot to take that bit out. I also already included that RTA .pdf file in the post.

[KillerBunnys122]

GET HUB CENTRING RINGS

Or your new wheels will sit lug centric instead of hub centric and you'll have mad vibrations and risk studs snapping off and losing a wheel.

[hasassinator]

Cheers guys! But I think I might go to a shop and get it done
but then again i want to do it myself. But first I just spend some more time reading carefully about what most of you said.
Cheers Anyways!!

[khindustries]

When putting wheels on that you've just had balanced check to make sure the wheel weights don't rub on the calipers if they're on the inside of the wheel. Just make sure you test before bolting it up and driving off and losing all you're new weights in the process