Anyone know anything about cars/wheels?

Expect reduced acceleration, more noise, harder ride and more fuel consumption, if they're important to you.

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by arenalife

Expect reduced acceleration, more noise, harder ride and more fuel consumption, if they're important to you.

In regards to what and by how much?
Suspension or wheels. And by how much would I have to alter each before this is an issue.

Originally Posted by Dave20046

In regards to what and by how much?
Suspension or wheels. And by how much would I have to alter each before this is an issue.

In my experience you're not likely to notice anything other than a harder ride, I don't think it will be loads harder - changing the springs will affect that more.

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by jimmy__riddle

Not quite right, it's width (mm), aspect ratio (%) then wheel diameter (inches).

The 'thickness' of the tyre is labelled as a percentage of the width.

Avoid spacers, wheels with the correct fitment/offset will not need spacers. Spacers are a quick way to wear out wheel bearings, sometimes depending on ally offset they can be ok, but proper fitting wheels dont need them.

heres the spec for a mk4 golf
PCD : 5x100Offset : 30 to 45Bore : 57.1Fittings : B 14x1.5
from alloywheels.com

Is the offset the 'stud diameter'?

Lookin at a few now
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=260418391062
They look good and are 16's just wondering if I'd need to lower to suit

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=250429906956
they look ok and look like a guaranteed fit. Hopefully look better on a black car too.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=300317410750
think they'll look good but I'd need to refurb them

hmmm

Yeah those 17" in the Red one would probably look pretty good on your black one..

Originally Posted by Dave20046

Is the offset the 'stud diameter'?

Lookin at a few now
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=260418391062
They look good and are 16's just wondering if I'd need to lower to suit

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=250429906956
they look ok and look like a guaranteed fit. Hopefully look better on a black car too.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=300317410750
think they'll look good but I'd need to refurb them

hmmm

Offset is the distance from the hub face (the bit that goes flat up against the wheel face on the inside) to the centre line of the wheel (the centre line of the wheel being the line you'd cut if you wanted to chop the wheel in half to make 2 thinner wheels).

Originally Posted by Dave20046

Is the offset the 'stud diameter'?

no, tried to explain in words but it never made sense so i will paste a link in

http://www.driverstechnologyassociat...eel-offset.htm

clearly shows why spacers should not be needed with the correct rims

edit; muffles is better with words than me! lol

[fizzwheel]

Originally Posted by Dave20046

They look good and are 16's just wondering if I'd need to lower to suit

You dont "need" to lower it, the car will function perfectly adequately on its standard springs ( which is what it was designed to run )

But it will "look" better if you lower it as it'll reduce the gap between the tyre and the wheel arch, you'll also gain in terms of handling as the lowering springs will also in most likelyhood be stiffer which will reduce the amount of bodyroll and crispen the handling, the trade off you get is that the ride is harder.

You might also notice the car tracks poorly across bad or steeply cambered road surfaces due to the wider tyres as well. I used to notice it in my golf which had a 40mm drop but was still on the standard 15" rims...

I'd be also inclined to go with standard silver coloured alloys anything else can look chav, black, polished or white can look good but only on the right car.

The others are right, if you get the right offset you shouldnt need spacers. I'd try to avoid going down that route if I were you.

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by muffles

Offset is the distance from the hub face (the bit that goes flat up against the wheel face on the inside) to the centre line of the wheel (the centre line of the wheel being the line you'd cut if you wanted to chop the wheel in half to make 2 thinner wheels).

ahh that's what I thought it's just on the listings the stud diameter value kept coming up as 100 and confused me.

Cheers everyone

[ophic]

Originally Posted by fizzwheel

...anything else can look chav...

so you can lower a car and fit big rims without it looking chav?