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Teach me about wheels!!

C

CrashDummy

CEG'er
Joined
Mar 23, 2004
Messages
40
Location
CT, USA
I currently own a 1999 Ford Contour LX. It has stock 14 inch steel wheels. I am interested in upgrading but really have a lot of questions so please be patient with me.

First, if I change wheels to a larger size, say 16 inches:
Will I need to have my spedometer re-done?
Will it affect my car's real world torque since the drive axels will be turning a larger wheel instead of a smaller one?
Will it lift my car and give it even more ground clearence than it has now(I don't want my car to look goofy and all raised up)?

Second what are my options for wheels:
I know any Contour or Focus wheels will fit...but what about those wheels they sell at like Pep Boys? They are usually cheap, but will they fit my car? I know they come in 14 inch sizes...are there any other types of 14 inch aftermarket wheels?

Thank You for any questions that you can help me with....
 
To answer one of your questions, make sure your tires are a lower profile so that your rollout remains the same...then your speedometer want be affected.
 
CrashDummy said:
First, if I change wheels to a larger size, say 16 inches:
Will I need to have my spedometer re-done?
Click to expand...
No, not if you get the right size tires. The tire size calculator will tell you everything you need to know. http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html
Just mess around with it.. it'll even tell you how much your speedo will be off.

Will it affect my car's real world torque since the drive axels will be turning a larger wheel instead of a smaller one?
Click to expand...
If you get the right size tire, your wheel diameter should stay the same. The heavier your wheels get, the harder it is to accelerate and stop. Unless you're getting 19's or 20's it's hard to find a small wheel that's too heavy.

Will it lift my car and give it even more ground clearence than it has now(I don't want my car to look goofy and all raised up)?
Click to expand...
Again this coincides with the right tire size. Note: a 40 series tire will have a stiffer sidewall than a 55 or 60 and that could make your car look barely higher.

Second what are my options for wheels:
I know any Contour or Focus wheels will fit...but what about those wheels they sell at like Pep Boys? They are usually cheap, but will they fit my car? I know they come in 14 inch sizes...are there any other types of 14 inch aftermarket wheels?
Click to expand...
If you're going aftermarket you might as well just get 16" or higher. I don't really see the point on getting 14"ers. I also doubt PepBoys wheels will fit our car. You have to look for the bolt pattern 4x108, which limits your choices by a lot compared to other cars out there.

--
Quick run down on tires. You'll often see things like 185/60-14 or 215/45-17, on the sides of tires. The first number is the width of the tire in millimeters, so 185 mm's wide. The second number represents the sidewall and it's a percentage of the tire width. So 60% of 185 is the sidewall in mm's. The last number is the size of your rim.

Cheers!
 
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I run 215/45ZR-17's on my tour and it works great, there's really no difference that I can tell in my speedo. and when you go from a steel rim to an after market alloy rim they usually are a bit lighter. I had alloys on mine stock and I went with a Kobe rim raped with yoko para spec2 and that combo was lighter than the stock rim by itself. but I had Enkei RS6 17's with same type of tires and that was heavier than the stock rim and tire package that came with the car.
 
Thanks so much guys! This has been very helpful. Just one more question for all of you. If I go from the stock 14 inch wheel to a 16 inch one, I know that the 16 inch wheel will also be wider. Will that result in the tire sticking out on the sides of the car and looking all goofy?
 
CrashDummy said:
Thanks so much guys! This has been very helpful. Just one more question for all of you. If I go from the stock 14 inch wheel to a 16 inch one, I know that the 16 inch wheel will also be wider. Will that result in the tire sticking out on the sides of the car and looking all goofy?
Click to expand...

it will not if you get the correct tire size and off set on the wheel
 
Here is a very comprehensive tire & wheel calculator that also gives you a table comparing diameters of various tire/wheel combos - based on your stock size. If you enter the offset of the wheel, it will tell you if there may be clearance issues.

http://www.rims-n-tires.com/rt_specs.jsp

Here is a picture of a few cars at the June 2006 Dragon Run. The Cabernet Red Mystique (mine) has ST200 wheels.

n105101961_30060247_9209.jpg
 
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