What Size Wheels Fit My Car

How Do You Know What Size Wheels Fit On My Car

When determining the correct size of wheels for any vehicle, its essential to find what is called the proper fitment. There are several factors that go into finding the right fitment for every wheel and vehicle.

Those factors ensure the ability to mount the wheel as well as proper clearance in relation to the suspension. They include bolt patterns, offset, and of course, the size and type of wheel.

Wheel Hub And Center Bore

The size of the machined opening located in the center of the wheel.

The hub is the center bore, the machined hole right in the middle of the wheel, where we fit the vehicle axle.

The size of the axle is specific to the vehicle and can’t be changed. Some wheels are replicas, which means they fit perfectly on the axle. Others are universal, with a larger opening to suit a greater number of vehicles. With those wheels, we recommend installing a centering ring, a simple plastic ring, to adjust the fit, allowing the wheel to sit properly on the axle of the vehicle. This might look minor but it can avoid inconveniences such as strong vibrations in the vehicle and in the steering wheel, the wheel not being properly centered around the axle.

Alloy Wheel Fitment Guide: Measuring Pcd Yourself: 3 4 5 6 And 8 Stud Hubshow To Measure Alloy Wheel Pitch Circle Diameter

When buying wheels, the Pitch Circle Diameter is equally important to the number of studs on the vehicle hubs. The RED CIRCLE as in the diagram above is the true Pitch Circle Diameter , and what you need to know when buying new wheels.

The PCD can be stamped on the rear of the wheel, however, this isnt always the case. On old wheels you are replacing, the stamp may have become damaged or worn.

Once you have your pcd measurement, and if you are going for wheels the same size as before, then feel free to browse our shop.

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Checking The Wheel Dimensions

The next thing you can do to figure out if your rims are going to fit is to check the wheels dimensions. Just like the bolt patterns, the dimensions of a wheel change from model to model or maker to maker. To measure your wheels dimensions, you are going to have to measure the diameter of your wheels. This number is usually somewhere between 15 to 17 inches.

The total width of a wheel could be as big as eight inches, but you will find a few that are a little smaller. If you are replacing your rims with rims of the same dimensions, then you dont have to worry about much. Those who want bigger rims are most likely going to have to get smaller tires. Those hoping for smaller rims will have to choose wider tires.

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What Rims Will Fit My Car

Buying new tires can be a daunting prospect for many consumers. Unless you happen to be an auto enthusiast, you probably have only the most rudimentary knowledge of how your vehicle works. The easy solution is to head to a tire dealer and have them tell you what size rims you need. However, if youre wanting to buy custom or tricked out car rims online, youll need to be able to figure out the size for yourself.

The two easiest ways are to check the sticker plate in your car, it should be located inside the driver side door, or look online for the vehicle specifications for your exact make and model. That should tell you the standard rim size. If you want to install larger wheels, as many drivers do these days, youre going to need to do some measurements. Youll need three numbers.

First, measure the diameter and width of your existing wheels. You can choose to go with that stock size or something larger. Just keep in mind that larger wheels will mean you need lower profile tires in order for the combination to clear your vehicle.

The offset of your existing wheels is determined by measuring between the center line of the wheel and the wheel mounting pad. If you buy wheels with the wrong offset, the wheels may rub on the body of the car or even interfere with the cars brakes or suspension system .

Keep Those New Rims Shining

Once you have those new rims installed, keeping them looking shiny and beautiful is easy. Over time, brake dust, gravel, and asphalt can all cause your rims to look dull and dingy.

It is important to hose down the rims at least once a week. Using a special hub cleaner will allow you to safely and effectively clean your rims and remove even the toughest of brake dust stains.

Pro Tip: When washing your car, always wash the rims last. As you wash your vehicle, dirty water will run down to the wheels. By washing the rims last, you will make sure they shine.

There are protective sprays that can help keep the grime at bay and make your rims shine bright. By taking care of these steps, your new rims will look amazing.

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What Does Et Mean And How Does Et Affect Wheel Fitment

ET refers to the German phrase Einpress Tiefe. or if your German isnt up to speed, , insertion depth. This includes a number before or after, and is usually stamped on the rear spokes or mounting face of the wheel like this:

This is the measurement in millimetres of the distance between the wheels centre line and its mounting face. This can be a positive or minus number, more on this below:

In most cases, the majority of wheel manufacturers stamp the ET number either on the hub as above or on the back of the wheel spokes.

If for some reason there is no ET number stamped on, you can work it out for yourself:

How Do I Tell Wheel Size

If youre looking to learn the diameter of your stock vehicle wheels sometimes thought of as wheel height, or how tall the wheel is the easiest method is to review your tire size information.

The final number in your tire size denotes both tire and wheel size. In the diagram just below, the size is 17 which translates to 17″. This tire is fitted to a 17″ wheel.

Determining wheel width is a bit trickier. The tire section width, which is the first number in the tire size sequence and expressed in millimeters , hints at the wheel width, but does not give a certain or conclusive answer. This is because any given wheel width can accommodate more than one tire width. A 225 millimeter section width tire, for example, can be fitted to an 8″ or 8.5″ wide wheel.

To determine wheel width and the full specification details of your stock wheels, the dealership service department is often a good resource. Then with the full stock wheel specification in hand you can look for equivalents or close matches.

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Which Rims Will Fit My Car

More people are loving the idea of installing custom wheels on their vehicles. This newfound love is driving folks to question the kind of rims they can fit on their vehicles.

If you are one of these folks, then you are probably wondering what kind of rims you can or cannot fit in your car. The following will help you figure all of this out.

Dont Break Your Brakes

Often though, the biggest problem going with smaller rims is the clearance of the brake calipers. On some cars fitted with upgraded brakes, you might be unable to fit certain wheels. Alloys with a dish or large lip can be worst, as the spokes tend to go further inwards. Spokes can catch on the caliper, making it impossible to spin the wheel. We wouldnt recommend fitting smaller brakes obviously, why would you? For safety reasons, it is better to upgrade your brakes than downgrade them!

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What Do These Numbers Mean

Taking a closer look at the above example , the numbers and letters can be broken down as follows:

• The number 255 indicates how wide the tire is in millimeters at its widest point. Naturally, if the tire is excessively worn down, it may have thinned from its original form and varied from its listed dimension.
• Next is the number 55, which directly follows the slash . This number indicates the tire’s profile or aspect ratio. Using the above example, the tire sidewall’s height is about 55% of the width. The math shows this to be about 141 mm.
• The R in the above example simply stands for radial construction.
• The next number in the example is instrumental, as it pertains to an 18-inch wheel. Depending on your brand of tire, the above classifications for passenger and light truck vehicles may actually be found here, instead of one of the above-listed locations.
• Lastly, the XL in this example stands for extra-large, a sizing term for the brand that the tire belongs to. This marking may vary from brand to brand based on their internal classifications.

Now that you have a fundamental understanding of the above formula, you can use it to identify the sizes and types of tires your truck is currently equipped with. Using this information, you can find tires with the same dimensions. In this situation, you should have zero issues with the tires fitting, since presumably, the tires you currently have on your truck already fit perfectly.

A Lighter Wheel Gives Better Performance

You may have heard of Matt Neal, the three time British Touring Car Champion. When he isnt on a hot lap for qualifying or trading paint with other drivers during the cut and thrust of a BTCC race, he is the Group Marketing Director for Rimstock, a manufacturer of alloy wheels.

In his unique position, Neal clearly knows a thing or two about getting high performance out of a wheel. He says a lighter wheel means the suspension has to manage less weight, which can improve a cars responses to steering inputs, while the overall weight saving could deliver subtle fuel economy and performance improvements. A lower profile tyre may also give the steering a slightly sharper response.

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Wheel/rim Size Guide For Beginners

Not all wheels will fit all cars!

This basic guide below explains rim sizes when buying alloy wheels for your passenger car, sports car, 4×4 vehicle, bakkie etc. Understand wheel diameter, width, offset, bolt fitment and centre bore before shopping for wheels.

Buy alloy wheels online from Tiger Wheel & Tyre South Africa:

Example: 6.5×15Explanation: 15 is the wheel diameter and 6.5 is the wheel widthNotes: The larger size of the two is normally the diameter, with the smaller being the rim size

• Wheel diameter is referred to in inches.
• Diameter of the rim in inches .
• Standard road cars generally have wheels that are between 14 inch and 19 inch in diameter.
• Luxury, sporty cars, SUVs and 4×4 vehicles generally have the bigger size wheels.

2. Wheel Width

Example: 6.5×15Explanation: 15 is the wheel diameter and 6.5 is the wheel widthNotes: The larger size of the two is normally the diameter, with the smaller being the rim size.

• The width of the wheel will dictate the tyre sizes that will fit on the wheel.
• The wider the width, the wider the tyre size that will fit on the wheel.
• Example: 6.5×15 will normally fit a minimum tyre width of 185, an ideal of 195/205 and a maximum tyre width of 215. Depending on the alloy wheels and vehicle body.
• Wider wheels and tyres gives your tyres better grip on the road, giving your car better roadholding and braking than tyres that are narrower.

3. Wheel Offset

4. Bolt Fitment – PCD

5. Centre Bore

View our alloy wheel range now

Its All About Geometry

Theres one more thing you need to be careful with when shopping for new wheels and tires: how does it all fit?

Many cars use a centering hub, which is a raised center section of the hub that mates with a matching recessed part of the wheel. It’s intended to keep the wheel precisely centered on the hub, more so than by just tightening the lug bolts. Some wheels may not fit this hub properly, requiring the use of a spacer or even a different wheel.

Furthermore, the new wheel has to have the correct offset to clear the suspension and brakes. The offset is the distance from the hub mounting surface and the wheels centerline, which is the middle point between the rims. It measures where the tire sits laterally from the hub of the wheel.

Don’t Get Rubbed the Wrong Way: Maintaining Adequate Clearance

If the rim is wider than stock, there may not be enough clearance to the ball joint or steering arm to permit half the extra width to go inside the wheel well. It may even rub the fender! Worse yet, significant size changes can upset steering geometry and overstrain wheel bearings.

If you make significant changes to your wheels, you follow it up with the appropriate changes to the rest of your vehicle so that everything works safely as it should.

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What Wheels From Other Vehicles Will Fit Your Car

The quickest way to add new life to your car’s appearance is by adding a new set of wheels and tires. The simple act of bolting on some new rims can do wonders to make your ride look better. That’s been the case since the hot-rod days of the 1950s and 1960s when installing a set of “mag” wheels signaled your car was something more than the average machine. The effort spawned an industry that is alive and well today.

But, as with so many things, life is not as simple as it was in the Fifties and Sixties, and that applies to aftermarket wheels and tires as much as it does to everything else. Because cars and trucks are more varied and sophisticated than ever before, you can’t just go out and get a set of wheels and expect them to fit your car. Further, even if they seem to fit, they still might cause you problems that can harm your car’s ride, handling, and even safety. So here are some tips on figuring out what wheels from other vehicles will fit your car.

Can You Use Modern Sealed Bearing Hubs On A Classic Car

The best way to avoid the tapered wheel bearing stack is to move to a modern sealed wheel bearing such as these replacement spindles from Speedtech. Several companies make versions of this, and they’re direct replacements for the spindles on many early cars. While some offer suspension geometry benefits, they all allow the use of a modern sealed wheel bearing like you would find on a C7 Corvette. A bearing like this is better in every aspect, except cost, compared to their tapered bearing ancestors. Even the cost isn’t bad these days with replacement SKF C7 bearing hubs costing just over 100 bucks from Summit Racing. From a wheel standpoint, they make having a nice-looking center cap much simpler. A bonus would be no more packing wheel bearings with grease.

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Search Using Your Year Make And Model

If you head over to the Wheels and Tires section, you’ll be able to put in the year, make, and model of your car to find wheels that fit. This system uses the gallery to find wheels that others are currently running. This feature finds you the recommended fitment for your vehicle but it does not guarantee that they will fit properly. This is an easy way to narrow your search since there are so many wheel options to choose from.

Usdot Tire Identification Number

You may notice another set of letters and numbers on your tire’s sidewall beginning with “DOT.” This is not an indication of tire size, but rather that the tire complies with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. The “DOT” stands for Department of Transportation and is followed by the tire identification number.

The first two letters or numbers after DOT refer to the manufacturing plant where the tire was produced and the last four numbers indicate the week and year the tire was made. The numbers 4318, for instance, indicate that the tire was manufactured during the 43rd week of 2018.

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How Is A Car Tyre Fitted

Unlike, say, a bicycle tyre, car tyres are not something that most of us would be wanting to fit ourselves in the shed! Balancing car wheels correctly requires specialist equipment, and unless you fancy doing this four times on your brand new rims, we recommend that you get them machine-fitted too! Read on if you want to find out how its actually done.

Rather than yoink the tyres on with a piece of angle iron, professionals like our technicians use a special tyre-fitting machine. The bead of the tyre is lubricated with soap to make it go on easier, and the inside of the wheel is gripped by the machines specifically-designed jaws . A new valve is pulled through the hole in the rim from the outside, and then the tyre is placed over the wheel. The tyre machine turns the wheel slowly, and it has an arm which pushes the bead of the tyre over the rim without actually touching the metal. This ensures that your wheels wont get damaged by the machine. Another arm of the machine is then used to press the second bead of the tyre over the rim.

All thats left then is to use a high pressure air pump to pop the tyre onto the rim correctly. If youve ever stood next to a fitting bay and been surprised by what sounded like gunfire, then it was probably a tyre being popped onto a rim .