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Sorry if this is a daft question!
- Thread starter Vicky
- Start date
Bubbles
ClioSport Club Member
BMW I4 M50
If you have a look on your tyre.. it will say something like 195/45 15" This is the size of your wheel.. not sure what the 195 bit is, but the 45 is how low profile they are (?) and the 15" is how big the alloy is. If you want a bigger alloy than your wheel size you have now (say you have 13" wheels, and you want 15" alloys) you will have to change your tyres. (if that all makes sence)
ex Clio 172 owner :(
different size alloys greatly effect the look and handling of your car. You should go for a minimum of 15 inch for looks and handling. The best looks are with 17s usually, but the best all round wheel in my opinion are 16s.
I had 15s on my RT and got 15s on my saxo VTS, theyre cheap and tyres cost less too. If you go for 15s try to get 195/45/15 tyres. 195 is the width , 45 is the profile (the distance between the outside edge of tyre where it touches ground and the inside where it touches alloy), 15 is for the size of the wheel it fits.
Speak to other people about your car and fitting 17s if you do as you may need to modify arches to get them to fit. 15s will go on anything, 16s shouldnt be any trouble too.
the cars a 2000/1.2 & I lost the handbook a while ago, ill try looking at the tyre tomorrow - thanks!
Chris - wasnt thinking of going for anything as big as 17"!! lol
I just want them to tidy the car up a bit, its looking a bit of a shed !
if my wheels are only 13/14" and i put on 15/16" is that gonna make my car look higher & a bit daft?
ha ha ha ha ha .....its on the side of the tyre.....it has to be there by law !!
195 is the width of the tyre
vicky.......if you buy larger alloys then you wont be-able to use your old tyres...they wont fit !!!
so if you want to use your old tyres then youll have to buy the same size alloy as the wheels you have now.....the last lot of numbers on the tyre......might be 14 or 15 inch
lol - thanks fatherted, i realise id have to buy new tyres if i got bigger wheels!!
- i was gonna keep the same size wheels before someone said that 15" or bigger would look best - thats the only reason i asked about themthanks for the advice everyone - think i may be able to get the right wheels now!!
The offset is, in simple terms, how far the wheels stick out or in from the body of the car. If you imagine the width of the wheel (across the bit where the tyre is mounted) and then halve that, you have a point which is half way between the inner and outer face of the wheel - the centreline. Now the thing is, a car wheel isnt like a cotton reel with a face at each side. It has an outer face which is what you see, but the inner side of the wheel doesnt have a face at all. It still has to have a flat mounting face though, so that the wheel can be attached to the hub. This is right behind the outer face of the wheel, and on a Clios wheel is basically a flattened off circle with the four holes in it for the wheel bolts.
The distance between the flat mounting face inside the wheel, and the imaginary centreline of the wheel, is the offset. Almost all cars have whats called negative offset, meaning the mounting face is closer to the outside edge of the wheel than the inside. If the mounting face was exactly on the centreline it would have zero offset. If the mounting face was nearer the inner edge of the wheel than the outer it would have positive offset.
The further the mounting face is from the centreline, the more offset it has. So for example, a mk1 Clio has an offset of -36mm. If you put a wheel on with the exact same dimensions as standard with one difference - an offset of say -50mm, then you would find that the wheel would be more tucked in under the wheelarches, by exactly 14mm in fact. If you put on a wheel with lower offset, eg. -20mm instead of the normal -36mm, youd find the wheel stuck out by 16mm extra.
When looking for a wheel that will fit your Clio you first need to find out your own standard offset - this will be stamped on the back of the wheel once you take it off, something like ET40 for example means -40mm offset. The ET means something in German that translates as pressed-in depth. The actual wheel size is shown as 6.5Jx15 - the 6.5 means 6.5 inches wide and the 15 is the diameter/height of the wheel. Again this is usually stamped on the back of the wheel in the mounting face or on the rim.
If you want a wheel thats the same width as your existing wheel then you want to keep the same offset as well if you can. A difference of a couple of mm either way doesnt make much difference if youre not sizing up. Where it becomes much more crucial is when you are going to put BIG wheels on - for two reasons. Firstly the bigger wheels and tyres are much more likely to rub on your wheelarches so you will need to change your offset maybe to bring the wheels further in or further out to, depending on where they rub. Secondly, bigger wheels are almost invariably wider as well. This causes a problem that the extra width of the wheel may not be the same on each side ie, there might be an extra 10mm on the inside but 20mm on the outside. Again this causes problems with catching on the wheel arches, and also can cause other suspension problems if its too severe.
& dont forget that you will have no problems at all if the rolling radius is still the same! i.e. you might have 14" alloys on there atm with a tire profile of 60! so if you go to a 16" alloy with a 35 or 40 profile there isnt much difference in overall size and rolling radius at all... So if you get a 15" alloy with a low profile on ur car they might look a lil too small on ur car!
heres a pic of what 16s look like on a clio
well ur shaped clio! http://www.cliosport.net/gallery/others/1559-1.jpg
As above.. I reckon 16s would be best
them wheels look quite good on that clio - i woulda thought 16" would look massive on a little clio, but i was wrong!
ok, next question - anyone know of anywhere in lancashire that sells & fits alloys? i was gonna buy them online and then get them fitted by my local garage, but im worried im gonna buy the wrong wheels now!!! lol
320d M Sport
wheelbase in oldham, thats where i got mine:
http://www.wheel-base.co.uk/site/http://www.wheel-base.co.uk/site/
Vicky - Im glad you understood it, cos looking back at my explanation *I* can barely make it out! Anyway, any wheel specialist worth dealing with will know what wheels will go on what cars etc. If youre going to change your wheels and want something that will look half decent, dont think about anything less than 16s, 17s would be better. Remember that cars, especially small hatches like a Clio, look really dodgy on bigger wheels but without having been lowered- whats known as the rollerskate look - so bear this in mind as well when deciding what youre going to spend. Obviously you dont have to do it all in one go but its an idea to lower the car first then youll have a much better idea of what will fit under your wheel arches. Rather than fit big rims on and then find out that it rubs whenever you turn corners or have passengers in the back etc.
didnt really want to get it lowered - there are too many massive speed bumps round here, it barely gets over them as it is! and also just read on another thread about it affecting insurance
do 14" wheels really loook that bad on a clio?? cos thats what size mine are and i really wanted to stick to that size..........
nosh clio - have you got any pics of chloe with 14 & 16s on? (lol, i thought i was the only one with a pet name for my car!!
) thanks for the link paddy - will have a look on the website
the problem with putting 14s on is youll have a hell of alot of sidewall on the tyres if you stick with the std size tyres and if you go for lower profile tyres youll end up with the gap between the arch and tyre getting bigger and givin the effect of the wheels look even smaller again, id agree with nick and say 16s or 17s. if you go with 16s and a small drop then itll will look good and still be pretty practical, ive lowered my 172 40mm on coilovers and it does bottom out on any speed bumps if taken at a sensible speed the only problem i get is the 17s rubbing the plastic arch liners at the front when i put a fair amount of steering lock on
Well cant say about the wheels cos all you know at the moment is that they are 16s. But the tyres- well that comes out as 12mm more diameter, not an awful lot really, only 6mm top and bottom so I cant see how they could rub the tops of the arches even if you totally slammed your Clio by like 100mm or something. The extra width (30mm wider) could be a bit troublesome on a very severe drop but on 30-50mm which is a pretty standard lowering job, I cant see that being a problem.
So as long as your 16s are around the same offset as you currently have, you should be able to fit the wheels and lower the Clio no problem.
Offset is the same as Offday.Quote: Originally posted by Vicky on 05 September 2003
erm, whats an offset??
You go out one morning to check your offset and notice a the jacking point is buckled
When you get back home from Halfords with your nice new £60.00 trolley jack, you suddenly realise you have lost the locking nut key.
So its now lunchtime. You go on the Cliosport forum and ask everyone "What should I do?" Waitig around until 2.30pm for a sensible answer, you get on the phone to your local garage who agree to blow torch your wheel nuts off. £60.00
Back to Halfords you go ( £1.50 bus fair ). Armed with you lovely shiny new wheel nut kit, you hurry back to the garage just in time for them to put the new wheel nuts on for you.
At last your back home, but Ooops with all that commotion going on you forgot to take a note off your offset. Damn it!
A quick bite to eat ( 6.30pm ) and off you rush back to the trolley jack for a serious attempt at what you where told would be a piece of p*ss.
WhoooHooo ! you can get the wheel off easy as pie and all is going well.
Well, until you look at your watch and notice its 8.55pm and the Cliosport meet ( 70 miles away ) is due to start at 7.30pm.
OMG OMG! Outta my way everybody Im gonna be late!
Just as your about to rush out for the meet, the phone rings. The girlfriend asks if your ready for the club. CLUB? CLUB? F*KK OFF BYTCH Im off to the Clio meet.
Finally you reach the meet point only to find theres not a single Clio in site? They where all moved on by the old bill. Now its 10.30pm and you have just about had enough when you hear a loud bang from the rear. A flat tyre. Now dont you wish you had taken that heavy trolley jack with you?
Sunday morning and £120.00 ( AA bill ) later, you add up the cost and the loss of your girlfriend and wonder why the hell you bothered buying a car.
You have to wait 3 months now to pay off the Visa bill before you can even think of getting those new alloys whose offset was on a piece off paper ermm somewhere?
What is offset? Offset is an Offday and dont let anybody tell you otherwise.
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