So my new wheels just came in and its time to start looking for a spacers to make this work. The rears are 16x8.5 at +35mm, and the fronts 16x7.5 at +45mm offset.

That gives me 55mm less clearance on the insides of the rear, and 52mm less clearance on the insides of the front. I stuck my head under the car with a tape measure, and it looks like I have about 76mm on the rear and about 31mm between my OEM wheel/tire combo and my struts.

If I'm looking at this right, I wouldn't need any spacers in the rear, but I'd need about 21mm of spacer up front? I should still have about 21mm extra room in the rear.

 

If you put adaptors (not spacers...) on the front, but not on the back you're gonna have MAJOR handling issues because you'll be changing the center line of the wheel track... no bueno.

It's gonna look like a Citroen.

Rod.

 

lol a citroen I have not heard that in quite a while

 

Changing the center line... meaning the center of the front tire is not inline with the center of the rear?

How close is good enough for practical uses? I'm not looking for F1 handeling... but something so small as wheel spacing, I might as well get it as close as is practical to perfect

 

There's no such thing as "close enough" . Making the track more narrow at the rear will induce major oversteer... BAD.

Narrowing the front will induce understeer... WORSE.

You don't want to mess with the wheel track. Either put adaptors all the way around or not at all. It's not a matter of having Formula 1 handling, it's a matter of making your car inherently unstable and unsafe.

Rod.

 

Remember that you want the center of the wheels inline with eachother, and please get the tires you want on the wheels before you decide on what width adapter front and rear you need, also figure on 1/2" minimum clearence between the tire and strut so the tire doesnt rub the strut through the twisties. Hey Ron, whats so bad about a crazy loose handling car? Isnt that what the drifters and dirt trackers want?

 

a car that breaks loose in the back is unsafe for street driving... and those drifters prove it over and over again with all the accidents they cause.

Buy 32mm adaptors all the way around and you'll be fine. On the front, measure the distance between the strut and hub surface about 9 inches up from center. The further up you go (larger diameter wheel) the more clearance you have.

TechnoToyTuning(.com) sells 32mm 4-lug wheel adaptors in 4x114 > 4x114 or 4x100

 

Are there any reasonable priced adapters that go from 4lug to 5? These are z32 wheels, so I need a 5x114.3 bolt pattern I believe.

I looked at modernmotorsports' 4-5lug adapters and they're not bad in price... but to get the right thickness, I believe I'd have to order custom ones. And I would guess his custom stuff to be 200-250$ more.


EDIT ---
Just saw technotoytuning's custom ones for 180$ and that makes me smile
My only concern is... thats for all 4, and not just 1, right?

 

BTW, the offset if the front wheels is different from the rears, so wouldn't I want the front spacers to be a different width than the rears?

Front wheels are +45
Rear wheels are +35

 

yes, from Techno Toy it is $180 for the complete set.

If those wheels were Z32 wheels they would be +30 all around. That is the late model RWD configuration. 7.5 with +45 is FWD offset. These wheels are used, aren't they? sounds more like 240SX wheels with pulled fenders in the rear

A set in 32mm will be close enough. You'll only have a 10mm difference. You could buy a pair of 7mm spacer rings from Techno Toy Tuning and stick those on the front.

 

they're Twin Turbo wheels. The rears are 16x8.5 and the fronts are 16x7.5. Is +35 and +45, respectively, not the right offsets?

 

oh, and they have the Z logo on them, so they're def. not 5lug 240sx wheels

 

How do you determine how high you need to roll your fenders when your wheels are too wide ? Is this something I'd do myself, or should I just let the tire place take care of it?