17" aftermarket wheels

R1FIGHTER

Member
I'd love to upsize but are tires are brand new. We have one wheel that is bent. The wife and I are trying to deicide on what wheels we want. Any suggestions? Our 5 is a silver sport. Is there a better offset to cheat at being cool?
 
I'd love to upsize but are tires are brand new. We have one wheel that is bent. The wife and I are trying to deicide on what wheels we want. Any suggestions? Our 5 is a silver sport. Is there a better offset to cheat at being cool?

im selling my xxr rims you can see them in my sig
 
Sell the tires and remaining good rims and upgrade. If upsizing is really what you want, you'll regret spending extra $$$ on a replacement rim just to reuse the tires.

On another forum, someone really wanted to upgrade, but decided to stick with stock-sized (but still aftermarket) rims so he could reuse the tires. He bought the rims, mounted them on, and loved them... for two months. He's now talking about upgrading again.
 
Personally, I would suggest you don't upsize your rims. I'm in a similar situation as you are except i have axial & horizontal runout on 3 of 4 wheels (and thats from some medium/small potholes, nothing major). By going up in wheel size you are making yourself even more susceptible to bending a wheel.

Now alot of that has to do with where you live. If you're in florida or So Cal, then just don't runover the curb and u'l be fine. But around here in the North-East-MidWest (Ohio) potholes are pretty much unavoidable which basically means my state isn't compatible with low profile tires. Also keep in mind that supposedly Al Alloy Rims are generally pretty repairable. I'm still checking into the pro's/cons of repairing a wheel, as I hear that the repair process involves annealing the Al Alloy which of course causes it to lose its hardness (and makes it more susceptible to bending). Here is the place I'm thinking about going. They claim "re-trueing" a factory wheel runs about $125 on average, coincidentally thats just about the same price as a low end aftermarket wheel. Anyway... I just wanted to mention that repair might be an option for you



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Also I wouldn't mess with the offset much if at all. Doing that can screw up your scrub radius and cause decreased handling/increase tire&wheel bearing wear..... even if it may make ur ride look cooler.
 
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If you do decide not to upsize diameter wise, you might want to run aftermarket so that you can go with a wider wheel. This will allow wider tires in the future. Make sure to adjust the wheel offset accordingly to recenter the wheel in the wheel well. If the factory has the wheel location optimally centered and keeps the same scrub radius as stock. (Although I wouldn't be too concerned about effect of offset versus scrub radius unless it changes more than 1/2" from stock.) However usually they leave more clearance to the outside of the fenderwell than the inside.

Most of us with stock rims have updated to a 215/50. It's as wide as recommended for that width rim. This gives a slightly higher sidewall for rim protection. Plus the wider tire will distribute the impact load over a wider area.

Note:

I believe a 235 can fit with the right width/offset rim if the car is not lowered.

Going from the stock 205/50R17 and a 235/40R18 will reduce your sidewall by .75 inches.

If you went to a 235/45R17 instead, you would increase sidewall by about .12". But this tire is too wide for the stock rim.

Let's see what rim you would need for the 235 tire:

The max rim width for a 205/50 is 7.5" and the minimum allowed for a 235/45R17 is 7.5". So by changing to a 7.5" rim, you can keep your current tires, and run the wider ones after the originals wear out. You'll need to adjust the offset to fit though.

My factory rims are 17x6.5 with 52.5mm offset (dimensions cast into the rim). You can use this calculator to determine what the new offset for the wider rim would be with a 7.5" wheel: http://www.gtsparkplugs.com/WheelOffsetCalc.html Don't forget to include the effect of a wider tire when checking clearance.

I think if you do a search there are others that have run a 235 wide tire on an aftermarket rim.
 
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I like my wheels, they are cheap, look good and set the car off nicely. I have good year 225's on it, they rub the fenderwells so I have to get them "rolled", my wheels are sachhi gunmetal 17" from cdn tire.

I destroyed one in a huge hole, any wheel would be toast, so they are strong, and acutally held air after being destroyed...
 
Our winters - Fastwheels Replica - Direct Fit

These seem pretty good. No spacers or centering rings needed, and after 2 winters of road salt exposure, they are holding up fine.

- JP.

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JP, those wheels look great. Are they supposed to replicate the 16 GS wheels?
 
Thanks. That is what I thought when I ordered them, but I have never seen another Mazda with rims quite like these. The plastic center caps have the Mazda logo moulded into them, but you can only see it from behind (wierd).
 
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