Complete CX-5 Wheel Specs

skouly

Member
:
2006 Mazda6 GT, 2013 CX-5 GT
Hello all. I have dug around and obtained some very useful info regarding all the wheel sizing issues for the CX-5. I have visited my local Toronto area Mazda Parts Department, where I purchased my wife's CX-5 and gotten all the crucial measurements folks will need when getting aftermarket wheels, specifically winter tire/wheel packages. My Mazda Parts guy looked up all the specs on his parts spec lists and I confirmed these specs with a third party, Kosei Wheels from Japan. Kosei makes the popular "Sport Edition" aftermarket wheels found at the TireRack.com and 1010Tires.com. Look up the Kosei "Grand Infest D5" wheels on the Kosei website, for example, and you will see that they are the exact same wheels as the Sport Edition D5 wheels, at the Tirerack.com website. If you go to the Kosei website "Wheel Fitment Guide" dropdown box at http://www.koseijp.co.jp/engfl/Wheel Fitment Guide/Kosei Fitment Guide.html , you can choose the Mazda CX-5 and see for yourselves what the specs are listed as.

According to the Mazda parts guy (and many online sources) most Mazda OEM wheels for most models are generally designed around a 5 x 114.3mm bolt pattern, and have a wheel hub center bore of 67.1mm.

The CX-5 has two wheel/tire sizes in North America: 225/55R19 tires on 19" x 7.0 " JJ wheels and 225/65R17 tires on 17" x 7.0" JJ wheels. Both wheels have offsets of 50mm (ET50), a bolt pattern of 5 x 114.3mm and have a wheel hub center bore of 67.1mm. Both wheel/tire combos are identical in width and have identical strut clearance and distance to the fenders. The overall circumference of both wheel/tire combos is almost identical with the 19" wheel/tire combo being a tiny bit larger, causing a speedometer variance of less than 0.8 km/h at 100 km/h. The only real difference is the height of the rubber sidewall, with the 19" wheel/ tire combo giving a more "full-looking" (and arguably, better-handling) wheel visual impression with less rubber height.

Since most aftermarket wheels have a larger wheel hub center bore of 73mm (including the aformentioned Kosei and Sport Edition wheels), you will need to purchase wheel hub centering rings to reduce the size of the aftermarket wheel hub center bore to fit the smaller Mazda CX-5 wheel hub of 67.1mm. Gorilla does not make 73mm to 67.1mm centering rings, but several other companies do, however, Gorilla does have 73mm to 67.06mm centering rings which will work just as well (keep in mind a 0.04mm difference is equivalent to 40% of the thickness of a single sheet of 20 lb copy paper!). I know the slightly different size works well because I have been using the 73-6706 Gorilla centering rings on my 2006 Mazda6 for 6 years and Mazda6 has the identical 67.1mm wheel hub center bore as the CX-5. The TireRack sent me the slightly smaller rings because they only use Gorilla centering rings, which just means the centering rings fit just a tiny bit tighter on the wheel hub.

For those people out there looking to get winter tire/wheel combos, I suggest getting the much cheaper to purchase 225/65R17 tires on 17" x 7" wheels, even for those who have original 19" wheels on their vehicle. The contact patch will not change (amount of rubber that actually connects to the road) and the ride will be arguably a bit more smooth, especially in the winter.

I am buying an aftermarket set of winter wheels/tires and had to be sure of what I was buying since no online tire retailers, including TireRack.com, have identified compatible wheels yet. I hope this info helped some others out there. Cheers!
 
moved to its own post and stickied. Great information.
 
Excellent post! Great job. I'm sure people will be referring to this for years to come.
Thanks for sticky wannabe.
 
In addition, many have asked about wheel spacers. There are two types: Version 1 which are simple spacers requiring longer studs be pressed in (not hard) or the Version 2 that are a bolt on style, with a pressed in set of new studs. (I haven't checked the Wheels yet to see if they are relieved on the rear to accept clearance for the stock studs which are longer than the typical spacer width). I've used both types on my 370Z with great success. Nice quality parts.

Search Hubcentric wheel spacers on the menu here: http://www.ichibausa.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=53
The CX7 has the correct bolt circle and hubcentric specs for the CX5

Version 2 style:
IMG_1542-vi.jpg


Version 1 style (with longer studs pressed in):
IMG_1910-vi.jpg


If you use the version 2 style, make sure the wheel has the appropriate space relief between the existing bolt holes:
IMG_1548-vi.jpg


IMG_1461-vi.jpg
 
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Nice post. I'm sure by fall 2012 there will be plenty of choices.

I'd stay away from Sport Edition brand if possible. Price is good, but quality is not always.
 
I agree, the Sport Edition wheel quality is very spotty. I have read horror stories about how the cheap cast wheels frequently crack. Despite that, however, they manufactured a wheel that had great reviews, and was incredibly lightweight to boot. It is the Sport Edition D5 I mentioned in my post above. I have driven my Mazda6 hard for 6 years, especially in the winter and my D5's look as good as new with minimal upkeep. The reason those wheels were so great was that, unlike typical cheap alloy wheels that are simply gravity cast wheels, the D5's were pressure cast and shot peened to create a uniform density in the wheel and remove air pockets/voids in the wheel structure. Unfortunately, the wheel has been discontinued, but the Tirerack still has some left in stock as a closeout, and 1010Tires.com and Tiretrends.com appear to still carry them for now. I decided to wait for the new Michelin X-ice xi-3's which come out this fall, as they look very promising, and at that time, if those D5's are still available, I'll probably buy them for my CX-5, otherwise, I'll buy affordable winter Enkei wheels at Tirerack because Enkei manufactures well-made wheels.
 
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Great wheel specs listed up there, much appreciated.

For 19" or 20" custom wheel fans, the CX-5 is an interesting opportunity, especially when compared competing compact SUVs including CRV, new Escape, Sportage, Tiguan. The CX-5 has tallest/largest diameter tires at 28.74" for 19" wheel config, 55 series tires, plenty of sidewall.
 
For those people out there looking to get winter tire/wheel combos, I suggest getting the much cheaper to purchase 225/65R17 tires on 17" x 7" wheels, even for those who have original 19" wheels on their vehicle. The contact patch will not change (amount of rubber that actually connects to the road) and the ride will be arguably a bit more smooth, especially in the winter.

I am buying an aftermarket set of winter wheels/tires and had to be sure of what I was buying since no online tire retailers, including TireRack.com, have identified compatible wheels yet. I hope this info helped some others out there. Cheers!

First of all thanks for posting this information. It confirms what I had guessed, that Mazda is keeping things as consistent as possible with regards to bolt circle, offset and hub center bore.

Second, as you've already stated, any 17" wheel that fits a 3 or 5 series car should also fit the CX-5, therefore why not shop for winter wheels that way? And if anything, a narrower contact patch is preferred in winter driving. I haven't fully researched this but perhaps a 205/70 (-.8" in tread width) would be a better alternative, so long as the weight rating of the new tire matches or exceeds OE one should be good to go.

A question might be if 16" wheels would fit the brakes on a CX-5 for even further sidewall height and winter ride comfort?

Good post skouly!! Thanks again!!
 
bbrich57 I agree, you can use any size as long as you end up with a tire that is close to the diameter of the OEM and not two wide. Tire Rack list the diameter of the different tires in the specifications and the thing to match to is the number of revolutions per mile which for the stock 225/65/17 is listed as 729 rev/mile.
 
Hi Everyone,

New to this forum, just purchased a CX-5 and was looking at winter/wheel package, the dealer suggested a few size below and using a tire size chart comparison, I got the following results:

225/55 R19 Original Wheels
Revs per Mile: 723.7
Actual Speed: 60 mph 100 km/h

235/70 R16
Revs per Mile: 718.4
Speedometer1: 59.5 mph 99.2 km/h
Speedometer Difference: 0.737% too slow

225/65 R17
Revs per Mile: 729.5
Speedometer1: 60.4 mph 100. km/h
Speedometer Difference: 0.801% too fast

225/70 R16
Revs per Mile: 732.3
Speedometer1: 60.7 mph 101. km/h
Speedometer Difference: 1.188% too fast

My Question is anyone has tried 16" wheel on the CX-5 thus far for brake clearance?

Thanks
 
I'd imagine 16's would fit fine. There is clearance on the 17's so 16's should work. I doubt 15's would clear the brakes though.
 
Thanks Nizzy.. I knew it was too good to be true!
 
My Question is anyone has tried 16" wheel on the CX-5 thus far for brake clearance?

The GX comes with 16" wheels with 225/70R16 tires and disks are the same size on all trims. I'm planning to go with that size for my winter tires. Not much change from the 225/65R17 I have on right now for speed/odometer readings
 
Thanks Nizzy.. I knew it was too good to be true!

Ok so i went on tire rack and they are saying 16-20" rims will fit and some are up to 8.5" wide. I cant imagine they would fit without spacers and sticking out way farther than flush from the fenders though.
 
I spoke to a friend of mine who has a wheel shop and he did some calculations.

I was looking for 22's the widest rims with no spacer or clearance issue is 9.

Tire size was 255/40/22

This retains the same diameter as the 19's with tires.

Odometer will be off by less then 1%

Im currently looking to upgrade to 21's, might try to get some infiniti FX50 wheels.

I might go for a fitting session to see what 22's will look like and test the fitment.

I'll post my results once i get them
 
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