Eyy guys, hope everybody is doing well.
Got a question for the fitment guru's about some wheels that seemed very appealing to me.








I am in the market for some wheels/tires, but definitely no rush, since my Black Pearl kit arrives in about 2 months, and I don't know how the wheel would flow with the kit. But the wheel does flow with the stock look. Also still can't decide if [ 6- spoke, or 5- spoke ] would look better. So, not in a hurry, just checking if they will fit. And would like to know if any major fender modding would be needed.

Man, I'm already rubbing on my OEM's, need to raise up a little bit. I'm running BC 12/10 k Swift springs. Lowered down to no tread showing at 11 to 2 o'clock on the wheel.


Here are the tire specs:

Fronts:
1- 20x8.5 | 5x4.50 | +40ET
2- 20x8.5 | 5x4.50 | +35ET
3- 20x8.5 | 5x4.50 | +20ET

^ So obviously the only thing difference in the front is the Offset, +40,+35,+20
What would be the best offset to be after? Is it only aesthetics? Or does it change fitment?


Same thing for the rears.

Rears:
1- 20x10 | 5x4.50 | +40ET
2- 20x10 | 5x4.50 | +25ET

Again, difference in offset. Someone please point to me on why an offset would work better than the other. I understand the idea and technicality, but in this exact application for the LS430, which is better?


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My other question is regarding tire sizes.

I seem to be set on: 245/35/20 or 245/30/20 FRONT

Fitment sites prefer the 35 sidewall measurement.

Is it worth it to get a shorter sidewall? Because it does make the rim look bigger, it looks very nice. But at my setup, am I sacrificing too much if I get the shorter sidewall?




For the rears: 275/35/20 or 275/30/20 REAR

it's weird here that all the fitment websites prefer the shorter sidewall as a better idea for the rear.

I can't seem to understand why I should have the fronts and rears with different sidewalls, yes it is a staggered fit, but why is it better to have the shorter wall on the back? Instead of it just being the same as the front.


I hope a user named Sojah still surfs the forums. Read a lot of his posts about wheel fitment, would love to hear you chime in Bronson, thanks.


Thanks to everybody too. Any help is much appreciated.

 

Offset is the distance the mounting surface of the wheel is in relation to the center of the wheel. The more positive the offset the further in to the wheel well the wheel sits. Lower offset or negative offsets will push the wheel out of the wheel well.

Link to pictures and more explaining offset.

http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/infoWheelOffsets.do

So to answer some of your questions.

The best offset is what will fit with your suspension setup and wheel size. Offset is not for aesthetics, its for fitment.

So what is your current suspension setup? Is it stock, lowered, cambered, fenders shaved, any combination? Also whats your current wheel specs (offset, width, diameter)

 

Thanks for your reply Hilo.

I can say I understand offset a little bit better now after reading your explanation.

So, my current setup is:
BC Racing coilovers with 12/10k Swift springs.

I am lowered in the front and back. The front driver's side tire rubs a lot when coming to a stop and braking mildly, rubs on every inclement infront of a store. It's hitting the fender liner I think, because every time I park, I can se black rubber being shave away.

I do not have any fender modifications.

I am lowered as you can see so that I just tuck the tread of the tire from 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock on the tire in front.
In the back I barely tuck tread, but I don't have any rubbing issues whatsoever. But the rear wheels seem to be slightly cambered.

My suspension specs are mostly pushed to stock. No camber or toe in front, and little bit of negative camber in the rear, which is beyond stock to repair that camber. Maybe that's why it doesn't rub in the back?

I was told that I need camber arms to fix rear camber.

My tires and wheels are OEM, 18x7.5 on 245/45/18 Michelin MXV4's.

 

Ok so I looked up the stock 18x7.5 wheel offset and its +45. With your tire your overall diameter is roughly 26.7".

Ok so here are the fronts:

So with a 20x8.5 wheel with a 40 offset the wheel will stick out roughly 3/4" more than your stock setup. Thats because the 5mm difference in the offset and the 1" wider wheel. So the 20x8.5 +35 will stick out about 7/8" more than stock and the +25 will stick out about 1-1/4" more than stock.

With the 245/35/20 tire your overall diameter will be about 26.75". With the 245/30/20 tire your overall diameter will be about an inch shorter at 25.8"

The rears:

The 20x10 +40 offset wheel will stick out almost 1-1/2" more than your stock wheels. With the +25 offset it will stick out about 2" more than stock.

With the 275/35/20 tire the overall diameter will be about 27.6" and the 275/30/20 tire will have an overall diameter of about 26.5"

Ok so thats all the numbers part of this. If you are rubbing right now with the stock setup, it seems you will have more issues no matter which wheel/tire combo you choose from your options. You may need to do some more fender/suspension work depending on how low you want to roll and how aggressive you want your wheels.

To give you and idea here is my current setup.

Front: 20x10 +31 Hi disk 245/35/20
Rear: 20x11 +37 Lo disk 245/35/20

Suspension: AirRunner with rear camber, toe, track arms, front maxed out stock adjustment

Body work: Rear fenders are shaved and front fenders are rolled and pulled (slightly)

I am going to be going more aggressive on my wheel setup and will be doing more suspension mods to get the wheels to fit.

 

Hilo thank you so much for actually putting in some work and getting me all these numbers. They make sense.

So, to avoid rubbing, it makes sense to get the highest offset, right? Because mainly the fender edge (where the black plastic/steel piece is with the 2 screws) is where all the rubbing happens.. <--- please clarify that since I'm not positive on it.

I think so, because when somebody pulls or shaves their fenders, the only piece of body they are modding is this fender edge it seems.

The fender comes down on the side of the car and kind of turns to an "L" shape right at the edge, under the black piece. It seems that this is the only issue that causes rubbing, please correct me if I'm wrong.


I am willing to do fender mods, only if the actual fender itself looks stock from the outside.
You know how when you are facing the fender, where the arch of the wheel well is, there is a small flat surface that goes around all this arch. My only concern is to not hurt that. I want to keep it looking the same way it is. Even if it means raising up my car a little bit.

^ I've seen a lot of cars with fender mods on here, and as soon as you look very close to some of them, you see it all messed up like it was hit with a hammer. Or sometimes it just becomes a really sharp edge with no flat piece I was talking about.

 

This is what I mean when I say the flat piece on the arch. Which I wish to keep the same.








My overall look in the end, I only want to tuck tread, not to the rim, just the same way I'm at, but if the 20's end up needing more work, raising the car up a bit won't be an issue.

 

I would find a good shop that can shave the rear fender lip for you. This will give you a good 1/2" to 3/4" more clearance in the rear. Plus you wont be able to tell that it was touched. If you can get some rear camber arms (Megan makes a set) you can add a few degrees of negative camber and then be able to fit the 20x10 +40.

The front fenders should be able to keep stock. You would probably want to take it to an alignment shop and have them put as much negative camber as possible while keeping toe in spec. This will give you enough clearance to run the 20x8.5 +35.

The other thing you can do to help with the rubbing is run a narrower tire with a bit of stretch. This will cause the sidewall to taper in toward the threads an buy you a little more clearance.

 

My front fender still have the stock lines. Even with the slight pull and roll. But you dont need it as long as you're not trying to roll super slammed or run real aggressive offsets.

My rears are shaved and look completely stock.

 

Can you take a close up pic of your fenders?

 

This is the best I can do as its dark here. Like I said it looks stock.

 

^Dude you're awesome. Your fitment is top :thumbs up:

It does look stock. Which is very nice, knowing that you're running 20's.


If you get the chance, I'd like to see what the actual application of "shaving/pulling/rolling" of fenders looks like.
From under the fenders.


BTW, I now know why my drivers side rubs more than the passengers side. I hit a curb 2 years ago, and just changed the hub and re-aligned and everything was perfect.
Except if you look at the suspension you can see one of the bushings pushed out of place.

It's really weird because the car drives like a dream and tracks perfect.

I think it's because this bushing is out of place I'm having the rubbing issues.


When lowered, I could see the difference very well. When I look at the driver's wheel(one with problem) you can see the distance between the body of the vehicle and tire @ 3 o'clock is very tiny, so it rubs a lot. The tire is not centered correctly in the wheel well.

But the passengers side wheel looks very well centered in the middle of the wheel well.

Pics attached:




I'll take another picture of the bent bushing tomorrow.
So I might be able to fix my rubbing issue if this is solved.
But not the whole issue.

I would like to learn from anyone who had their fenders modded, whatever it was "pulling/rolling/ shaving" how it looks from under the fender. I don't understand the technicality there, although I imagine it very simple.


Hilo, thanks for putting up with this post and helping out, I appreciate it.

 

Here's the bushing that's out of place. Does anyone know the exact name for it? Can it be pressed back in place?

 

You can see its pushed out of place to the forward direction of the car.

 

Approximately how much did you have to pull?

 

Not much maybe a half inch. I didnt have to pull the fender to get my wheels to fit. It fit with the fenders stock and the stock adjustment for camber maxed at around -3 at ride height. I had the fenders pulled and rolled in anticipation of running a more aggressive offset wheel then I currently have.