ZIN

I am very close to buying an 09 rx 350 and would like to know peoples opinion on modifying it a LITTLE. I have always bought a set of chrome wheels and tires for summer and kept the stock set for winter months.
My 1st question is... Does anybody have 18x8" rims instead of 18x7" rims and how does it look? According to my research you can put 235/55/18's on our vehicle and one place says you can do 255/55/18. I am all for filling up the wheel well but I will not go below a 50 profile tire because I personally think it looks silly. So I am wondering if anybody has put on 8" wide rims and or larger tires and how it looks.
I also would like to hear about other mild mods to richen the look but not make it gaudy. "maybe painted spoiler &lower body plastic" "different grill"
pictures would be great. thanks.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

There is actually quite a lot you can do with the RX. Anyway, I ran 20 X 8.5" rims with 255/50/20 tires on my 04 RX330. I also had it slightly lowered with Ebach Springs. At that time nobody made coil overs for this car. The front has a lot of room, but the rear you have to watch out for the back spacing. With my 8.8" wide rims, I came about 1/2" to the inner plastic lower fender lining. All you have to do is choose the rims offset carefully and you should be okay.

PS. I also painted my rear hatch spoiler and the lower black body skirts and molding as well. I think they look better that way, but that is my opinion. I also added color matched side steps just to give the side a more beefy manly look. I didn't really need them, but it made the sides look lower so that was what I was going for.

ZIN

Now thats what I am talking about!! Picture and all !!! I like it a lot!!
20" RIMS X 8.5 with 50 series and they were fine? Not to wide of a look?
May I ask what I can expect to pay to paint all the plastic, which was what I wanted to do for sure.
The rims I know I will do but I just wanted to know what sizes have worked with others. You have helped a lot thanks.
How about your protective door guards was that an add on?
How much did you lower it and what is the best way to lower it to date?

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

You can judge for yourself if these look too wide. The offset on mine where +20. For the rear it was perfect. For the front perhaps it was about 5mm too wide. The rum tucked, but the fat tires sidewall bulged out a couple of mm.


As for painting. I used a pretty high end shop that many of us car show guys use so it wasn't cheap. I believe I paint about $1200 just to paint the spoiler and those little strips at the bottom of the front and back bumpers.

ZIN

thanks for the pictures it looks very nice.

Lexmex

I am so jealous now, since I am taking my RX300 back to my uncle tomorrow to get the bumpers painted. I will have to show him your pictures.

sportsfan8

I did subtle things to "mod" the exterior like removing the roof rack and smoked the tail lights and bumper reflectors. Also thinking about slightly lowering too.

ZIN

Looks like Eibach springs would cost about $245.00 but I am not sure if that is the best way to lower to lower it and it the Eibach will lower it a little over 1".
Personally I like the look of CK6's so if getting larger rims and tires will fill up the wheel well I am fine with that. If I have to lower it 1.2" I can do that to.
I won't be able to do anything I want but some things are a must.lol

ZIN

I was trying to check out the cost of tires if I would go to a 19" or 20" wheel and I am seeing very little choices and what choices I am seeing do not impress me in the least. I am looking to put on new tires on these new rims and run them in the sumer only can anyone give me a quality tire to choose from? I will be staying at or above the 50 series tire. thanks a lot.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

The tires I had on were Dunlop Grandtrek 9000 I believe. These were all season SUV/truck tires. Generally I would go with a high performance lower profile tire myself, but since my wife was driving this car and since at that time only drop springs were available so the drop height wasn't much, I wanted to fill the tire well up as much as possible, so I went with the 255/50 tire. Anyway, these tires weren't bad at all for an all season, but did get noisy as they wore down. I think regular cost is about $250 each, but I got them free since my car club was sponsored by Dunlop at the time.

ZIN

Good to know... I was hoping to get a more aggressive looking summer tire myself. How much can the rx be lowered and still look good? I really like your look a lot I would just like it to be a hair narrower so the front tires do not look to wide. Maybe I can achieve that by going with a 19" x 8 wide or the 20 x 8.5 but staying with a 245 I don't know.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

Well, my definition of look good is different than a lot of RX members since I came from ultra low cars and most of my friends run Air Suspension on their luxury VIP style cars, but I do like the Air Runner suspension for the RX. If it were available when I built this car I would have used it. With the lower drop, I would have run 255/35/20, or 255/40/20, or somewhere around those specs whichever was available. I Eibach's drop about 2" total from stock, but I would have gone another 2-3" so that with the lower profile tire, the top of the tire would have been just at the fender lip. I would have also gone with the WALD mild body kit, but none of that was available back then I may have even tried some 21" rims with the body kit.

ZIN

I guess you like a lower look and lower profile tire but I like what yours looks like now so I would be happy with a 2" drop for $245.00 for Eibach springs.
So your rims and tires do not rub correct? Also your speedometer must be off a bit due to the size you choose right because your total hight must be around 31" tall.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

I think actual over all diameter was 30.5" or just around 30". I was about 1/4" from touching the lower spring perch, so 31" might be too tall and rub. I didn't rub anything at all. Speedometer was about 2 MPH off at 60 MPH. When speedometer read 60, actual speed was about 58 MPH according to my portable GPS.


Yes, I do like the lower profile tires and tighter dropped suspension This below was my daily driver for about a year. It runs on 35/30 series tires on 18/19" rims and lowered. Also, some pics to show you how close I was to the lower spring perch in the rear and the lower inner plastic liner and strut. Front has much more room.

iKon_RX

looks like you have about 20mm of space left between the inner edge of wheel and the perch. i did some calculation and with a 9.5in width +12 i would be 5mm closer the to perch. which leaves maybe 15mm of room, but then i have to remember about the tire..hmm
is the edge of your rim flush with the fender or is it in a little?
if you can take more pics or rear and the front i would GREATLY appreciated it.