Is 17 inch plus wheels bad for a lil car? subs, auudio.... (1 Viewer)

Vangineer

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Hey,

on my civic, is it feasible to install 17 inch wheels on it, or is 16 inch the maximum? i hear that the larger wheels, the less lasting the tyres become...hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

things to do to my car:


alloys, subs, car audio, exhaust

things id never do to my car

put in turbos, chargers, change odometers
 

DaddyK

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The maximum size of your wheels depends on the size of your wallet. If you put 17's on or bigger the guards will probably need rolling to stop the wheels scrubbing on them when you turn. Plus you'll pay shitloads more for low profile tyres. Also why wouldn't you turbo your civic? That would be ok. Atleast it wouldn't be rice.
 

DaddyK

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No its not. Civics are bloody good reliable cars. But then you get the asian wankers who put 18 inch chromies on them and hektik neons bro!! And the outrages body kits, wings etc. Thats rice.
 

loquasagacious

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Big wheels:

There are several disadvantages to these:

-Problems fitting: The bigger the wheel the harder to fit under the guards and it will cost to get the guards rolled.
-Expensive and easily punctured tyres: Bigger wheels mean lower profile (eg shorter) tyreswhich are expensive and puncture easily eg if you hit a pot hole a conventional tyre is caught between air and a rock a low profile tyre is caught between a rock and a hard rim.
-You will brake and accelerate slower: This is because of Rotational Inertia. You can look up the equations if you feel keen but basically a 1kg increase in rolling stock is equivalent to a 20kg increase in body mass. That is to say that having a wheel/tyre/brake that are 1kg heavier than stock is equivalent to adding 20kg of weights inside the car. And because mags are generally heavier than stock (unless you get hell expensize light weight ones - and pay extra for light weight tyres), so big mags will slow acceleration importantly they will also slow decelleration.
-Reduced suspension life and less responsive handling: I've established that the mags will be heavier than stock and this will slow you down however the extra weight also comes into play in other ways. The mass of a car can be divided into sprung and un-sprung. Sprung is the general body of the car unspung is the bits that the suspension moves eg wheel, tyre, discs, callipers. So bigger wheels increase the ammount of weight that the suspension has to move around, this will reduce strut life span and make the car less responsive.
-Power steering pump life is reduced: The weight comes into play again here the power steering pump now has to work harder to shift the greater weight thus power steering pump life is reduced. The wider tyres which inevitably accompanying the wheels also mean a greater contact patch with the ground which means greater friction so again more work for the pump and an even shorter life.
-May identify you as a wanker. Cars with huge mags and teeny discs and drums are funny and rice.

Subs/Car Audio:

Be aware that this gets very expensive very fast. The extra weight hurts performance especially if you need to put in dynamat and of course you can cause hearing damage. And soon the sound system requires a new alternator and battery to keep it running.

Exhaust:

It depends on what you want to do, i'll run through from cheapest to most expensive.

Resonator: By removing the resonator you make it louder but retain the stock look. Possibly a small performance gain.
Canon: That is a big straight through muffler, makes it louder. A small performance gain.
Cat back: Modest performance gain and volume is increased again.
Remove Cat: A $7000 on the spot fine if you are caught, doesnt really help performance and is hell bad for the environment.
Extractors: More of a performance gain, generally only done as part of a complete system.

Things to bear in mind: If you get one you want mandrel not crush bent piping (better flow and looks nicer - more expensive though). You definantly don't want any piping bigger than 2.5" because you will reduce bottom end (eg low rev) power and gain little top end (eg high rev) power. Oh and you will need to keep noise fairly low to avoid problems with the police/RTA.

Turbo/superchargers:

Presumambly you want to avoid these because of insurance issues. Bear in mind though that a turbo and exhaust manifold need to be connected so if you put a full exhaust on now and a turbo later you will have wasted money. Oh yeah and the performance increase can be worthy the premium hike.

Odometers:

I can only imagine you are talking about tachometres which measure revs as opposed to odometres which measure the distance travelled. Seeing as you're car will have a tacho and somehow I doubt you'll be making use of a shift light I cant see the need to drop $500 on a monster tach.
 
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loquasagacious

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Just sharing the knowledge - that and it ended up somewhat longer as I thought of extra stuff. :p

EDIT: Tidied it up abit so now it is abit more friendly and looks like less of a dogs breakfast.
 
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bowman

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if ur paying $100 bucks per guard to get rolled ur getting ripped.
they take about 5 min to do each one.
honestly get a mate who is a panel beater to do it for a pack of ciggies or something
 

loquasagacious

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I was basing that number off a $50p/c mates rates price that a friend paid for a cheap job. Admittedly his guards needed a fair ammount of work to fit his wheels but they did cut corners by not bothering to heat them before rolling.
 

yenta

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What does that mean to get your guards rolled? I have 17s on my corolla, can't decide whether to lower the suspension or not, cos I might decide later on to remove the 17s and put the stock wheels back on (if I want to sell the car or something).
 

loquasagacious

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Basically it means enlarging the space under there so that bigger wheels/wider tyres will fit without scrubbing against the cars body.

As far as deciding whther or not to lower are you wanting to do purely for aesthetics or for handling reasons?

Do you think it would look any good lowered on stock?

You could think about installing coil-overs which allow you to wind the suspension up and down at will.
 

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civics usually can fit 16s ok..

my cousin tried to put 17s on his civic and he had problems with the guards...

personally i like my deep dish 17s they are a nice fit on my ride...
 

braad

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7th Sign said:
civics usually can fit 16s ok..

my cousin tried to put 17s on his civic and he had problems with the guards...

personally i like my deep dish 17s they are a nice fit on my ride...
deep dish?

pics please....


<3 deep dished wheels (well, to an extent)....saw a fucking hot Xy today with the nicest stance i've seen in a while and livvvvvvvvely dished wheels (had to be at least 10's on the back....although i swear they could've been 11...despite probably being illegal :eek:)
 

7th Sign

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braad said:
deep dish?

pics please....


<3 deep dished wheels (well, to an extent)....saw a fucking hot Xy today with the nicest stance i've seen in a while and livvvvvvvvely dished wheels (had to be at least 10's on the back....although i swear they could've been 11...despite probably being illegal :eek:)

my cars got semi dished rims like 8 cm dish on them...

here is a pic ...



I like to call them deep dish lol but their more like semi dished or something...


not like some full crazy 20 cm dish that shit heaps expensive...
 
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Vangineer said:
Hey,

on my civic, is it feasible to install 17 inch wheels on it, or is 16 inch the maximum? i hear that the larger wheels, the less lasting the tyres become...hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

things to do to my car:


alloys, subs, car audio, exhaust

things id never do to my car

put in turbos, chargers, change odometers
17'' will scrub out and degrade your tyres plus they cost around $200-$250 a tyre go 16'' later...........
 

DaddyK

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The only difference in having 16" rims and 17" rims is that the 17's tyres will cost a little more. Presuming the 17's don't scrub the tyre life span will be the same and it will do the same wear and tear.
 

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