mwienholt Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 I'm a newbie to the forums so thanks in advance for your help. Here's the situation - my wife's daily driver is an '08 SpecB. She drives it pretty aggressively, but nothing at the track. We have two stock 18" wheels that are dented/bent, but the tires still hold air. The dents happened recently and we don't know what we hit. Since two of them are dented we are seriously considering going to 17"s and putting taller rubber on the new wheels to prevent this from happening. So, a few questions... 1. Should we stick w 18s and buy new wheels that are more durable and won't bend from daily driving? 2. If yes to #1, what brand/model wheel should that be? 3. Should we drop to 17s and put taller rubber on? 4. If yes to #3, what size tire makes up the difference to get back to the original outside diameter of the 18 w rubber on it? Thanks a ton for your advice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drift Motion Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 Awesome wife! First of all, what is your budget? OEM wheels are pretty strong, if you want stronger wheel, then you gotta go forged (think $900/wheel) but all wheels do bend, it's more like how you drive taller tires definitely helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwienholt Posted August 1, 2012 Author Share Posted August 1, 2012 We're investing for the long term so we're willing to drop the coin if we need to. To answer your question directly though we'd like to keep the whole thing including rubber, should we go to 17s, at $2000 or less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drift Motion Posted August 1, 2012 Share Posted August 1, 2012 that's easily do-able, hit up Ravspec for some good 17s by Rays Engineering for about $1200-$1500, leaves you some $$ for tires Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stanjk3 Posted August 1, 2012 Share Posted August 1, 2012 How good or bad are the roads where you live? If they're not the greatest, like in PA - the pothole state, you might want to go down to 17's. Friends don't let friends drink cheap beer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RabidWombat Posted August 1, 2012 Share Posted August 1, 2012 Stock tire size on a LGT (non-spec B) is 215/45/R17. edit: Didn't realize the spec. B uses 215/45/R18. To match that you'll want to use the calculator here: http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/infoTireMath.dos For 17's I'm getting good agreement with 215-225/50/17 205/55/17 (narrower tire than stock) The closest match is 245/45/17, but this may be too wide and cause clearance issues. I'd say for 17's get whichever has better availability of 215/50/17 or 225/50/17. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.Catalyst. Posted August 1, 2012 Share Posted August 1, 2012 I went to 17s for the same reasons. We have roads that endure hot summers and cold winters and they are prone to potholes due to how they are maintained and the temp swings. I ended up with a forged 17x7.5 (Ray's Volk) wheel and run a 225/45R17 tire that is approx 3% shorter than the factory 215/45R18 on the 18x7 OEM spec.B wheels (also shed around 15lbs a corner). For a closer to stock height, you can run a 235/45R17 but plan on a 7.5 to 8" wide wheel. You could go with the 215/50R17 as well but that's a pretty narrow tire that won't perform as well as a slightly wider tire. Comfort was increased for me and the extra meat between the wheel and the road gives me peace of mind. My car is lowered slightly so the 235/45R17 was pushing it with my wheel offset, otherwise I'd have gone that route although I did not want to modify my fenders. My spec.B [#163] Project Thread with Pictures Get CryoTuned! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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