Keepin the wheels balanced

[Gearhead Geek]

Well, as the warmer weather aproaches, I'm beginning to finally look into getting some wheels and rubber for my hatch. So, I pose a few questions for those of you who have already made your rim purchases:
1) I'm thinkin of goin with 17x7's for rim size, and wrappin them with some 215/45 rubber, as I'm afraid 17x7.5's might rub a little bit if I dig a little too hard into a turn. Any suggestions?

2) What would be a good offset to aim for on a rim? From what I've seen, most of the sites that match rims to cars (aka tirerack, discounttire) show me wheels with offsets between +40 and +45mm, just wonderin if these are good numbers to aim for, or if I may encounter scraping.

3) Now, this may be an odd question, but, can anyone suggest rims that might possibly be alloy, and can use conventional wheel balancers? I absolutely hate using the stick on ones (*cough*damn you honda for giving us crappy stock rims*cough*), as I have found in the past that they LOVE to fly off, and never seem to balance out perfectly. Would appreciate suggestions of rims that come in grey/black/gunmetal/possibly a dull silver, I'm not a fan of the super-duper-shiny stuff.

Thanks in advance for the help.

[mrfixit687]

if you want to use the regular weights that they hammer onto the lip of your rim and makes your rim looks ugly, it depends on the rim, if it has a lip or not. i havent had any trouble with the stick on weights, they should be on there pretty tight, maybe you should look into a more quality shop or something

[Gearhead Geek]

well, i do all the balancing myself at my school, and i've tried about 3 different kinds of the stick on weights already to no avail. i'm not really worried about how the conventional hammer on weights look.
in general, when a rim of a certain material has a lip for the regular weights, are they pretty consistant in shape? because the regular weights are seperated for different materials, and weights for a certain material (usually) need to fit the lip.
(I appologize for these newbie-ish questions, however this is the first time I've ever bought anything but steel's for any car, so I just wanna be informed before I buy)

[mrfixit687]

i do balancing my self at school too :) my school only has 1 type of hammer on weights? and stick ons, and i only used the hammer on weights for steelies, if you use it on nice rims it will most likely scratch the lip. I've used stick ons with no problem, you just gotta make sure the surface is clean and that you're not using the old ones other student take off and put back in the tray

[Gearhead Geek]

Hrm, ok, well, balancing methods aside, any suggestions on size? I'm really concerned about possible scraping, and also slightly concerned about if my speedo will be affected at all. As said before, I'm leanin towards 17x7's wrapped with 215/45's, but, I'd really like some opinions before I make my purchase.

[dtexan]

You can have the hammer on weights mounted on the inside of the rim so you dont see them

[irrational]

Originally posted by Gearhead Geek
Hrm, ok, well, balancing methods aside, any suggestions on size? I'm really concerned about possible scraping, and also slightly concerned about if my speedo will be affected at all. As said before, I'm leanin towards 17x7's wrapped with 215/45's, but, I'd really like some opinions before I make my purchase.

i have that set-up and my wheels have a 42mm offset no rubbing after being lowered with progess springs

[mrfixit687]

you can go here http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html to see what sized tires you run and how it will affect your spedometer reading

[Gearhead Geek]

Awesome, thanks. That's an extremely useful link to have.

[Gearhead Geek]

Ok, just to post another quick question on here:
215/45R17's, with Eibach Prokit's. Anyone have this setup, and if so, any scraping issues? (I doubt there are, but, as the saying goes, better safe than sorry)

[Peking]

Originally posted by Gearhead Geek
Ok, just to post another quick question on here:
215/45R17's, with Eibach Prokit's. Anyone have this setup, and if so, any scraping issues? (I doubt there are, but, as the saying goes, better safe than sorry)

I don't, but from the set-up I have seen from others. You will have no issues. 1" with those size tires will not rub at all. Now the only way you should scrape is from your own error.

[chunky]

I'm lowered 2.0" all around. I have 225/50/15 tires mounted on a +37 offset 15x7 wheel. no rubbing even during auto-x. no rubbing even with -1.75 camber up front. In the rear I had to modify the fender lip to run -1 camber in the rear. if you run -1.75 camber in the rear, you won't need to roll/trim your fender.