17s in place of 15s without lowering?

White95Max · 11-06-04, 05:05

I have a friend that wants to sell his factory 2K2 17" Maxima SE rims to me.
I have a 95 Maxima with the factory 15" alloys.
Will the car sit even higher off the ground if I put those rims on without lowering it? I already think my car has a 4X4 look with the large gaps in the wheelwells, and I don't want that gap to be any bigger.
I love how the rims look though. I saw a picture of a white 4th gen max like mine with the 2K2 17s and it looked awesome. He's giving me a deal on the rims so I'm seriously thinking about it.

zzyyzx · 11-06-04, 05:16

It all depends on the ratio to your original wheels/tires. If you do a search for something like wheel tire ratio, you'll find one that can tell you what you need to keep the same aspect your OEM wheels are. If you keep that, it shouldn't change the overall diameter of the wheel/tire.

Mmmph · 11-06-04, 06:19

Use this handy wheel/tire calulator to check sizes before purchasing:

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

zzyyzx · 11-07-04, 04:58

That's the little gizmo I was talking about....

Denali-D · 11-07-04, 10:09

Even if the wheel/tire combo is the same overall height, the car will still look as if it's sitting higher because of the reduction in sidewall. It's kinda an optical illusion, but definatly noticable. I had a 97 Infinity I30 (essencially same as your Max) and I put 18" BBS's on it (back when 18's where still the biggest rims you could get.) Before I had it lowered, the wheel well gap was unacceptable to me.

Accumulator · 11-07-04, 10:50

Yeah, use the size calculator to keep the height (and the speedometer reading

) the same. But as Denali-D said, there's an optical illusion effect when you replace sidewall height with wheel diameter. You might not know whether you like how it looks or not until you do it.

Depending on the wheel design, you might also consider whether your brake calipers look ready for primetime

D3mon · 11-07-04, 11:11

As I recently discovered, a general rule of thumb is that you can safely go up to 2 inches larger than the OEM set. I just went from 15" to 17".

I had been advised that it was possible to go with 18", but I didn't want to modify the wheel arches or risk the chance of any wheel rub (when the steering wheel is full lock to one side and the inner tire egde toches the inside of the wheel arch.)

White95Max · 11-07-04, 12:27

Quote:

Originally posted by D3mon
As I recently discovered, a general rule of thumb is that you can safely go up to 2 inches larger than the OEM set. I just went from 15" to 17".

I had been advised that it was possible to go with 18", but I didn't want to modify the wheel arches or risk the chance of any wheel rub (when the steering wheel is full lock to one side and the inner tire egde toches the inside of the wheel arch.)

I am a little concerned with rubbing, but if the rim/tire diameter is the same, and the new tire is only 10mm wider, I don't think I'll have a problem.

So you went from 15" to 17" without any lowering springs? Do you have a picture of the car before and after, or even just after?

D3mon · 11-07-04, 01:20

Well, the new wheels are sitting in the house right now (Polishing up the new rims while I'm waiting for the locking wheel bolts to arrive from Germany) and the OEMs are still on the car, so I'll try to get a like-for-like comparison picture set for you when I finally make the swap.

Realistically, the rubbing will most likely only manifest itself once you fit the lowering springs and the arches drop down to a closer fit on the top of the tire.

White95Max · 11-07-04, 01:47

Thank you. I'd really like to see before and after pics. I'll be waiting anxiously!

D3mon · 11-08-04, 09:48

Me too!!

blackcaraddict · 11-08-04, 09:58

Quote:

Originally posted by White95Max
I have a friend that wants to sell his factory 2K2 17" Maxima SE rims to me.
I have a 95 Maxima with the factory 15" alloys.
Will the car sit even higher off the ground if I put those rims on without lowering it? I already think my car has a 4X4 look with the large gaps in the wheelwells, and I don't want that gap to be any bigger.
I love how the rims look though. I saw a picture of a white 4th gen max like mine with the 2K2 17s and it looked awesome. He's giving me a deal on the rims so I'm seriously thinking about it.

Check your O.D. on each wheel package to determine that. It all depends on aspect ratio and wheel width etc. My Denali came stock with 265 70 17's and now I have 305 40 22's and both wheel/tire packages are 31.6" - I went wider from 265 to 305 but offset that with a lower aspect ratio (70 to 40). You see as you go wider, your tire will get taller unless you cut the aspect ratio.