Hi, I am not sure if this question is about "Appearance and Detailing" but it definitely came from "Appearance and Detailing"

I am the member who live in Taiwan, I put 18's BMW rim on my firebird, it looks much better, but it also bring some thing bad, the front wheels are damn heavy, the real wheel pull each other during the rugged & rough road......I have never drive a car with this big wheel before, so I am not should if it is normal, the car just had a front chassis fix few days ago (those parts conncet the front wheel and I don't know how to describe them in English ), the people in garage said I should put the stock rim back or I may fix them soon, those rim and wheel just too big and they thought(sure) the car can't handle it.......

What should I do?? I thought the car drive better with stock rim but the 18's looks so good....I always like huge wheel and this is what I expect for the thirdgen, or maybe BMW rim just not fit ???? what is your suggestion ??

My BMW rim is 18*8.5, 15mm offset, 235/40/18 in the front, 255/45/18 in the rear, I know some people may say get bigger wheel for the stock rim but 225/60/15 is the widest tire in Taiwan, there is no drag racing here, I have to go 17 or 18 for the wider tire, 225mm is toooo small.

 

The 18's do look good....

the car should have no problem handling an 18" rim. I think what you are experiencing is that when you go to a wider tire, they want to "follow" all the bumps in the rough roads. does the car shake at all? or did it just get a little harder to control the car going down the road with the new rims on?

 

they are hard to control! especially when the car in slow, I remember the first driving of the bird, I feel good, because the suspension system is harder than my Grand Am and still comfortable, now it runs like no suspension, the front wheel is very thin......

BTW, the roads in Taiwan are not as good as yours, so many people said "don't go 17s or 18s", I am not a fast car driver so I will not get rim damage easily.

I thought the wider wheel can handle the road better but seem I should handle the steel wheel carefully. How do you guy feel after bigger wheel??

 

are the wheels properly balanced and the suspension is tuned i.e. alignments?

 

they will hold better but yeah they do follow badly. Kind of a trade off I guess.

 

If the roads are bad, like around here, it will be completely normal to hear louder bumps and feel a LOT more of the road. A lower sidewall tire and crappy roads will do that. If driving it isn't causing any damage, then I would say that it sounds normal to me......

 

These Baer Trackers stopped a lot of the wandering on my lowered, larger than stock tired TA.

S.

 

Joe, when I put my C5 wheels on it was a shock to the system when you hit a groove in the road and the car goes with it. Yeah the wider tire the more tire surface on the road, so the better the car will handle, but thats in a perfect world without potholes and road wear. You get used to it after a while, the only time I have an issue is where the road has some serious wear marks from semi so it causes "tracks" in the blacktop and my wheels want to follow it. Like I said at first its weird but you adjust!!

 

Oh, I feel better to hear that, have you guy ever try to go back to the stock rim?? honestly, the stock rim make the car more comfortable but the 18's is too beautiful to let them go..... I even wanna to go wider in the rear, I found a coupe 285mm tires in used, they may too wide for my 8.5J rim but can it be done??

 

I could never go back to stock, I love the handling I gained from the change.

 

yeah for 8.5" wide rim thats probably too wide. Whatever company the tires are from just call and ask them they can tell you what sizes of their tires will fit on your rims. Something you notice is that everything you do to make your car handle better will make the ride less comfortable. The side wall is so thin now that when ever you hit a bump youll notice it a lot more because the tire has less give, in a 15" or 16" rim you have so much sidewall that it absorbs a lot of the bumps. Also like others have said dont worry about it tracking from side to side a little bit more then usual that is normal.

 

Joe the handling you describe is normal of large rim and tire combinations you just have to adjust to the way your car handles with the new rims and you won't even notice it

by the way your car looks very good with those bmw rims on it