My 91 Formula came with an extra pair of wheels - the PO said they are the original rear wheels and he replaced them with front wheels. Can someone explain this? The extra wheels are 16 x 8. Not sure of the width of the wheels installed but they appear to be wider.

 

I'm not sure which wheel you have, but I know the PW7 wheels (see photo) have different offsets front and rear. The fronts have a deeper dish to them, and a lot of folks prefer that look at all 4 corners. So they will get an extra pair of front wheels and run them on the rear.

Here's a car with the PW7 wheel.



Your car may have this style of wheel....I'm not sure if the offset is different front-to-rear on this style of wheel or not.

 

All 3rdgen 16x8 factory wheels have a front and rear offset.
Use of 4 front wheels makes tire rotation much easier.
No one knows why gm did the wheels like that. Goofy

 

DynoDave - my wheels are the same as in your second photo. Despite the different offset were all four still 8 inches in width? Are these wheels referred to as the WS6 wheels?

 

Yes. 16x8 front wheels have 0 offset. 16x8 rear wheels have 16mm offset. And yes, they're WS6 wheels.

Front wheels on the rear fit about 5/8" farther outward on each side than rear wheels do, giving the car a slightly but noticeably wider stance. No wheel well clearance issues and no suspension issues. I ran four front wheels before I went to 18" wheels and bigger brakes. I wouldn't say it had any effect on handling, + or -, but the appearance was noticeably more aggressive.

And if you drive the car a lot, then rotating the wheels/tires will be a simple task, as already stated, if you feel rotating tires matters, which I don't, unless there are signs of unusual tire wear.

 

Thanks for the replies!