wheel and tire advice for my 2002 NSX

[mikescg]

some of you may know about my saga with my HRE 542's and 18 inch fronts with 225/35/18 tires, i have had numerous pothole problems, so i am switching to the following setup.

HRE 540's
17 x 7.5 front
17 x 9.5 rear
215/40/17 front tires
265/40/17 rear tires

my 2 questions are as follows, what are the correct offsets front and rear?, i want NO rubbing whatsoever.

and will i be able to lower my car without ANY rubbing using for instance the eibach pro-kit?

I am trying to eliminate the wide gap between top of tire and fender.

any advice would be greatly appreciated.

mike

 

[Veleno]

Mike,

Since you're already altering the OEM tire setup, why not go with a 17/18" setup? You can run 225/35/17 and 285/30/18. This will work on a lowered car as well. If the 225/35/17 is too low for you, use a 215/40/17.

I've seen some pictures with the above mentioned sizes and I like the 225/285 setup the best.

To answer your question about offset, shouldn't you ask HRE about it? I'm sure they've done 17's all around before on an NSX.

You shouldn't rub with the sizes you've mentioned provided the offset is correct(which leads back to checking with HRE or if someone has the exact same sizes).

Without looking at the HRE website, are these 3 piece wheels? because that is also a factor for offsets

 

[AaronR]

[BI am trying to eliminate the wide gap between top of tire and fender.

any advice would be greatly appreciated.

mike [/B]

Mike If you want to eliminate fender well gap I would lower the car. You will not be able to remove that kind of space by changing overall diameter of the wheel/tire combo. Eibach makes a nice spring kit that drops 1.2 inches (read- removes 1.2 inches of fender gap) on all 4 corners. It is part number 4025.140 and can be used with oe shocks for a comfortable street ride. Just a thought.
Aaron

 

[TigerNSX]

Hi, Mike,

The offset of the wheels will depend on the brands, designs, and etc. If I were you, I would probably just replace the front rims that you have to either 17x7.5 or 17x8.0, and use 215/40/17 tires. With this setup, I don't think that you will have a problem of rubbing when you lower your car using Eibach.

Good luck!

 

[5inchfatlip]

Mike- sorry to hear of your pothole problems...

although I number of owners use 18" up front with no rubbing- depends on the sidewall construction of the tire, if its rounded off there shouldnt be any rubbing even on a lowered one, if it is a squared off side wall then you "should" get some...good luck

 

[andymo1972]

Ok, I've been looking at buying wheels and tires for my 03. Is the offset the reason for the rubbing problem? What is causing the damage to the wheel, just the fact that there isn't enough tire to protect it when it hits the pothole?

From what I saw in my research, a 215/40/17 had a 23.8" diameter and a 225/35/18 has a diameter of 24.3" (potenza S-03) or 24.2" (goodyear F1, Yoko AVS Sport) with the section width being 7.9" on a 215/40 and 8.3" on a 225/35. Is that enough to cause rubbing problems? I was thinking of going with the 225/35/18 on 18x7.5 front and 275/35/18 on 18x9 rear based on keeping the ratios close to the same for TCS but haven't picked out a wheel yet and don't want to have any issued with rubbing, etc.

Andy
03 Blue/Onyx

 

[mikescg]

from my experience and nothing else, it seems that with an 18 in front rim and a 225/35/18 bridgestone so'3, i get a very very slight rub under full compression of the front suspension. i believe this to be due to offset,

as for the rim damage, that is strictly from the 35 series tire not providing enough protection for the rim.

i am now going back to the following sizes again with HRE 540's

17 x 7.5

17 x 9.5

i will use 215/40/17 fronts
265/40/17 rears

again this is just from my experience with my 2002 nsx.

 

[nsxtasy]

I think it makes a lot of sense to go with wheels no larger than 17" front and 17" or 18" rear, for this very reason. When you use larger wheels (like 18" front or 19" rear, or larger) and maintain the same outer diameter of the tire, you do so by lowering the sidewall height. That creates the danger of damage from potholes.

Lots of owners are using 215/40-17 in front, and 255/35-18 or 265/35-18 in the rear, without any problems whatsoever, with rubbing or with TCS. Furthermore, these sizes - unlike some of the suggestions mentioned here - maintain the same outer diameter as stock, and so should be fine for the traction control and shouldn't result in poorer acceleration the way tires with a larger outer diameter would. (The 255/35-18 is even better in this regard than the 265/35-18.)

For 17" wheels front and rear, I would suggest using 255/40-17 in the rear, rather than the 265/40-17; 255 is the stock tire size. If you're interested in using the stock, sticky RE040 tire, they come in these sizes, and are designed specifically for the NSX, and for specific corners of the car.

As Andy mentions, you would need to check any particular set of wheels to make sure that the spokes and design don't interfere with the brake calipers and other components; however, as a place to start, I would think that wheels with offset as close to stock as possible would likely be the best fit. The stock offset for the '02-03 NSX is 55 mm in front, but 56 mm in the rear. (The FAQ is wrong about this, BTW.)

 

[kenjiMR]

You shouldn't have any rubbing issues, but still depends on the wheel offset probably. I think its possible your car will have some understeer issues. your rear is much wider than front plus you will run a decent side-wall tire giving good grip and flex. Make sure you max your front camber or loosen your sway bar to balance the car a bit. Just experiment with that....

Also don't use Eibach-ProKit if you hope to have a good handling car.

The ProKit springs suck balls.

some of you may know about my saga with my HRE 542's and 18 inch fronts with 225/35/18 tires, i have had numerous pothole problems, so i am switching to the following setup.

HRE 540's
17 x 7.5 front
17 x 9.5 rear
215/40/17 front tires
265/40/17 rear tires

my 2 questions are as follows, what are the correct offsets front and rear?, i want NO rubbing whatsoever.

and will i be able to lower my car without ANY rubbing using for instance the eibach pro-kit?

I am trying to eliminate the wide gap between top of tire and fender.

any advice would be greatly appreciated.

mike

 

[TigerNSX]

Re: Re: wheel and tire advice for my 2002 NSX

Also don't use Eibach-ProKit if you hope to have a good handling car.

The ProKit springs suck balls.

Could you elaborate this more? I was in the midst of purchasing a set. Is this from your experience??

Thanks in advance.

 

[kenjiMR]

Re: Re: Re: wheel and tire advice for my 2002 NSX

Could you elaborate this more? I was in the midst of purchasing a set. Is this from your experience??

Thanks in advance.

Yes, I used to have Eibach Prokit + Koni shocks. The Eibach are progressive rate springs which don't inspire any confidence. I am using TEIN Type-RA now... I recommend those for the money.

An alternative to the Eibach would be the HRs, but they are somewhat lower your car more. In any case, there should be a lot of discussion regarding this topic. If you don't plan to track your car, this may not really be a big issue to you.