wsrivers

I saw a guy online that said he put some aftermarket wheels on his ES300 but he was getting some "rubbing". No one mentioned or asked what size tires were the rims wrapped in. The majority of people were saying for him to get spacers. I'm just curious to know if in fact it could be something that only spacers would resolve. I have Maxima wheels on my 94 and a few ES owners asked if they affect my speedometer because of the increase in diameter. I'd like to change up my wheels but I don't know how safe I feel with spacers. Any info?

nsghtbrwry

My local wheel shop's rule of thumb (all at your own risk, BTW) is if the lug nuts can go on 5 threads, it'll hold. Anything less and the wheel will probably fall off.

Personally, I'd never use spacers on my cars. A friend did it once, against my warnings...he put these ghetto rims on his Lincoln LS after he bent the original ones. They fit without spacers...because his brake pads were severely run down. One brake job later, the calipers chewed up the rims and he needed spacers. He should have got the extending spacers that have their own lug studs built in; the cheap plate type made the lugs go three and a half threads, and his wheel fell off on the highway.

xoarz

spacers wouldnt solve all rubbing problems. it really depends where the rim is rubbing. spacers fix the rubbing between the wheel and strut/brakes. some spacers are trash and some are good, just do your research of which ones are good quality and which will work for you. My friend has been running 5mm spacers on his supercharged solara for as long as I can remember and he's had no problems. obviously if you can't get alot of threads on with spacers then you shouldnt run it or get extended studs to make more threads for yourself.

If you upgrade to bigger wheels and tires then you might encounter rubbing along the fender-well, especially when going over bumps or making wide turns. if you're lowered, even more so. you can roll/shave your fenders to try fitting bigger wheels or maybe add some negative camber by the use of camber plates or camber bolts.

i think the biggest wheel size that you can have without running into alot of problems is 18x7-8 depending on offset.

Also you will need different lugnuts with aftermarket wheels. the stud holes are usually too small to fit our ugly stock lugs anyways