Hello! New member, but long time lurker...

Here is my dilema, I hate the wheels that came with the car. I would like to change them to a set of Vossen wheels. However, since my vehicle is all wheel drive several dealerships have told me that changing out the wheels to a larger size will void my warranty. They say that the larger wheels will cause problems for the awd system. They do sell some rims at the dealerships but none of them said they would sell me anything more than an 18" wheel for that car. Is anyone on this forum driving the awd model with larger rims? Does anyone have any insight on the AWD issue that Lexus is claiming?

I love the car and do not want to do anything to damage it, but I really do not like the stock wheels on that car.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!

 

tell them to stop being retarded. tell them to explain to you exactly how larger wheels will cause problems.

as long as the overall diameter of the wheels (rim + tires) are close to the factory spec, and that front and rear are close to each other, then you should not have much problems

a lot of gs awd and is awd have larger wheels. audi cars most of them are quattro and people mod and put on larger wheels left and right

just think of it this way, awd system is making decisions from the front and rear traction, nothing else. not the size of wheels, not the weight of wheels. as long as front and rear overall diameter is close, then the system won't detect any extra slip (other than what caused by driving condition), so system will not overwork and just like from factory

 

DDDDD are your dealer from stone age where Fred (Flinstone) used stone wheels?

Come on, LS600h is AWD and it has original 19" wheels!!! Main thing is with AWD is that all wheels in straight driving, should spin all axels at same speed and mostly power. Wider wheels create more resistance from rode, though if all 4 wheels are same width, and overall radius (with tire) then it is ok, u just loose some power (won't be felt on such car).

My advice, would be to choose maximum size wheel and width tire that would fit on the front (that it won't touch anything when wheels is turned to one side or another) and put same size in the back. So it won't have any afect on AWD system...

 

technically even staggered setup will have no problem. quite a few people with the gs350 awd are on staggered setup and they never experience problem. keep in mind, awd system works by sensing slip, not force. wider wheels creating more resistance won't cause slip. slip happens when a wheel loses traction (obviously, the whole idea of awd) or when one wheel spins faster than the others, for example when wheels have different overall diameters.

of course, non staggered setup will be safe, but having staggered setup shouldn't be a problem, the key is to select front and rear tires so they are very close to each other on overall diameters. in the 3gs forum, for example people use 245/30 and 285/25 and never a problem. a guy put 245/30 and 285/30 and awd system immediately went wild.

 

Thank you for your assistance. I spoke with a Lexus service agent at another dealership and he said it would not void my warranty. He offered to put it in writing on my account notes and will actually do the TPMS coding for me. Woo hoo! Am working with the folks at D2 to get a set of Vossens, so hopefully all the specs will be ironed out for me by them... Thank you all for your help.

 

glad you found another dealership that knows what they are talking about

 

It only goes to show you the level of knowledge in higher end dealerships does not necessarily increase, and more often than not the only thing that does change is the price of the suits. Similar product, same dummies...

 

Im glad I found this site. Im on a similar one for my 74 corvette. I really want staggerd setup but dont want to screw up AWD. How about lorenzos??? Anyone have those?? Should I just use same size tire and 8.5 and 10 setup??? Or can I even do that? This is my first set of BIB BOY rims :-)

 

huh? if you get 8.5 front and 10 rear, i would highly suggest against using the same size tires. it would look silly, and you can't find a good size to fit both. for 8.5, good size is around 245. for 10, it will be around 275 or 285

 

Sorry if i was unclear... 245/30/20 (8.5)front and 275/30/20 (10)rear