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I have an 09’ RX 350 I have stock wheels and I want to put new wheels. The stock wheels are 18 x 7 +35 on 235/55r18. I want to fit 19 x 10.5 +35 wheels but I’m not sure if they’ll fit. The reason why I don’t think it’ll fit is because from the back of the tire to the strut it looks like there isn’t a lot of space. Supposedly if I put big tires it'll poke out like a little more than an inch and a half both sides. I have another option which I’m sure it will fit of the same wheels but with +12 offset but I kind of don’t want to do that because it’ll poke out like more than 2’ towards the outside only. I want it to be evenly on both sides. Does anyone with this experience know if I have enough clearance for the big wheel and tire setup?
Do some measurements and punch them into willtheyfit.com. You might need longer wheel studs too because the factory ones are pretty short, depends on the rims. You will have to lower the offset with a rim that wide. I'm on 18x8 rims, 245/50 tires and a 30mm offset and the clearance between the strut & rear trailing arm is very close. Any more than this and it'll likely rub. Check out @Felix 's RX he is running a wider wheel & tire setup than me with a lower offset in the 20s.
Do some measurements and punch them into willtheyfit.com. You might need longer wheel studs too because the factory ones are pretty short. You will have to lower the offset with a rim that wide. I'm on 18x8 rims, 245/50 tires and a 30mm offset and the clearance between the strut & rear trailing arm is very close. Any more than this and it'll likely rub. Check out @Felix 's RX he is running some wider wheels & tire setup than me with a lower offset in the 20s.
yeah I looked up the info on that website and it says it’s close to touching but I’m not sure if that can be said about my vehicle because the space from the wheel to the strut is closer than that of the website. So I’m thinking maybe I do have to lower the offset I just didn’t want the wheel poking out too much and didn’t want the wheels too look super wide from behind. In your pic it does look really close. Also I was thinking if it can’t be done then that’s fine maybe I’ll just lower the wideness of the wheel too to make it fit the car
Unfortunately there’s no good way to measure the distance in between the strut, but the rear trailing arm to rim can be used as a reference point.
Edit: Even with 18x8s there’s lots of room to go wider without sticking out
what tire size are you using? I’m not getting my wheels and tires from carid.com but I’m using them as an example; the biggest wheel and tire I can use from them that will fit exactly is a 19 x 8.5 wheel with a 255/50 tire and I can see how that works because it’s just a little bigger but for a wheel 10.5 wide that’s way bigger and idk if the wheel will hit the strut before it can even connects to the hub. I might see a mechanic soon for a different reason so I’m going to ask him. I called the Lexus dealer and spoke with a parts guy and he told me he couldn’t tell me that I’d have to look in the forums. The thing for me is I just don’t like the skinny wheel look from the back compared to the big body of the RX that’s why I want wider wheels and tires but evenly with the 35 offset
I hear ya, the car is a little heavy and big for 225s, the size I'm using is 245/50R18. The wider tires help cornering and look a lot better, but I mainly did it for the improved cornering and braking. Once you start getting into the 50 series profile there are also a lot more high performance summer tires available vs. crap touring all-seasons. 255/50R19 would be a great fit on these cars, would keep the speedo a lot more accurate than what I'm running for sure. You will be able to clear the rear spring perch too. If the mechanic is interested in wheel fitment / customization he might be able to answer the question, but most people I worked with could care less about those sort of things despite being mechanics. I would message @Felix he's running 255s I'm pretty sure, and his setup is not sticking out at all.
If you're going with a 19x8.5 or 9" I wouldn't go above a 30mm offset or else it may rub, optimally you'd want 25 which is what Felix is running on his. With my setup there is not even close to any rub even at full lock.
Unfortunately there’s no good way to measure the distance in between the strut, but the rear trailing arm to rim can be used as a reference point.
Edit: Even with 18x8s there’s lots of room to go wider without sticking out
Originally Posted by MattRX
I hear ya, the car is a little heavy and big for 225s, the size I'm using is 245/50R18. The wider tires help cornering and look a lot better, but I mainly did it for the improved cornering and braking. Once you start getting into the 50 series profile there are also a lot more high performance summer tires available vs. crap touring all-seasons. 255/50R19 would be a great fit on these cars, would keep the speedo a lot more accurate than what I'm running for sure. You will be able to clear the rear spring perch too. If the mechanic is interested in wheel fitment / customization he might be able to answer the question, but most people I worked with could care less about those sort of things despite being mechanics. I would message @Felix he's running 255s I'm pretty sure, and his setup is not sticking out at all.
If you're going with a 19x8.5 or 9" I wouldn't go above a 30mm offset or else it may rub, optimally you'd want 25 which is what Felix is running on his. With my setup there is not even close to any rub even at full lock.
yeah the 255/50 I think would look good because the 255 tire would be bigger than the 235 that I have now and that’s what I’m looking for just wouldn’t know if an even wider wheel would fit and I don’t want to lose money just to find out that it doesn’t. Because I’m carid.com the only sizes that are guaranteed are any diameter but the widest an 8.5 even tho there are way wider tires out there so maybe the 8.5 might be the widest that would fit but I will reach out to Felix to see what he says. And I know I can just imagine the mechanic worrying about other cars and doesn’t really have the same interest in wheels as me. Thanks for your help
Thanks, I didn't look into 255 size tires because I thought my rims might be a little narrow for them at 8" wide. I might have to go check out some older Acura MDXs because they came with 255 w/ 8" wide rims.
01-09-23, 10:58 PM
09’ RX 350 new wheel advice/help
