I was wondering fromt he SC gurus on this forum are the 2005-2006 "Starfish" style wheel hubcaps interchangeable with the 2002 "circular look" hubcaps?


Any tips you could share with me will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

yes they are interchangeable

 

You guys rock.... I think I'd like to pick up a set of these 18x8 stock wheels for my 91 LS400

 

I've got a 2005 SC430 that came with both the star wheel covers and the pie-shaped ones. Although I know that every new car came with wheel covers as an "option" which of the two is the "option"? Virtually every other SC I see has the pie-shaped ones. I personally like (and use) the star ones, although, to be honest, both are rather cheap for a $65K car.

 

i believe starting 05 more and more sc430 get the 5 star one, and later on all are switched the 5 star. when i got my car i wasn't even given that "option" to choose. but thank god i got the 5 spoke

 

Now if only the sc guys in the wheels classfieds section would actually get back to me on their posts!!!!

 

Henry, does it even matter what wheels came stock on your SC? We all know you're just going to put on some fat 20's anyways

 

I just picked a set of starfish on ebay for my '02 and they were a breeze to put on. It's a much better look imho.

 

I was about to say that LOL!!!!

 

Romini-
So you're saying that the pie-plates were the "option" until 2005 and then became the starfish?

 

No, Mikey, you've got it backwards.

When the car came out in Spring of '01, all cars came with the pie plates. That's why you see them on 95% or more of the SC430s on the road.

Lexus put out the optional wheel covers with the star pattern in July of '03 (more or less), probably in response to negative consumer feedback about the originals. At this time, the new covers were a part, not an option, which means that you bought the car with the pie plates on the wheels, and if you wanted the much better looking star pattern covers, you bought them for about $400.00 extra.

As buyers caught on, the dealers would offer them as an option on new cars, and then finally Lexus made it a choice with all new cars.

This year the wheels are all different, and I don't know if they are new wheel covers that would fit the earlier wheels or not. I think the pie plate style is not put on any of the new cars that are for sale now, although I could be wrong about that.

My car is a very early '02 purchased in April of '01. I put the replacements on when they became available, and much prefer the look. I still have the original pie plates which are in pretty good shape, considering they were on the car for 2 years (maybe 6,000 miles). Eventually I'll get around to putting them up on eBay unless someone makes me an offer.

All you need is an Allen wrench and 15 minutes to make the change.

 

yes i think tfischer is right, that sounds like the history of the wheels

for 06, they have changed wheels (again, but still bad) for the car, it has no covers anymore, just a complete allow wheel setup.

and jay, wrong tense, i "was"!!!! i have been on 20s for a long time! even when we met last time!!!!!

anyway, the 5 spoke was actually "slowing" me down coz' when my wife saw them she was like "oh ok, good, i can live with these for a little while". before we got our car she said if she's getting pie plates, we need to get 20s right the way @_@

 

the 06 has two tone wheels. the construction is a 5-spoke cast aluminum with a painted 5-spoke steel cover to make it two tone. it looks much better than the pie ones, but still a joke for a car costing close to 70k. it's ugly and weighs a ton, 54lbs each with the run flat.

 

the rim is not the problem, the tire is the heavy part. change it to non-runflats and it's a lot lighter already

and actually a lot of stock wheels (for example the 17s on my gs400), they weigh high 40lb as well

 

the weight differential between standard and runflat is about 3 lbs per corner. the run flat weighs about 30lbs. a light weight standard tire such as Goodyear F1 weighs only 25 lbs. combine that with a ultra light weight wheel such as SSR competition( 16-17 lbs?), a total weight of 41-42 lbs can be achieved. theoretically, reduced unsprung weight will make the car perform better in terms of acceleration and reflex, but i am not sure the average driver will be able to sense the improvement.