drivslo

hey guys just wondering wat size wheels are most people puttin on there GS300 i wanna lower mine heaps for like shows and **** but i dont wanna put to bigger wheels on so i cant lower it that much cause it will scrub , i might even be putting bags on it so any suggestion would be great thanks guys . matt

drivslo

im thinking like this any idea what size they are 20 .22 any feed bak to this would be great as i am new thanks guys

GS300Rich

Most people go with either 19s or 20s. Not sure what size those are in the pic but you can fit 20s and lower the car with no problems, as long as you have the proper offsets. Good luck

drivslo

thanks alot mate , just wanna make sure when i do lower it the camber on the rear comes in so the wheels fits under the guard , like on that pic hope fully some more feed back would be sweet thanks

GS300Rich

Im sure there will be others that chime in that will tell you the exact offset to use. I think around +35 or so is good to be able to tuck in the rear. Are you going with an air suspension setup?

GATO

iTrader: (1)

I believe the ones on the black car are 19x9F and 19x10R

drivslo, as far as the front, the widest width I've seen is 19x9.5 F with offsets in the high 30's.

or you can push a 19x9 F with a offset of 16 to 24 with some minor fender mods.

as for rear on a 19x10 i'd do a +15 for an aggressive stance and still tuck when dumped.

aloha08isf

iTrader: (2)

if you want straight up performance 18
personally i like 19s and 20s
dont even think about going 21 or bigger...I'll just keep it at that

drivslo

thanks heaps guys , yeah im puttin air bags on it , not to keen on the performance side of it just wanna make it look sweet , not sure if some of you guys are from australia but i hardly ever see done up GS , but ill try the 20x10 with a +15 on the rear and with a 20x9 on the front not sure on the offset though with 20 any idea for the front , thanks alot for the feed back great help

SSK0771

Those offsets are too aggressive. Even for SC430.

Here it is.

http://www.lgwnorcal.com/articles/WheelFitment.shtml

Wheels and Tires Fitment Guide

98-05 GS300/400/430
01-05 IS300
02+ SC430

Author: rominl

Creation Date: 3/2/2004

Modify Date: 10/26/2005 (SC430 information)

Introduction

After modifying my 1998 GS400 over the past 19 months, I have learned a great deal of information about the car and aftermarket parts. It's amazing just how many stuff you can find out there for the 2nd generation GS. If you are willing to spend the time and effort you can easily build up a GS that's not only special but unique.

Among all the parts I have put on my car, wheels are definitely one area that requires tons of study and research in order to get a setup that's perfect for your taste and style. Make one mistake and you can be stuck with wheels that don't fit well, rub, or even hit your brakes. It's very different from getting other parts for the car, where you just decide on the model and that's it. With wheels, you have to decide on the diameter, width, offset, and disk type. On top of that for the tires you also run into the same problems on tires as well.

I have had countless of people coming to me and ask about the fitments for their cars, so I have decided to compose this guide, which hopefully can give some pictures on how you should choose a fitment for your car. Please note that I am just speaking from my experience so sometimes I could be wrong or the setup isn't perfect.

Definitions

First of all I want to go over some definitions, some of them are official and some of them are just my terms. But I think they are very helpful.

First of all is offset. If you have no idea what wheel offset is, please read the link from TireRack below. It's extremely helpful:

TireRack Offset Description

Offset is definitely the most important area when it comes to choosing your wheels, and it goes side by side with the widths of the wheels.

Another thing to keep in mind is the disk type. This is very crucial when you plan to have big brakes on your car. Keep in mind, if you want to see whether big brakes (Brembo, AP Racing, Stoptech, Endless) will fit under the wheel, the disk type of the wheel is the more important. Offset might have something to do with it but disk type is the most important. You need high disk setup in order to clear the huge brake calipers. With medium or low disk setup you will probably get more lips on the wheels but most likely you won't be able to fit any big brakes.

Most people with wheels they lower their cars as well. There are a lot of way to measure how much a car is lowered, but when it comes to lowering and wheels fitment, I think the "finger gap" theory works pretty good (mainly because overall diameter of the wheel with tires could be different from a setup to another, and the wheel gap (the gap between the top of the tire and the fender) is what determines whether you might rub or not.

I would measure the wheel gap by finding out how many finger(s) you can stick in the wheel gap by placing your finger(s) horizontally. This is important, horizontal, not tilted or angled. Usually each finger is about ½ inch from my experience (of course each person's fingers are different, but this is a good ballpark). So say you have 1 finger gap that means you have about ½ inch gap, if you have 2 then it's about 1 inch gap.

Last definitions would be fender rolling and trimming/shaving. Often times when you want to put on aggressive setup on the car, you are required to work on the fender a little bit in order to avoid rubbing (when the wheels get way too close to the fender). On the GS and the IS, I strongly suggest trimming or shaving the fender rather than rolling. Rolling fenders on the GS and IS could be very risky since you might easily crack the paint, while shaving you can get the same result but it would be very easy to control and it is harder to crack the paint. There will be another article about fender trimming and shaving on the GS and IS.

GS wheels fitment

The stock GS 17" wheels, as far as I know, are 17x8 with 235/45/17. I have owned two sets of aftermarket wheels for the car, 19" VolkRacing AV3 19x8.5 +38 front and 19x9.5 +38 rear, and now I have the 20" HRE 540R 20x8.5 +32 front and 20x10 +43 rear. I would classify my 19" setup as a conservative setup as it doesn't flush totally with the fender but have zero rubbing issue, whereas with the HRE, the setup is very aggressive and is flush perfect with the fender, but has slightly rubbing which was fixed relatively easy.

The following are the wheel sizes that I would suggest for the GS (if you don't want to have a staggered setup, just put whatever for the front in the back). When I say the setup is conservative, it means you don't have to do any fender modification. When I say aggressive, that means you probably have to do the rolling or shaving. And in the case of professional, then some major suspension changes would have to be made in order to fit the wheel, and should be left to professionals hence I won't go over how here.

18" Difficulty
18x8 +32 18x9 +32 conservative
18x8.5 +38 18x9.5 +38 conservative
18x8.5 +38 18x10 +44 conservative
18x8.5 +32 18x10 +42 aggressive
18x9 +38 18x10 +42 aggressive
18x9 +35 18x10 +35 professional
19" Difficulty
19x8 +32 19x9 +32 conservative
19x8.5 +38 19x9.5 +38 conservative
19x8.5 +38 19x10 +44 conservative
19x8.5 +32 19x10 +42 aggressive
19x9 +38 19x10 +42 aggressive
19x9 +35 19x10 +35 professional

20" Difficulty
20x8.5 +38 20x9.5 +38 conservative
20x8.5 +38 20x10 +44 conservative
20x8.5 +32 20x10 +42 aggressive
20x9 +38 20x10 +42 aggressive
20x9 +35 20x10 +35 professional

** on 20" wheels for the GS, keep in mind that the wheels are out of spec so the overall diameter is off by about 6%. Your speedometer would be off, meaning that when the speedometer says 80mph, you are actually going at around 85mph already. Plus, because of the 1" larger diameter overall compared to 18" or 19" (with tires), you have to be careful with your lowering. From my experience, if you lower your car to 2 fingers, provided that you have the correct offset, you shouldn't rub (or very slightly) the top of the wheel well. If you go 1½ finger gap or less, when going over uneven road or dips, you will most likely rub the top part of the wheel well. Over time you will see part of the rubber wheel well flap got rubbed away. Moreover, with 20", you will rub when you put your steering wheel at full lock (either left or right) and mostly when backing up. This is due to the bigger diameter and when you turn, you rub the front and back of the wheel well (this is one reason why 20" are the biggest rims you can put on the GS with reasonable widths).

When it comes to tires for the GS, the following setup are preferred:


Wheel Size Tires Within Spec?
18x8 235/40/18 245/40/18 yes
18x8.5 245/40/18 yes
18x9 245/40/18 255/40/18 yes
18x9.5 275/35/18 yes
18x10 275/35/18 285/35/18 yes
19x8 235/35/19 245/35/19 yes
19x8.5 245/35/19 yes
19x9 245/35/19 255/35/19 yes
19x9.5 275/35/19 yes
19x810 275/30/19 285/30/19 yes
19x8 235/40/19 245/40/19 no (fat setup)
19x8.5 245/40/19 no (fat setup)
19x9 245/40/19 255/40/19 no (fat setup)
19x9.5 275/35/19 no (fat setup)
19x10 275/35/19 285/35/19 no (fat setup)
20x8.5 245/35/20 no
20x9 245/35/20 255/35/20 no
20x9.5 275/30/20 no
20x10 275/30/20 285/30/20 no

Keep in mind different brands of tires, even with the same profile, will be different too. So for very marginal setup (read: aggressive), the tires might provide the 1 or 2mm that makes all the difference. Tires like the Bridgestone SO3 and Dunlop P9000 are very rounded and "meaty". The rounded corners will help to avoid rubbing. On the other hand, from my experience, Nitto, Pirelli, Yokohama, etc... tires are very "square" so they might enhance the rubbing factor.

drivslo

that help me out heaps with that thanks alot mate , i have a better understanding now on what offset i need now to lower it a heap but still not to sure if i lower with my bags when i park or for a show with 20x8.5 +32 and 20x10+42 i really wanna get the car right over the tyres like in the pic up the top if i cant i might have to go 19's . but if it will still come right over the wheel with 20's when i hit the stops i wanna get them , if any one has bags with 20's or no anything about that that would be great as well thanks heaps for the info i wanna get it down like this one