Help installing 17" rims

Post by **Jey** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 4:13 pm

Hi everyone,

I'll be buying my first car (versa 1.8SL) next month. I like the car but I do want to make quite a few modifications to it. First of all, the wheels. The 15" ones look horrible in my opinion, so I want to get 17" tires/rims.

I'm not sure what exactly is involved in doing this. Before I go blindly to an autoshop and ask them for a quote, I was hoping someone can list out what I'd need to buy/install. And if something like this is doable myself.

I really don't have much experience with this kind of stuff, so the more details the better.

Thanks in advance.

Post by **CodeRed** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 7:54 pm

Welcome first of all!

As for wheels you would need a wheel with a bolt pattern or 4x114.3

A good wheel size would be 17 with a 40 through 42 offset ( i think 40 would sit a little more flush )

As for a tire you could get (what I got) 215/45/17 this setup allows a little lip around the actual wheel so in case you curbed it it probably would do too much damage.

You can also go to popular sites like tires.com tirerack.com they will give you a list of wheel and tire packages and usually offer free shipping and free mount and balance

For installation it should be something you can do yourself in under an hour. Simply jack up one of the four corners remove the stock wheel and replace lower and repeat.

Post by **Jey** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 4:56 am

Thanks a lot for that info, it really helped.

You mentioned that if you order from those sites you can get it mounted and balanced. Unfortunately I don't like any of their tire/wheel combination that are already mounted. If I order them separately, how hard would it be to do this myself?

Post by **Knightro2** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 5:04 am

You'd just have to take them to a shop to have them mounted and balanced....unless for some reason you have that equipment in your garage...which I highly doubt.

I check with Sears Auto when I was looking at getting rims. Their prices are very reasonable for that service. Plus, if you order the tires from their website...you can have them shipped directly to the shop's location and I believe it is free shipping then.

Post by **rafa2210** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 8:04 am

hey, two things, 1) I bought mine at maxwheel.com very good service, they sent bolt kit that came with everything i needed to install them.. did it myself (paid $40 to get them balanced and ready to go which also got me free shipping) in about 15min... 2) if you buy them online, do not get them balanced and ready to go! get everything u need but that. the reason is that in such case you wont be able to install the air pressure sensor in the new tires unless u go to a tire shop and dismount the tires and pay for balancing again.... that was my case, i have to deal with the light because i dont have my sensors on since i refuse to pay $100 to dismount the 8 tires to switch the sensors and balance again the new ones....

in my case i am waiting til i change the tires (most likely this year) to bring the sensors to be installed and get rid of the damn light....

hope it helped... btw 17" works perfect even after the lowering springs!!

Post by **Knightro2** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 8:06 am

rafa2210 wrote:the reason is that in such case you wont be able to install the air pressure sensor in the new tires unless u go to a tire shop and dismount the tires and pay for balancing again....

A very good point!

Post by **blindsnyper** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 1:47 pm

CodeRed wrote:
As for a tire you could get (what I got) 215/45/17 this setup allows a little lip around the actual wheel so in case you curbed it it probably would do too much damage.

on a 7" wide wheel. my brother has 7.5" wheels and 215/45-17, there is quite a bit of lip with that. he hit a curb with one and put a big scar in the wheel but didnt touch the curb with the tire.

Post by **CodeRed** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 5:13 pm

blind_snyper wrote:
on a 7" wide wheel. my brother has 7.5" wheels and 215/45-17, there is quite a bit of lip with that. he hit a curb with one and put a big scar in the wheel but didnt touch the curb with the tire.

Just don't hit the curb then? After one year my wheels are still uncurbed...

Post by **Jey** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 5:18 pm

Thanks for all the useful info. You guys are awesome!

Post by **#1Tango** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 2:01 pm

i learned something too

Post by **feloniousmonk** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 12:32 pm

CodeRed wrote: Just don't hit the curb then? After one year my wheels are still uncurbed...

If the tire is mounted and there is too much rim lip sticking out, sounds like the tire is too narrow. You can usually go a little wider without affecting the overall diameter by too much.

To the OP, you want to keep the overall diameter as close to stock as possible so that your speedometer reading doesn't change too much. Obviously, larger = slower speedometer reading. In general, and not saying for a fact that it's the case with the Versa, factory readings tend to be a little faster than speed observed via GPS. So, in general, it's OK to go a little larger. Use this http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html and bookmark it for future reference. If you really want to learn, search google on how to calculate tire size manually from the size markings on the tire (that's how we did it in the old days before the fancy internet was around).

You can order your rims and tires from different places (and likely end up paying more due to shipping). But you'd still need to go to a shop to have the tires mounted and balanced. Also, as mentioned, you'll need to either install new tire pressure sensors or swap the ones you already have over (pay for labor to unmount stock tires and remove/install sensors). Once that's out of the way, if you know how to turn a screw driver, you can mount the new wheels/tires on the car yourself. Just read up on it and do it properly, and most importantly, safely. If you don't know how to do that and rather not learn how, let the pros do it.

Post by **Demvang** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 1:48 am

I also thought about installing new 17" wheels. Those 15" OEM ones are nice but so small. Nissan should have an option for larger wheels. Thanks guys

Post by **Shad0wXCalibur** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 5:14 pm

Demvang wrote:I also thought about installing new 17" wheels. Those 15" OEM ones are nice but so small. Nissan should have an option for larger wheels. Thanks guys

They put 15"s on because the bigger the tire, the less rough of a ride. Nissan didn't intend the Versa to be a sporty car. But that's why we have tirerack.com and such or just get older Sentra SE-R wheels. I think the new SE-Rs are 5 lug but I could be wrong.