SE-R Wheels on Coupe - New Tires & Spacers?

[nurseryboy]

I have the SE-R wheels on my '08 coupe, with 225x45x18 Blizzaks on right now for the winter. But, I'm planning ahead a little and am trying to decide what I want to do for the summer.

1. The first question I have is 2 parts: Can I go to 235x45x18 on the SE-R wheels, and if I can, would it be worth it? Would the handling improve and would it be worth the extra $$?

2. There's a good chance I'll be moving to South Carolina this year, so I'm thinking summer tires (vs all season) are the way to go, but would there be any drawbacks to summer tires?

3. What are the brands I should be looking at? I'm on TireRack right now and I see the whole gammot. I'm not too familiar with the brands and quality, so any suggestions would be great.

4. Spacers.. When I first put on these wheels/tires, a few people recommended that I get spacers for the rears, but I've also heard people's reservations about them. Are there any safe ones to go with, or should I avoid them all-together? If they're ok, and you can tell anything by the pics below, what size should I consider?



I know it's a bunch of questions, but wheels/tires are not my thing, so any help from those who know would be really appreciated. Thanks! :

Matt
Modified by nurseryboy at 1:30 PM 4/7/2009

[alphapig]

1. 225x45x18 sounds fine to me, but fitting 235 shouldn't be a problem. I would stick with 225 just because they tend to cost less, though.

2. No idea, but I think Z rated all season tires are fine.

3. I love Dunlops, I'm running DZ101 225/45/18 and I absolutely love them. Many people here run Falken, those are cheaper for the most part and the quality is decent. I have bad feelings about cheaper tires like Kumho and Nexxen.

4. I actually just made a thread about this same topic. The SE-R wheels look great but the offset is way too high (is it +42?). I would recommend getting 10mm spacers for both front and back from reputable, non e-bay brands that provide new studs.

I'm looking at Ichiba. If you want to go 15mm or above you would need the bolt on spacers:

http://www.ichibausa.com/altima.html

If you want 5mm to 10mm they provide these ones, with longer and stronger studs:http://www.ichibausa.com/altimamurano02.html

Hope that helps!

[nurseryboy]

Thanks for the info man. I appreciate it.

I did a little more research on the SE-R wheels, and it looks like they're 18x8 with +45 offset, so yeah, they're in there quite a ways. Do you think I'd have any issues with either of the following two combinations?

225x45x18 with 10mm spacers

235x45x18 with 5mm spacers (could I go to 10mm even?)

(I have the Eibach Pro-Kit)

Thanks!

[beeristasty]

I'm running 245/45/18 summer rubber on 18x8 +48's with no issues since spring 08. The winters here are pretty tame... Only on the very rare occasion do we see a wintery mix that sticks to the ground - and when we do, everything closes down. No joke.

I'm kind of in the same boat regarding the spacers; thinking about 5 or 7mm for my setup.

[razah9]

I could use some advice myself on this subject. If I purchasedG37 19s with a 43 front & a 45 rear offset, what do you guysrecommend I do as for spacers?

Stock tires are 225/45WR19 front & 245/40WR19 rear.Front19 X 8-1/2JRear19 X 9J

While I'm at it, anyone know if my stock lug nuts will fit those wheels?

[Nate129]

I'd go with a 245/45/18 if I were you. More contact patch and still not too much sidewall.

[generic808]

235/45 is THE optimal size to run with the SE-R's. It gets you to factory spec as far as total diameter. I'm running 225/45's just because the tire options and price difference is huge.

[nurseryboy]

235/45 is THE optimal size to run with the SE-R's. It gets you to factory spec as far as total diameter.

Yeah, that's why I've made my final decision to go with 235/45's. I guess now I'd like some help in determining if I can do 5mm or 10mm spacers with 18x8 and +45 offset on 235's and a Pro-Kit drop. Anyone know if either will fit, and which would look best?

[alphapig]

Yeah, that's why I've made my final decision to go with 235/45's. I guess now I'd like some help in determining if I can do 5mm or 10mm spacers with 18x8 and +45 offset on 235's and a Pro-Kit drop. Anyone know if either will fit, and which would look best?

Of course. There will be absolutely no rubbing with 5, 10, even 15mm spacers.

I would recommend 10mm spacers. Make sure they come with longer studs.

H&R TRAK+ are good, not sure if they come in Altima specifications though.

Or, like I posted earlier, ICHIBA are available.

I ordered the ICHIBA 10mm spacers, but I won't be able to get them installed for another month.

[nurseryboy]

Ok, cool. Yeah, I have the ICHIBA site you gave me bookmarked, and will probably buy from them. (I haven't found any H&R's that are specified as fitting the coupe.)

Did you go 10mm front and back, or just back? At least on my car, the fronts don't seem too bad, it's the rear wheels that look tucked in too much. Don't know if I should do just the rear, or 10mm rear and 5mm front, or just go 10mm all around, haha.

[alphapig]

I got 10mm for both front and back.

It's FWD, so I wouldn't want to stagger the rear. Seems pointless.

[marvin5087]

245/45/18 ...just to fill in that gap in the wheel well

[nurseryboy]

So, I just got my new tires and wheel spacers installed yesterday. I went with 235x45x18's, and 10mm Ichiba spacers. The wheel spacers definitely make a big difference in looks. The car looks much more aggressive and has a better stance. (I'll take pictures for comparison but it's overcast out right now.)

The only thing is now around 60 mph the steering wheel loosens a little and I get a little vibration through it (more mph or less mph it isn't noticeable), and the car seems to pull to the right some (while driving, not braking, and not all the time, so I don't know if it's just the slant of the road w/ new tires or what). Checked pressure in all tires and they're good, so I'm guessing the vibration is most likely a balance issue? Don't know what the pulling would be.

[alphapig]

The vibration would most likely be a balance issue.

[nurseryboy]

Yeah, so I was talking to a mechanic friend of mine today (asking if he'd take a look at the balance), and he said with 18" and wheel spacers he couldn't do much more than the place that mounted/balanced the tires initially. He said I should try to find a place that could road force balance them. Does this sound like a possibility? I'm not that familiar with balancing with 18"s and wheels spacers.. Thanks.

[nurseryboy]

Quick update.. I just got my car back from getting the wheels/tires road force balanced, and it has made a huge difference. I don't feel any vibration and all, and the steering feels firmer at all speeds. I've only put about 20 miles on since, but so far so good!

[saywat]

most people running ser rims are running 245/40 btw

[bravey_z12]

hi alphawhere is ur post about after installed spacer on ur car pic?i thought i seen it ,now couldn't find itplz need help

[alphapig]

hi alphawhere is ur post about after installed spacer on ur car pic?i thought i seen it ,now couldn't find itplz need help

http://forums.altimas.org/zerothread?id=415994

[bravey_z12]

thanks alpha appreciate ur help!

[desertdragon]

please post the pics of the wheels with spacers

So, I just got my new tires and wheel spacers installed yesterday. I went with 235x45x18's, and 10mm Ichiba spacers. The wheel spacers definitely make a big difference in looks. The car looks much more aggressive and has a better stance. (I'll take pictures for comparison but it's overcast out right now.)

The only thing is now around 60 mph the steering wheel loosens a little and I get a little vibration through it (more mph or less mph it isn't noticeable), and the car seems to pull to the right some (while driving, not braking, and not all the time, so I don't know if it's just the slant of the road w/ new tires or what). Checked pressure in all tires and they're good, so I'm guessing the vibration is most likely a balance issue? Don't know what the pulling would be.

[nurseryboy]

Sorry about that. I posted them in another thread and forgot to update this one. You can see the pics here: http://forums.altimas.org/zero...46401

[desertdragon]

Sorry about that. I posted them in another thread and forgot to update this one. You can see the pics here: http://forums.altimas.org/zero...46401

Thank you. I was hoping to see better comparison pics.Question: How do they do road forced balance?

Sorry for my ignorance...

[nurseryboy]

Yeah.. I was stupid and didn't take very good "before" shots, so it's kind of hard to get a good comparison shot now

Road force balancing, from what I understand, actually puts the wheels/tires under load (weight) to simulate actual driving conditions, and then balances everything based on that. (The weight of the car on the wheels/tires can apparently affect balance too. Makes sense I guess.)

[desertdragon]

Thank you! I am very tempted to add spacers in my car.

Regarding Road forced balancing: I googled it and below is what I found from a Tundra forum:quote"You have to remove the wheel and tire from the vehicle to have it road force balanced. What the machine does is spin the wheel/tire slowly while pressing a roller against the tread with about 1400 pounds of force. It measures the "loaded runout" of the wheel/tire combination. Then it measures, using other rollers, the runout of the wheel where the bead seats. Then it instructs the user to mark the tire and the wheel, remove them from the machine, break the beads loose, rotate the tires on the wheel to match the marks, then re-inflate and re-mount the wheel/tire on the machine. Then it spins it again to measure the results, then spins it up so balance weights can be applied in the usual manner.

OK, now what's it REALLY doing?

It models the wheel bead mounting surface as a circle that is not necessarily concentric with the rotational axis of the wheel. For the technically literate, that's the first order radial harmonic. It models the tire as a circle that's not necessarily concentric with its beads. It then computes how to mount the tire on the wheel so that the "high spot" of the tire is at the "low spot" of the wheel. Again for the technically literate, it puts the first order harmonic of the tire out of phase with the first order harmonic of the wheel such that they cancel as much as possible.

What that does is minimize the net loaded radial runout of the wheel/tire combination. In layman's terms, it makes the tread surface, under load, as round as possible, relative to the axis of rotation of the wheel.

Does it work? Absolutely. Very expensive machines are used to do the same thing with the tires and wheels that are mounted on new vehicles at the factory. The Hunter GSP9700 does it just as well and it does it in a tire shop. Ask Michelin -- their engineers bought the first six of them Hunter produced.

You can road force balance wheels at any time. I've done it with my own tires at 50,000+ miles. Tires sometimes change their loaded runout with wear, and road force balancing can improve their performance. " end quote.

Yeah.. I was stupid and didn't take very good "before" shots, so it's kind of hard to get a good comparison shot now

Road force balancing, from what I understand, actually puts the wheels/tires under load (weight) to simulate actual driving conditions, and then balances everything based on that. (The weight of the car on the wheels/tires can apparently affect balance too. Makes sense I guess.)

[nurseryboy]

I'm very happy with the spacers. I think it made a nice and noticeable change to the car's appearance.

I'm also sold on the road force balancing. I wouldn't recommend it if you don't have issues with a normal balance, but if you still have vibrations, etc, I'd definitely recommend it. It was like night and day for me.