trying to buy rims, but confused by offest choice

[paulp]

i have a 98 240sx se and i wanted to buy rims that are 18x7.5, the rims that i am looking at offer it with an offest of 48 or 42. i read about the offset in the other posting, but couldn't undersand what would fit the car best. please let me know what would be the best fit. can i fit either of them and there will not be much of a difference.

[BadMojo]

The resident suspenion gurus can explain this much better than I ever could, but suffice it to say that neither are good offsets for a 7.5" wheel on a 240SX. Perhaps it would fit, but it wouldn't look good, IMO.

See below for an explanation of offset.

zerothread?id=81407

I'd hazard a guess that the wheel guys are gonna say look for something like +30 or +35.

[Bronze MFP]

I had 7.5" wheels on the front and rear of my car. Both were 32 offset, and I had some gap in the rear that looked fugly IMO. Offset is just how far off the mounting hub is placed from the centerline of the wheel. So the larger the number, the futher away the hub will sit, and the wheel will be brought into the wheel well more, creating that gap everyone wants to get rid of. For a 7.5" wide wheel, mojo is right, you would want an offset that is down in the 30's or lower. here are some pics of my 7.5" wide 32 offset front, and 8.5" 37offset rear wheels. You can see i have a little room to play with.

http://www.tirerack.com/wheels...d=101thats a good page explaining offset. The only thing they don't mention is that most of the wheels you will find today are not going to be negative offset. All are positive offset readings. Even then, an offset in the low 10's to 20's can still give you that deep dish look, if you're going for that.

[chmercer]

bronze pretty much nailed the offset explination. but yea, just to echo, thoes wheels would totally suck on any car besides an accord