Wheels and tires

[Drew Dowdell]

So, I'm pretty good at engine work... and though I've never done it, I have a good understanding about transmissions. All the other general maintenance items around the car I'm pretty good with too.

Except wheels and tires. I'm completely retarded about them.

I don't understand what all the numbers for tire sizes are. I have only a vague idea of offsets on wheels. And can any 5 bolt wheel fit on any 5 bolt hub?!

If some of you would be so kind as to edumacate me. I'd be grateful.

P.S. Where this is eventually going is when I do buy an '85 Toronado I'd like to try and find a set of tasteful alloys that could fit the look of the car. I don't mind the standard wire spokes that come with it except they are strangely noisy. I'm not going to donk it, but I might want to go up to 16s or 17s.

[PurdueGuy]

So, I'm pretty good at engine work... and though I've never done it, I have a good understanding about transmissions. All the other general maintenance items around the car I'm pretty good with too.

Except wheels and tires. I'm completely retarded about them.

I don't understand what all the numbers for tire sizes are. I have only a vague idea of offsets on wheels. And can any 5 bolt wheel fit on any 5 bolt hub?!

If some of you would be so kind as to edumacate me. I'd be grateful.

P.S. Where this is eventually going is when I do buy an '85 Toronado I'd like to try and find a set of tasteful alloys that could fit the look of the car. I don't mind the standard wire spokes that come with it except they are strangely noisy. I'm not going to donk it, but I might want to go up to 16s or 17s.

There are different lug patterns, even within the same number of lugs, so no, a 5 bolt wheel may not fit any particular 5 bolt pattern. Being a Saturn S-Series guy, that's more what I know. So, for example, the S-Series has a 4X100 (I believe that's 100mm) pattern. This happens to be shared with a number of other cars, including the Ion, Civic, and many others. There are other patterns, though, which is why some aftermarket wheels have 8 lug holes in a square - it is made to fit two different 4-lug patterns. There can also be issues with offset, but I'm not sure I can explain that well, but even if a wheel has the same lug pattern, there is a chance it may still not fit right due to the offset.

[SuperSport623]

i know most older chevy cars, such as my nova for example, have a 5x4.75 bolt pattern, meaning 5 lugs, in a 4.75in circumfrence circle.... i m not sure about the toronado but it may be similar..

offset/backspacing is the space from the rear lip of the rim to the rear mounting face the hub bolts to.... so the offset determines how far in/out of the wheel well the rim sits.. when you see a car with the rim two inches past out the fender lip, the owner doesnt know about backspacing...

[siegen]

The lug pattern may be in inches or mm, depending on your car.

Civic = 4x100, some old Accords = 4x114.3. The stupid dealer who sold me my Integra (4x100) included an Accord (4x114.3) spare tire. lol

Tire sizes go like this: 225 55 16

225 is the width in mm, 55 is the sidewall height as a percentage of the width, and 16 is the size of the wheel in inches.

Edit: I hope my memory serves me.

Edited December 11, 2007 by siegen

[76ChevyTrucker]

you're right siegen. first number is width, second is aspect ratio, or the percentage of sidewall height to width, third number (typically has an R in front of it) is the actual center hole size in inches.