Wheels & Rims
The growing popularity for car improvements gave the rise for the whole new industry of car accessories appeared. The list contains various products that both add functionality to a vehicle and increase its general appearance. Alloy car wheel and rims are among the most popular car accessories recommended for an excellent customize as they are considered superior in quality when compared with other kinds of car wheels that exist on the present day market, including those rims tires made from steel.
Today one can find a huge stock of car wheels produced of various resistant materials such as magnesium or aluminum. By implementing alloy wheels, you can greatly improve the exterior appearance of any vehicle. Wonder, what can these custom car wheels have to offer? Then you should know that they have groovy designs, finishes and styles that do not need any additional paint coats or. Alloy wheel and rims represent the perfect selection for those who are sick of steel wheels. Also you can certainly understand that alloy car wheels provide a number of benefits in terms of car performance and speed level. When equipped with such accessories, your car will run better, allowing you to benefit more from driving.
When buying a set of alloy car wheels, there are several important aspects you need to make sure in order at to see whether that custom wheels will fit your vehicle. The first is the Pitch Circle Diameter (or PCD), then there is the offset, also referred as the ET (from the German 'Einpresstiefe' - 'insertion depth') and the other is the spigot size.
Talking about Pitch Circle Diameter you should consider the car wheel and in particular the holes where the bolts hold the wheel to the car. If you take a compass and draw a circle that passes through the centre of the bolt holes then the diameter of this circle will the Pitch Circle Diameter that is measured in millimeters. Although the PCD precisely refers to the diameter of this circle, the PCD specification for a set of alloy wheels will also tell you the number of bolt which usually equals to 4 or 5. So if a wheel has a diameter of 150mm and has 5 bolt holes, the PCD specification will read as 5x150. This does not however mean that the car rims from one model that have a PCD of 5x150 will match for sure another model that has the same PCD. This may be caused due to the different spigot size.
On most after-market alloy wheels, the spigot hole will be bigger than the spigot on the wheel hub. The spigot is located in the centre of the wheel hub and is what holds the wheel in place while you locate the bolt holes. It would be possible to attach a wheel to a wheel hub without a correctly fitting spigot, although it would be tricky to hold in place while screwing in the bolts. To get around this you will need to use a spigot ring, this fits over the spigot on the wheel hub to increase the size to fit correctly within the spigot hole on the inside of the alloy wheel. This would not be advisable for another reason though. The other purpose of the spigot is to carry most of the weight of the vehicle. If it did not fit correctly all the weight of the car would carried by the bolts, which are not designed to do this. They would likely sheer off if you drove the car too hard or braked too heavily.
The offset is the measurement between the centre of the wheel and the bolt face. There are 2 types of offset: a positive offset, where the bolt face is closer to the outside edge of the car wheel than the centre of the wheel, and a negative, where the bolt face is closer to the inside edge of the wheel than the centre of the wheel. Therefore, if you put a wheel on your car that has a bigger positive offset than the previous one, the wheel will sit further in towards the car. And alternatively, if the positive offset is smaller, or even changed from a positive to a negative offset, the wheel will sit further out from the car. For performance purposes you can improve grip and traction by going for wider wheels and tires, but in order to do this you will need to go for wheels with a smaller offset to allow for the extra width in the wheel arch. If you went for wider wheels that had too high an offset, the tires would probably make contact with the inside of the wheel arch, causing damage to both the tire and the arch.
As a car owner, you have every right to look for something that fits your vehicle perfectly. Fortunately, online you can find an impressive selection of car wheels, including when it comes to those that are made from strong alloys. Ultimately, unless you are planning on buying some second-hand wheels and tires, or having them handed down to you, you will probably be buying them from a professional store, either in person or online. The best advice is simply to ask the experts, they will know exactly what PCDs, spigots, offsets and wheel/tires sizes will be appropriate for your car.
