Wheels advice

[joeczucha]

OK lads, found some wheels for a nova but it says "38 mm offset (should be 45-49mm but can be machined to correct offset by new owner)"... there pretty reasonable but is this gonna be effort? They are 16inch but i'm a complete beginner and wanna know if this is gonna be possible or expensive for a garage. And will i need to roll my arches?

[Ben (lurk75)]

IMO i wouldnt bother it sounds like a lot of hassle. ET38 is what i belive that fords are, wich will mean that they are also the wrong stud pattern.

If they are not then machining the wheels to creat another offset is acheivable but as soon as you start doing things like this you are going to be seriously weakening the wheels as the middle is the most important part of the wheel. If they make a fault when doing it you have just lost a wheel. For the price of the job and the hassle it probably wouldnt end up being any different cost wise than buying a set of et45-49 16" wheels.

Just another point 16" tyres are dearer than 15" and 17".

Hope this helps.

[Aragorn]

yeh - i wouldnt even attmpt to machine a set of mass produced alloy wheels

high quality ones for rallycars or summat maybe but not mass produced commercial ones

ET38 with 4x100 stud pattern is the VW Golf parameters fords are 4x108 iirc

ive got ET38's on mine, they are only 15" tho and its not really "bad" tbh

some funny quirks when driving on uneven and adverse cambered roads where car tries to snatch directions under accelleration

but overall they are fine

the main issues are arch clearance and the extra pressure on the suspension components and wheel bearings

mine are fine with a 40mm drop but its a saloon and they have bigger arches - the rears will rub if i put 3 folk in the back - so i aint gonna be putting 3 fiolk in the back till i get my arches rolled