'sup everyone. I used to visit this site several years back but lost my login and password, so I've recently had to create a new one. Anyway, I've been out of the scene for a while, but was curious if anyone could offer some tire and rim recommendations. If you can believe it, I'm still using the stock ones at 49K+ miles. So I desperately need a change which I've been procrastinating, and I figured I'd upgrade with something a little more flashy.

I've got a Silver 02 WRX sedan. I suppose silver rims work best with a silver body; is that the consensus? I don't do racing/rallying or anything like that, just normal roads, so I don't need anything professional. Preferably all season type tires. I'd like to get 17" rims. Also, I'd like to keep my budget within $1.5k to $2k.

Searching for the right tire/rim combo is a bit overwhelming online and in specialty magazines. And honestly, I feel a bit lost when doing it. Anyone have any advise for where the best place is to look, or have specific recommendations? Thanks in advance for the help.

 

www.tirerack.com is a good place to start. They have a nice site where you can see the wheels they sell actually on your car. That'll give you an idea of what color/style you want, and then you can go from there...

 

Thanks VRWRX. That site really helped a lot.

If your curious, the following is what I have my eye on...
17x8 O.Z. Ultraleggera Bright Silver Paint
225/45WR17 Pirelli PZero Nero M&S Blackwall

 

hey if you get wheels you should lower your car a little bit.. maybe a h-tech spring drop... =)

 

+1 for the nero's, good tire, altough a little pricey

 

I would recomend not buying heavy wheels. The stock rims weigh 16.5lbs....

 

subie OCD, et. al.,
The O.Z. Ultraleggera rims are 17.4 lbs each. Only 0.9 lbs more for each wheel. I assume this added weight obviously affects acceleration and breaking a little bit. But will it make THAT much of a difference? I'm not necessarily trying to improve my 0-60 time. On the flip side, the bigger wheel diameter improves handling, right? Is this not a good trade off?

 

17.4 aint bad. You may or may not notice, depending on how in tune you are with your car. Handling will be MUCH better. I used to have 20lb 17's and hated them.

 

Hey if you want i can sell you my rims + tires. They are 18" Volk Racing CE28N Gunmetal w/ polished lip w/ 225/35/R18 Parada Spec II tires still has about 85% tread life on them. PM me if interested. I need to get rid of it

 

I went from stock wheels (02 WRX) to these...
17x8 O.Z. Ultraleggera Bright Silver Paint
225/45WR17 Pirelli PZero Nero M&S Blackwall

I got them at tirerack.com who installed the rims to the tires and balanced them before shipping. I then had a mechanic shop install the wheels. They told me to drive for about 25 miles, then come back to have the lugs tightened even further since they were brand new, which I did.

The wheels look great. I've got about 250 miles on them so far. However... when I drive at high speeds (over 55mph or so), sometimes it feels like the the car is wobbling and losing a bit of control, not driving straight. I've never had this problem before with the stock wheels. And it doesn't happen all the time. I'm a little puzzled and concerned what's causing this.

Has anyone ever had a similar experience, or know what might be happening? I'd appreciate any advice/opinion on this matter.

much thanks.

 

Pics!

Probably what you're feeling is the tire "tracking" with the pavement. I noticed it as well when I went with a wider tire. If you pay attention, I think you'll notice it more on the newer concrete surfaces with grooves, and on old asphalt.

 

Get front and rear strut bars. Get real, quality ones, not $20 "replicas" from eBay. This sounds like voodoo, but trust me on this. When you add wider wheels with that much grip, you are dramatically increasing the amount of force that is applied from the road to the suspension. The extra grip force that is being transferred is actually distorting your suspension geometry, and is twisting one (or both) of your wheels slightly out of line.

I have Whiteline front and rear strut bars on my 02 WRX, and it made a tremendous difference; no more highway wobbles, no more screeching tires going around corners. The WRX just doesn't have robust-enough strut mounts to handle the additional forces you get when you go to grippier tires and a wider contact patch.

 

Hey all! Sorry for the delay in reply. I wanted to make sure I had pics to show.

So since I last posted, I had a 50,200k service on my WRX, at which time I asked them to check that the wheels were balanced. Sure enough they were not, so I forked over $50 to have that fixed. Now, I don't notice the wobble in my drive anymore (maybe a very slight/suddle wobble at high speeds).

I guess you can't expect an online place like tirerack.com to balance the tires perfectly.

@meilers
Thanks for the recommendation on the strut bars. I'm still gonna look into that.

 

get some 17x8.5 wheels and 215/45 tires =X