Which alloys fit my car

If you opt for a set, remember not to bump up and down any curbs! Fitting alloy wheels to your car is classed as a modification, so you need to let your insurer know about it. Depending on your current premium, this could affect the price you pay, and not usually for the better. Want to find out which alloy wheels fit on your car? There are a couple of ways to search for alloys, so you can quickly find compatible makes and models that will fit your car.

Below, we take a look at the different options when buying a set of alloy wheels. If you already know what size alloys you want, searching by size is the simplest way to browse a wide range of compatible options.

Your car registration number is by far the easiest and most accurate way to find alloy wheels for your car. Use an acid-free cleaner like Ultracare Alloy Cleaner to remove dirt without corrosion.

You can read more in our guide to caring for wheels and tyres. At Simoniz, our car care products make it easy to look after your pride and joy — from its paintwork to its alloy wheels. For more information and to view our product range, visit the homepage today. What Are Alloy Wheels? Are Wheels and Rims the Same Thing? Hoping to give a new look to an old friend? Perhaps you've picked up a project and have a vision in your mind for your rolling stock of choice?

Either way, the big question is, what wheels will fit my car? We explain all below. No, we don't mean they look different that bit is pretty obvious but what we do mean is wheels come in different sizes and also in different fitments.

Both of these factors must be taken into account when choosing your next set of wheels. There are a few tricks to work around this in some cases, but we'll come to that later. Depending on the style you are going for with your vehicle, will depend on the wheel size, namely the diameter that you choose. To keep things simple you ideally want your new wheels to have the same 'rolling radius' as your old ones.

This doesn't mean you can't have bigger wheels, but what it will mean is you need to adjust your tyre profile accordingly. This will not only ensure that your wheels physically fit under your wheel arches, but also that your speedo and gearing remains about right. A great online resource to help calculate this is www. When fitting smaller wheels it is likely you'll reduce your rolling radius significantly. This not only throws your speedo out but will make your car sit much lower to the ground, which whilst it looks cool will make your chassis components much more prone to damage from speed bumps etc.

We won't go too far into this very grey area as it treads a fine line between aesthetics, legality and safety. However, if you are wanting to fit wider wheels onto your vehicle, you might find the only way to get the wheel and tyre to sit under the arch is to use a stretched tyre.

Basically, this is a tyre that is meant for a much thinner wheel, but when fitted to a wider wheel pulls the sidewall inwards, reducing the rolling radius and potentially avoiding contact with the wheel arch. There are two ways to buy new wheels. Either you find a shortlist of wheels that will bolt on to your car, and pick one of those - you can search for wheels by vehicle type on our website.

Or you find the wheels you want and you make them fit. The majority of car enthusiasts will take the easier option, which is finding a wheel which will bolt straight on. What do we mean by this? In short, the number of bolts or nuts which attach your wheel to your car. Once you have counted the wheel bolts, or nuts used to attach each wheel, you will need to know the distance between them or the diameter of the circle on which they sit. If you get this wrong you won't be able to physically attach the wheel to the vehicle, so every other measurement will become insignificant anyway.

You can find out your PCD by measuring, checking if it is stamped or cast into your old wheel, or cross-referencing our list below which covers the majority of vehicles we sell parts for.

Another factor to consider is the Centre Bore of the wheel. This is the large central hole in the middle of the wheel, often covered by a branded centre cap. If you buy new wheels from a specialist they will ensure this is not an issue, either supplying a wheel which is a direct fit or providing a set of 'spigot rings' which sit into the centre bore of the wheel to ensure a snug fit on the hub of your car.

If you choose a wheel that is too small, then it won't fit. If you go too large then it could try and move around while you are in motion. Typically these wheels will be around ET35 offset making most of them interchangeable between models. We'll cover offset in more detail a moment. Unusually, the Porsche 2. Going from running steel wheels to a set of alloys? This means that they can eventually chew through the bit of the alloy responsible for holding them to your hubs! Not good at all!

As before, check out the section of our site on Wheel Nuts and Bolts to see what we stock. We sell lightweight wheel nuts and bolts that can save you a few extra all-important grams. The main issues here occur if you change the rolling radius of your wheelset. Not only can this make your car look strange especially in the case of an increased ride height , but you can run into issues with tyre and wheel arch contact or even parts of your car scraping on the floor in extreme cases!

We sell a full range of suspension tuning products that can help to offset these issues — as well as making your car look and handle great.

For more information on performance suspension, check out the article we link to in the previous paragraph! Unlike, say, a bicycle tyre, car tyres are not something that most of us would be wanting to fit ourselves in the shed! Balancing car wheels correctly requires expensive specialist equipment, and unless you fancy doing this four times on your brand new rims, we recommend that you get them machine-fitted too!

Rather than yoink the tyres on with a piece of angle iron, professionals like our technicians use a special tyre-fitting machine. A new valve is pulled through the hole in the rim from the outside, and then the tyre is placed over the wheel.

The tyre machine turns the wheel slowly, and it has an arm — which pushes the bead of the tyre over the rim without actually touching the metal. Another arm of the machine is then used to press the second bead of the tyre over the rim. The wheel is bolted on to a balancing machine through its centre bore and spun at a high rpm like in the photo above. A computer in the machine is able to pick up on any imbalances in the wheel from this, and indicates to the technician where weight needs to be applied.

See above for an example of this — you can hardly even see the weights from the inside of the wheel! When the balancing is done, the wheels are ready to be bolted on to the car. This means that you might want to consider making them look a bit better! The cheapest and simplest way to do this is to spruce them up with some brake caliper paint , but if you want to go all out then you could consider some performance brake discs or even a big brake kit! Finally, whilst all four of your tyres are off the car, why not take the opportunity to have a tyre pressure monitoring system TPMS fitted?

These things really do save lives as well as cars, expensive wheels and Armco! Is there anything you can think of that we missed? Until next time, take it easy! Can I fit slightly wider tyres om Range Rover to stop the new alloys getting scuffed?

Thanks Nick. Hi Nick, You could get some with rim protector bands. Got a mad one for you. I have a vw camper all standard. Is this possible and can you tell me how. I would love a little stance too. Will the Team Dynamics Pro Race 1. Thanks for your help. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Changing the size of your wheels When picking out a new set of wheels, the first thing that most people will think about after the style is the size.

Decreasing the size of your wheels Smaller rims have never been as popular as large ones, but there is a lot to be said for them in the right situation. Aspect ratio 40 The aspect ratio is the height of the sidewalls of the tyre expressed as a percentage of the section width.

Rim diameter 18 The rim diameter is the size of wheel that the tyre will fit onto — measured in inches. How do you calculate rolling radius? Find aspect ratio This will generally be the next figure in the size printed on the side of your tyre. Calculate sidewall height For this, you need your section width and aspect ratio figures. Offset defined and explained Offset. Check out the diagram below and read on: Ok, so, first things first.

Centre bore The centre bore of a wheel is something fairly self-explanatory, but not everyone realises just how important it is. Wheel nuts and bolts Going from running steel wheels to a set of alloys?