If you own a car, you’ll eventually need to buy new tires. Whether you’re buying them because you need them or buying them for the aesthetic, you’ll need to know if they’ll fit on your car. You likely have some knowledge about tires, but if you don’t, you shouldn’t feel bad. Many people buy their car without knowing much about their tires, and that’s why there are professionals that can help you. The easiest thing to do is go to a professional who can help you find the tires that you need, but if you don’t have access to a professional immediately, then here’s more information on how you can know what wheels from other vehicles will fit your car.
What Wheels From Other Vehicles Will Fit Your Car
Wheels play an important part in your car’s function and design. If you don’t choose the correct Wheels then you might have wheels that look out of place on your car and they will disturb your driving. You can swap your room with one from another vehicle if you want to.
However, before you do this you have to think about several factors such as the size, central bore, bolt pattern, and offset on both of the rims. Both sides should have matching features and your wheels that you got from the other car should look very similar to the ones in your car. Here’s some more information about choosing wheels from another vehicle to fit your car.
Things to Think About Before Choosing Wheel
Bolt Pattern
The first thing you want to think about is the bolt pattern. If you want to change the wheel on your car, you can’t ignore this factor. If you use the wrong design, the replacement rims will look out of place on your vehicle. This is why you need to choose one that’s very similar so that you can have the perfect fit for your car.
If you’re wondering what the bolt pattern is, it’s the actual bolts, which are otherwise known as lugs or wheel studs, where your rims are mounted on your vehicle. They make a circle that consists of four to eight bolts and you’ll see this on the center of a rim. If you choose the wrong bolt pattern, then the wheel will not fit on your vehicle no matter what you do. You want to make sure you choose the right pattern for your car so that you don’t end up selling wheels that you already bought to someone else.
To find your bolt pattern, you can use a ruler but usually the differences are small so it’s hard to measure a pattern without a bolt pattern gauge (View on Amazon). If you want to measure with a gauge, the way you do it depends on the number of lugs that you have on your wheel. For example, a 4 lug is measured a lot differently than a 6 lug vehicle. Bolt patterns are usually measured directly across from one bolt to another, but for patterns like a five lug, you’ll need to measure from one below to the space directly across from it. Sometimes you can just go on a website and type in your make, model, and year of your car to find the bolt pattern.
If you buy the wrong bolt pattern, then you could either sell them or get an adapter. This isn’t recommended because adapters can take your bolt pattern and adjust it to let you fit it on a rim with a different bolt pattern. This is an issue only because they make a weak spot that isn’t strong. Adapters won’t keep your wheel as sturdy as it would have been if you just got one with a matching bolt pattern. It’s highly recommended that you buy a wheel that has a matching bolt pattern so that you have the best rim placement that you can for your money.
Size of Tire
You should know that it’s important to keep wheels that are the same size. If you don’t do this, then you’ll have to change all of your wheels to fit the new sized wheel that you just purchased. If you do want to get bigger tires, then you can move to a larger diameter wheel as an option or you can downsize if you already have large wheels. When you do move to a larger wheel, then you need to keep in mind that these tires need a low profile or sidewall height so that they can maintain adequate clearance if they go over bumps and potholes. If the wheel diameter increases by an inch, the height of the tire should decrease to keep the overall diameter the same.
Changing to larger wheels without taking this height into consideration gives you the risk of damaging the suspension wheels or tires of your car. You also end up with incorrect speedometer readings because the wheels are going at a different speed than before. You need to match the lower profile tire sizing to larger diameter wheel size so that everything like the speedometer and odometer will work correctly.
Also keep in mind that bigger wheels cost more money. The bigger the wheel you get, the more expensive the wheels and the tires will be. If you buy larger wheels, you have the option for a new vehicle or get them as standard equipment on a higher trim level than the cost might not be that high. If you’re replacing damaged wheels or tires, then the extra cost can be excessive.
Keep all of these factors in mind when you’re picking out a new wheel for your car. While a new wheel for another vehicle can seem convenient, the size of it is very important. If you want to purchase a wheel from another vehicle to use on your car and the size is incorrect, you will need to either find a different wheel to use or replace all of the wheels on your vehicle.
Size of Wheel
The size of the wheel is also important when you’re replacing the wheels on your vehicle. The thing about the size of the wheel is that you can get one that’s very similar to all of the other wheels on your car, or you can get one that looks totally different. If you don’t care about the aesthetic then giving a wheel from another vehicle that doesn’t match yours is completely fine so long as the size is correct.
Proper fitting and wheels is very crucial when it comes to safety. You’ll want the wheel diameter to be considered so that this wheel will clear all of the breaking, suspension, and body of the vehicle. If you want to increase the diameter of the wheels on your car, you can’t just replace one. You have to replace all of the other ones also.
You also want to consider if your wheels fit around the hub. Many of the vehicles today come from their factory, which means that their wheels fit precisely around the hub. This helps provide a consistent centering of your vehicle because the wheel and tire assembly when mounted are sturdy. This reduces the chance of an imbalance while driving. This is something that you should consider when you’re using a wheel from another vehicle also.
Wheel Offset
Wheel offset is the distance from the hub mounting surface to the center of the wheel. The wheel offset is usually chosen to maximize the performance of the wheel. For optimal handling the suspension usually intersects at the center line of the road surface.
Choosing a wheel for another vehicle usually happens without consideration for the wheel offset. If you select a wheel with the same offset as yours then you will always have the same exact scrub radius. The scrub radius is the distance in the front view between the kingpin access and the center of the contact patch of the wheel. This is where it would touch the road. If your new wheel is wider, you lose clearance on both suspension and well sides. This will limit how much of a change you can make for your wheel.
There are small compensations that you can make to ensure that your wheels work well. For example, you can choose a smaller offset to move the wheel away from this suspension if you have a wider wheel. You also want to consider the looks of this because if you have a smaller or greater offset than some of the other wheels then the wheels will be moved outward so they can fill out the wheel well better. The opposite is too small in the sidewall will rub the inside of the fender and that’s not something you want to deal with in your car.
Consider the wheel offset when you’re using wheels from other vehicles because it’s hard to get this correct when you don’t know a lot about wheels on vehicles.
You Need to Look After Your Tires!
The main reason why you’re going to notice a lot of issues with your tire is due to poor maintenance. There are a lot of maintenance techniques that need to be done on your tire in order to keep them in good condition. Failure to do this means that the rate of wear on the tire will be a lot more. You’ll notice that your tires get punctured often and the sidewall can fail easily.
If you want to tire problems or other issues and save $100s of dollars that you’ll spend at the auto repair shop, you’ll need to service your vehicle often – you can use our mechanic-rated Auto Maintenance and Repair Manual to do this. It’s basically what mechanics use to go through your vehicle to check if there are any problems that need fixing. As soon as they notice the most minor problem, they’ll ask you to fork out some money even though it’s a problem you can fix yourself in minutes – the manual will teach you how to maintain your vehicle every few thousand miles and it’ll teach you how to fix minor problems that mechanics will ask you to pay for; saving you money in the long run.
A lot of our readers have the Auto Maintenance and Repair Manual printed on their garage wall and 92% of them haven’t visited the auto repair shop in the last year because they know what to do to avoid problems. All it takes is giving your vehicle a little attention every few thousand miles and you’ll never spend money at the workshop again.
How to Find Right Wheels
Finding the right wheels isn’t an easy process. The first thing you want to do is find the dimensions of your wheel. Then you can find the bolt pattern of the wheel. You can do this by counting the number nuts on the wheel and then find the distance between the two notches that face each other. You also want to measure the wheel so that you can get a comparable size so that it’ll match your vehicle.
Wheel offset is also important. Make sure the wheels don’t extend too much from the car. Also make sure they don’t stay next to the brakes and the suspension. You can also find a tire dealer close to you to do this if you don’t understand how to use the information that you collect to get a new wheel.
Apart from the general aesthetic reasons, getting a poorly sized wheel can negatively affect your vehicle. If you buy an oversized will then you’ll have to install larger tires that cause extra friction. They consume a lot of energy which results in more fuel consumption. That means you have to spend a lot of money on gas refills which you might have not have had to do before.
Smaller wheels from another smaller vehicle will not cover your car’s arches. Also, if the replacement wheel has a lower offset, it can make their performance of the vehicle worse. For example a negative offset can add pressure to your car suspension and you might have a lousy steering wheel. This is dangerous because you might end up in accidents if you are used to this.
Overall, you can use wheels from other vehicles, but you have to have wheels that match the tire size, offset, bolt pattern, and wheel size before you do this. This means that any wheel from other vehicles will work on your car so long as they meet the qualifications to match the other wheels on the rest of your card.