www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

I have split rim alloys that seem expensive to refurbish. When searching for replacement wheels what sort of characteristics do I need to bear in mind, other than wheel diameter and stud number (and colour)?

Size, PDC, ET (offset) and bore size, then there is tyre size what needs to match the same rolling radius as the OE fitment (unless your going with massively over sized rims)

not may places will touch split rims

http://www.lepsons.com/

For wheels.

https://www.rimstyle.com/ (use these a few times over the years, lots of stock)

https://alloywheels.com/

"Size, PDC, ET (offset) and bore size, then there is tyre size what needs to match the same rolling radius as the OE fitment (unless your going with massively over sized rims)"

Many thanks for this info Bob. I certainly won't choose split rims again. If I want to find out the above characteristics on my existing wheels, where can I find the info. Is it printed on the rim somewhere?

In Bob's post and OP's quote of it, PDC should read PCD which stands for pitch circle diameter.

Not all wheels have all information on them, so try this website and search for your car. Once you have identified your data, you can search by pcd & bore to identify other cars that use the same size wheel.

But suppliers of new wheels will know all this already, you only need it if you are buying second-hand. Plenty of info. on the web.

Very useful. Thanks. One more question. Is the bead of the wheel important to match to either the car or tyres that are being swapped between wheels? (The new wheels I am looking at are J bead which I understand are fairly standard?)

Bead type is nothing to worry about, sorry about the pebkac (typo)

Be aware some usually French cars use hub centric wheels instead of bolt centric

then there is tyre size what needs to match the same rolling radius as the OE fitment

Not any more. Each car has settings which can be set back to neutral and the car automatically picks that up within a few miles. I had to do this when moving from 18" to 20" rims. IIRC you need to switch your ignition on and off a few times and press a few of the pedals. It resets the ECU.

That all depends on the car/van/Chelsea tractor tbh, its not a feature on older cars or every day common cars, if you do go oversize your need to recalibrate the speedo to suit

Bob225 wrote:That all depends on the car/van/Chelsea tractor tbh, its not a feature on older cars or every day common cars, if you do go oversize your need to recalibrate the speedo to suit

My car was a Nissan 350z. It was a fairly easy fix although the timing had to be spot on. It took me 3 or 4 attempts.