ET40 wheel choices. Help me guys :-(

Hi guys,

My current rims stick out too much at the front and I am led to believe that if a wheel and tyre prodtrude from the arches then it's an MOT fail.

With that in mind I am looking at changing my wheels for a higher ET to cure this.

Having done some measurements it would seem I need at least an ET of 42 to get the wheels over my Wilwood calipers and not stick out but there's not a great deal of choice out there wheel wise.

Anyone got any suggestions of rims that I could use. Don't want anything too modern., Currently got a set of BBS rims on there with 10mm spacers.

Cheers

Smudger

How have you worked et42 out dude? You measured to the calliper and worked off your existing setup? 

Seems a bit high to get over callipers, being its a higher offset than stock, plus that et would change with different widths. 

Your best bet as your running power is 3-piece, bolt a centre up and measure what you can get barrell wise for maximum width, and also keeping them in the arches. 

Me and Nosmonkey did some measuring with different wheels and came up with the size. My current wheels are ET35 I think from memory and need 10mm spacers and stick out the arches as a result

If you add 10mm to et35 you end up with et25 buddy   

I know money is key but for the max width I would look at splits man. 

I have 7.5J x 16" Ronal Aero's on mine to clear the 280mm Wilwoods.

They are ET 42 and I have 3mm spacers to clear the coil over strut, so now ET39. They do not stick out of the arches at all - I have GTI Arch spats.

may i suggest getting some 15" rollers maybe corrado steelies just to pass MOT then swap them out afterwards

smudger said

My current rims stick out too much at the front and I am led to believe that if a wheel and tyre prodtrude from the arches then it's an MOT fail.

i passed my MOT with about a 1/2 inch poke of tyre and lip, they didnt seem to care  

Some interesting thoughts. Cheers guys.

lhasadreams Ade I haven't got spats on mine. If you were to remove yours would the wheels then stick out or is there plenty of room? Any pics of them?

DCI_GLI good point mate. Will have a look at the G60 steelies as they might fit

Fresherrrr Guess it just depends the MOT station and how friendly they are

Seems I can get away with an et40 size rim. 

Looking around there's very little choice in that et with a 4x100 15". 

Anyone got any suggestions? Any pics?

Smudger. 

You've not mentioned width. Anything over 6.5j and ET40 will hit the strut. Most 15" wheels are 7j.

I got an advisory for my wheels to cover the testers back but the law at the moment states tread visable when viewed from above the arch is a failure. I think you're worrying too much.

If you have coil overs then you can get way with a little more up to 7.5j with ET39, but it is very close then !!

I have solid G23 top mounts, which allow me to set the camber bolts at maximum, keeping the strut as far away from the wheel rim as possible. The camber is then set at the top mount.

I don't have any pics with the car set up properly and the arches off, this one gives you an idea of how close they are, I think you will probably just get away with it without arches. But 7j and et38 would be better.

So there is about 3mm before it would stick out of the arch.
No sure how much a spat adds though.

Thanks guys.

Should add I am running Gaz coilovers with adjustable top mounts if that makes any difference.

I was thinking 6.5j was about the max width I could go for without the spats.

Cheers for the pics lhasadreams gives me something to go with.

you'll be fine with lower et than that, but as said it depends on the width of the wheels. I had ET25 7J MIMs on my gti arch kitted MK1 cabrio with 195/50 on and they fitted just fine no tread poke

Would 16' 7.5J ET35s work with coilovers? Ive got 280mm disks and Im looking to get new wheels also.

Im trying to get the right size but I dont know how harsh 16s would be - If I restore the standard setup with 30mm drop would this work on 16s?

Lots of variables to play with !!

All I can say is that I have:

(1) 16" 7.5J ET40 Ronal Aeros
(2) Still Static coil over H&R suspension with G23 adjustable top mounts with a 60mm drop.
(3) GTI Plastic arches.

The rears fit with no issue.

To make the fronts fit I used 3mm spacers, brings the ET to 37. The inner edges of the rims are still close to the bottom of the coil overs, so I put maximum camber on the camber bolts and then set the camber at the top mounts.
The wheels do not stick out of the arches at all

16's ride well IMO.

Mine had 7.5x16 ET35 with 195/40 when I bought it. I later swapped them for some borbet T 7.5x16 again same offset of 35 and ran 32mm spacers at the rear and 20mm at the front with 165/45 tyres all round. Rode very well, handled good and they tyres were inside the arches if not the wheels

^ do you have any pics of the ET35 setup ? im not big into spacers at this stage if 35 fills out on 7.5j 16' im good.

have you thought about say a set of Porsche alloys or something else with high offset but require adaptors?

no expert with wheels, but the adaptors should act as spacers to clear your brakes, so you won't need the 10mm spacers as well, if that is the reason you're running them?

e.g Teledials, usually et50+ (I think), pretty sure you can get 15mm adaptors? the combination should see your wheels how you want them

not sure if people like running adaptors with a fair bit of power tho? safety etc?

also I'm pretty sure the 15" bbs rx2 wheels from a polo 6n2 gti have a pretty high offset if they're the sort of thing you're after

like these:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4x15-BBS-RS772-Split-Rims-/321580661430?pt=UK_CarParts_Acc_Wheels_tyres_Trims_Car_Rims_ET&hash=item4adfb37ab6