VX wheels on my HX

[mobythevan]

When I bought my HX someone had already sold off the stock wheels and put steel wheels on the car. I have been watching for a set of stock HX wheels but the prices are fairly high for my budget. I was at the pull and pay yesterday and spotted a set of vx wheels. The full set was there with center caps and two of the tires are as close to brand new as you can get. I picked them up even though the checkout guy was worried they would not fit over the calipers on my HX. I went home and tested the fitment on the front and they are fine. I also weighed the steel 14" wheel and tire on my car against the vx wheel and tire. The vx wheel and tire is 12 pounds lighter. Changing out the set will save me 48 pounds, I wasn't expecting that much weight savings. Now, my two questions/concerns. This is going to mess with my speedometer and odometer, should I just log the current mileage of the car and keep track that future mileage is off xx percentage and also keep that in mind for each tank of gas? The 14" tires on my car are basically new, should I run them down which will take a couple years or go ahead and swap out the set so I can sell the 14" tires? I think my friend will buy the 14" tires if I want to sell them. What do you guys think?

[some_other_dave]

Measure the overall diameter or the circumference of your old tires and your new tires. The % change will be the same as the change in speedometer and odometer readings.

Make sure you have a decent amount of clearance (5mm+) for the brakes, as "things" can shift around somewhat when loaded or when parts get hot. It wouldn't be much fun to go around a corner and have your wheels start to machine your brake calipers away...

-soD

[Deezler]

Originally Posted by some_other_dave

It wouldn't be much fun to go around a corner and have your wheels start to machine your brake calipers away...

Good call. I'd be more afraid of the brakes slicing up the wheels!

Do you know the tire sizes?
Total wheel and tire height = 2* (Tire width * aspect ratio ) + wheel diameter.

[mobythevan]

I think my tire right now is 185/65R14 and the vx wheels have on them 175/70R13 so the tire calculator on the web showed around 3% difference. The clearance is at least a 1/4 inch between the wheels and the brakes so I think that will be good. The money conscious decision seems to be running the current tires until they wear out, then putting on the vx wheels.

[Christ]

the 3% difference is negligible... The speedo and such are only that accurate to begin with... (+/- 3-5% nominally, some are even worse.)

You should start running the 13's and sell the 14's... tires sell better when they're close to new. Also, if you plan on getting good cheap tires for the 13's, you should probably find a good source of used ones that are still in good condition. They're entirely too expensive new, and you can usually get great condition used ones from salvage yards for a few bucks a tire... I pay $10 for any size tire I want, if they have it.

By buying used tires, I also feel that I'm "helping out" as it were... the more used tires I "finish up", the less "OK to use" tires end up in land fills being chopped up for rubber filler material.

[MetroMPG]

48 lbs of rotating weight, gone! That's fantastic. Did you drive the car with them on, or just test fit the front?

Regardless: congrats on the find.

[mobythevan]

I only test fit on the front, I didn't drive with them yet. I'll email my friend and see what he wants to pay for the 14" set. I'll drive a few days with the vx wheels before I sell the 14" set just in case something doesn't work out, but it looks like they are going to work great.

[mobythevan]

I put the vx wheels on last night and drove the car to work today (30 miles). Everything seems good with them. I'll do some calibrations so I can get a good idea of where I am with mileage.