FireAtWill

G'day all,

Last month I bought a used 09 TL(30k miles) to replace my 06 toyota matrix, and so far I've been loving it!

I've just been poking around the forums here to see what I can do tastefully in terms of mods, and found a lot of really helpful information. What I haven't been able to find is the weight of my stock wheels, which I'd like to know so I can make the best upgrade decision.

These are what came on the car



Wheel Part Number: #71785
Size: 17" x 8", 5 Lug, 115mm Bolt Pattern

I'm thinking of going up to 19", so if you guys have any suggestions, I'm all ears

potmilkz

have you look around to see what wheels you like?

its more of a personal opinion then anything else.

FireAtWill

I think these are pretty much along the lines of what I'm going for

http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/Wheel..._25&sort=Brand

It's a beige/silver color so I'd want to keep that consistent on the wheels, and I like the spoke design so I'm looking at just going a little bit bigger but still lightweight enough for it to be an improvement over the stock ones.

potmilkz

be careful of breytons.. real authentic ones are made in germany and will have it stamped inside the wheel.
you wont get that much light weight from switching 17 to 19 or 20's
my stock sh-awd 18s weighed about 51 pounds. my current semi-forged 3 piece wheels weigh 60 pounds right now.

FireAtWill

Thanks for that. I'm still in the looky-loo phase so I'll keep on searching

ucf_bronco

iTrader: (1)

Keep in mind that potmilkz weights are including the tire. My 19" stock rims were 32 lbs and @ 53 lbs including the tire.

I upgraded to 20" XO's and with the Hankook tires they weigh almost exactly the same as my stock setup.

FireAtWill

I'll keep that in mind. I've been searching all over the web and I've found a bunch of places that offer that same wheel as is on my TL, but none of them list the weight of the piece. I'm just trying to get that figure as a baseline so I can get a better idea of how much weight I can shave off(if any)by swapping rims

potmilkz

yea... kinda self explanatory when i said my stock 18's weight 51 pounds.. lol it wouldnt weigh 51 pounds without tires..

dur dur dur..

my advice is to get a proper suspension set up if you are going to continue beyond just getting wheels.

If your like UFC and do not like the idea of lowering your then be aware your car will look like a 4x4

FireAtWill

my advice is to get a proper suspension set up if you are going to continue beyond just getting wheels.

If your like UFC and do not like the idea of lowering your then be aware your car will look like a 4x4[/quote]

On that note, mine's a FWD. I would've gone with the SHAWD, but I got a really good deal on this one and it was a CPO sold as-is. With that being said, is there anything I could do to the suspension to make it better at handling tighter turns?

FireAtWill

On that note, mine's a FWD. I would've gone with the SHAWD, but I got a really good deal on this one and it was a CPO sold as-is. With that being said, is there anything I could do to the suspension to make it better at handling tighter turns?[/quote]

quote fail

potmilkz

depends on how much you willing to spend..

springs or full coils?

i have tein ss with progress rear sway bar and im maxed out on my coil overs.. i cant go any lower lol

ucf_bronco

iTrader: (1)

Really? My wheels are flush (not mexiflush) and I have maybe an inch of gap between the wheel and the fender...far from 4x4.

FireAtWill

How much did that set you back? If you couldn't tell already I'm a bit of a n00b at this stuff and I know it's not cheap...didn't plan on buying a TL and dropping lame parts into it, but I'm still obviously looking to get the best bang for my buck.

@UCF I really like the look of that. Did you change anything with the suspension or just the wheels and the body kit?

potmilkz

UFC.

sorry that is not flush.. not nearly close. and this is not an inch..


btw you said you spent 2200 on those.. are these wheels cast? or forged? whole piece? or multipiece wheels?

op,

im running full coils on my car. that was about 1050 total with install

the question comes in mind again.. do you have a couple of thousands to drop on the car?

do you plan to lower and get lip kit? this is all factors.

ucf_bronco

iTrader: (1)

No suspension work, only wheels / body kit.

I agree the gap may be a bit more than an inch, but the "not nearly close to flush" is exaggerated IMO. I'm gonna have to take a level to it when I get home to see.

The wheels are one-piece cast. The $2,200 included the Hankook V4 tires, mount and balance, as well as switching over the TPMS from the old wheels and adding standard stems to the old.

FireAtWill

Well I'm trying to stay away from lowering if I can avoid it without having my car look like a cholo mobile. I'm still on the fence about a lip kit, but I'm ballparking about 5 grand in total for mods. I read pseudo's stickied thread on performance mods a couple of days ago and I'm thinking the first thing I'll do is the mufflers since that appears to be the least expensive thing to start with, and I really like the sound coming from the magnaflows

potmilkz

5 grand is a lot to spend.. and if you have a fwd like i do, putting performance parts is useless. suspensions is worth it as you ride the car everyday, but putting exhaust, pcd, j-pipe, tb spacer, test pipe, etc is useless to a fwd 4000 lb car...

now if you have a sh-awd, then that is a different story.

all that comes with lowering is that you get a better stance, lower center gravity, much more comfortable ride (depending on if its full coils or springs only), better handling during corners and looks much better.

issues you will run into if not done properly is that you will eat your tires up if you do not have a camber kit, may be bumpy (again if springs only or full coils), hard to get jack under car, and may result in scratching up your front lip.

but damn after i lowered my car and put the bigger rear sway bar, i can take turns much faster than when i was running stock.

FireAtWill

haha you may have just saved me a boatload. With that in mind I think I'll go with the full coils and the sway bar. How far down did you lower your tl?

potmilkz

im slammed, pretty much maxed out on my coils as far as lowering. i am going to purchase tein lowering springs so i can drop it even lower.

im trying to get my fender to touch the lip of my wheel, or barely floating right next to it. tires will be tucking under fenderwell

pimpin-tl

Guy locally car here with 20" rims and factory suspension. Looks good.

HeartTLs

iTrader: (5)

looks like shit imo, total 4x4.

stinkysab

Why are the rear wheels not concave?

ucf_bronco

iTrader: (1)

You guys crack me up with these bullshit 4x4 comments. Seriously, I have a little more than an inch of wheel gap (with no passengers) and my wheels are flush with my fenders, yet I'm 4x4 status? Fucking retarded. I don't understand why, if a car isn't dropped to the max, you gotta hate. Fortunately I love the look and the way it drives so that's all that matters.

Not sure if this was directed at my pics or not, but the rear are concave. I don't have a staggered setup and I had no desire to run 10" or greater width rims on all four corners so they're only a medium concave (as opposed to deep).

Flush? You make the call...





And because the above pics make the wheel gap look so much bigger, here's one more for good measure...

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

Seems like there are two camps.

Form over function.
and
Function over form.

both are right in their own sense.

I would love a car that I could SLAM and put on some great looking wheels.
but unfortunately, I like my car to be functional and my goals are more for performance.

choose which side you're on
but dont bash the other side just because its different than your liking

ucf_bronco

iTrader: (1)

I fully agree, and obviously I'm a proud member of the latter.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

this picture is money

potmilkz

i do believe, and was told by MANY people that the term FLUSH that is when lip of wheel is meeting up with the fender and not the tires meeting up with fender. a 20x8.5 will not achieve that.

now it may mean different to you as what the term "flush" means. may be different in the east coast.. as in socal.. we use that term differently than you do..

FireAtWill

Another question here: How will going from 17" to 19-20" affect my MPG? Will I have to recalibrate any or the electronic components to get an accurate estimate from the trip computer?

ucf_bronco

iTrader: (1)

I honestly have never discussed it with anyone. None of my friends are car guys so I inferred my own meaning of the term. I heard that long before the stretched tire trend though so that's probably why I figured it meant the tire meeting up with the fender.

It shouldn't affect any of those much, because you'll end up with a tire that has a lower profile so the overall rolling diameter should only be slightly (if any) bigger.

potmilkz

yea different people have a different understanding of what "flush" means.

from a 17 to a 19 or 20 it will absolutely affect your mpg.

i went from 18 to 20 and i kept the rolling diameter as close as possible but i went from getting 24mpg to 22mpg.

reason being is that i went from a 51 pound wheel to a 60 pound wheel and rolling diameter is not the same.

also the car is not so smooth as it was with my stock 18's anymore.. you lose ride comfort as well.

Edward'TLS

If the set of 19"/20" wheels+tires has the same total weight as the 17" set, and the new tire width remains the same as the 17" (245mm), then the new MPG should not differ much than the existing MPG.

Marcelll

It really depends what you are trying to accomplish. Are you going for a kid racer lower to the ground look or elegant/classy $40K+ upscale sedan look? If you are going with the 1st option, you probably should have stay with WRX or Evo... Lol. Also keep in mind, that if you drop it, the ride WILL become stiff(er). I like the way TL looks on 20's without touching the stock suspension the most. Bottom line - pick the look that YOU like the most!
Here is couple pics of mine -

potmilkz

lowering is a factor of being "stiffer" but the tire size is a bigger factor.. just to correct your info..

Mista

Valuable input fellas

FireAtWill

@Marcel that looks sexy as hell to me haha. I'm generally not too keen on spoilers but it really compliments the shape of the 4g tl especially with the bigger wheelbase...nice color too

potmilkz

so your 09 is a base tl? with no spoiler?

are you referring the "spoiler" as in the lip kit or the actual rear trunk spoiler?

Booya4139

maxing out coils makes cars ride like poop... It'd be nice if there was a combo spring/strut that lowered the car an 1" or so, but alas there is none...

Its a question of whether you want your car to look good in pictures, or be comfortable and enjoyable to drive.

I was debating 20 vs 19, and have come to the conclusion i am going 19 that i can run year round the AS tires vs running summers and snows... depending on where you live some can get away with 35 series tires and slammed on coils, but not smart in the northeast...

FireAtWill

yup it's the base model, and yes I'm referring to the trunk spoiler...absent on my car

FireAtWill

I'm a SoCal native and that's where I'll be staying for the forseeable future, so barring some massive climate shift I'll probably never need snow gear. 19 will probably be the way I'll go, and I wouldn't lower it very far. My hometown has a lot of fun roads to drive on but they're virtually inaccessible if you've got a pavement scraper.

FireAtWill

So I think I'm gonna end up going with these. They're pretty pricey but I figure it's worth it to spend a little more on the things my ride rides on . Any of you guys have experience with em?http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/Wheel..._25&sort=Brand