bigger wheels on gen III prius II

Sorry don't have any rear pics.
I chose the 215/40-18 because I was afraid that with an offset of 40mm that my front tires would not be flush with the fender. I'm glad that I did because a 225 would have stuck out.

Not to mention I will be lowering it also once springs are confirmed for the Prius.

As I have said before, try to stay with a 45-50mm offset if you can. My wheel/tire combination allows for no rim protection so parking next to curbs have to be done very carefully!

If your husband is dead set on getting 50mpg I say save your money and don't alter anything on your car, seriously. When you mod a car there are always compromises......

Personally, I think the majority of the people will be happy with 17's. So why did I chose 18's? The 17's looked too small in the fenders imho.

 

Dakine: Oh darn. Hopefully Jonny has a picture of the rear. His wheels didn't look like they stuck out at all. For me, I hate the way the small wheels looked tucked under the car. Even though it's a Prius, I was hoping to give it stronger stance from the rear with the wider tires. (if I get my way)

I must admit, this car is my husband's choice, not mine. It has always reminded me of a space capsule. (sooo NOT sexy) I agree, the wheel wells are too big for 15 & 17's. I may have to settle for 17's & springs to keep the peace. ;-)

Both you and Jonny's cars look HOT! I never thought I would EVER say that about a Prius. haha 3 mpg is not too much to lose IMO. My husband says otherwise. Yes, I stay farrrrr way from curbs, parked cars and those cement stops in parking lots. I know the drill. hehe



Signed... NJC's wifey

 

Forgot to mention that you can always buy wheel spacers for the rear which would "push the wheels out further."

VERY IMPORTANT!! -Make sure to replace your original wheel studs with longer studs to accommodate the spacer.

FYI - Wheel spacers fit between the wheel hub and the wheel itself.
Check out "Ichiba spacers" for more info.

Hope this helps.

 

Hi wifey of NJCHPD,

I don't have pics from the rear as of yet but it definitely has a more wider stance based on the size of the tires and the offset. I'll post some pics once the rain lets up over the weekend. If I have my calculations correct:

Stock is a 190?? which is roughly 7.48 inches wide
215/40s are about 8.46 inches wide
225/40s are .39 inches wider at 8.85 inches

So you getting about an inch wider as a whole over stock with the 215s. To be honest, there is such a little difference between the 215s and 225s for me that the decision came down to cost. 215/40s are not as common as 225/40s so they are a bit more expensive. I think I saved around $100 by getting the 225s over the 215s. As to whether they stick out past the wheel wells, I don't think they do. I think they are almost exactly flush. I would think that the 225s would stick out less than 1/4 inch more than the 215s.

Regarding MPG, I was also fixated on getting at least 50mpg with the new wheels. I'm at around 270mi on the new wheels and avg about 51.1. Now my commute is pretty flat about 25mi to NYC every day. I take Rt 22 to Rt 1 to Holland tunnel if you are familiar with NJ (I'm guessing you are from Cherry Hill??). Now before I got the wheels on I was trying to drive as economically as possible and tried to coast as much as I could and was able to get upwards of 58mpg;however, I realized that it was not terribly fun and I was getting tired of it and I wanted to see what I got as normal milage with normal driving as I did before I had the Prius. With that, my mpg went to around 54.5 mpg which I would consider my real world driving mpg. So with the new wheels, I was really keen to keep it above 50 as well and the 51.4MPG is 90% real world driving and 10% trying to be as green as possible. In other words, I would switch to EV mode in parking garages or in traffic. So if MPG is a concern of your husbands, I think you can still avg around 50 w/o any problems.

Now, regarding 17s vs 18s, before I purchased I was seriously only considering 17s because I was worried about pot holes in the winter here in NJ and also the MPG; however, given that these 18" wheels are only 18.6 lbs, the MPG was not as much of an issue for me because with such a light wheel I didn't think it would impact MPG much. So I picked the 18s because I agreed with Dakine--18s looked better and filled the wheel well better. So because I picked the 18s now I was concerned with how much tire I had around the wheel for cushioning and that is part of the reason why I went with the 225s as well--just for that extra bit of cushioning. Now if I lived in CA where Dakine is, I wouldn't have to worry about all the potholes and probably would have gone with the 215s.

So there's my story.. hope it helps you make your decision.... Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

Yes am pretty happy with how things have turned out so far. I wasn't a big on the Prius styling until the Gen III came out. For me, these mods on a Gen II would not look right..

 

Jonny: BTW, I can't mention my name, as I am secretly posting here in hybrid world. I would get banned from the Infiniti forum if they know I was crossing over from Premium gas w/18 mpg to a HYBRID. (with the help of my husband) Hence the reason I am using his login. Okay, I only joking. LOL!!! My name is Kim actually. NJC are my husband's initials. He is from New York ironically, but we live in Houston. I heard lots about the bad potholes in Jersey. It was mentioned frequently on other car forums.

I really appreciate all your info. That really SUMS it up for me. I think I definitely have a convincing argument now. BTW, what brand of tires do you have? (sorry if you mentioned it in a previous post) How's the road noise & ride? Price? The 18's will probably feel like nice cushy pillows compared to the 20's I'm used to. hehe I have 245/35/20 (f) & 275/30/20 (r) on my G37. 18's would feel great to me. hehe

We are having the clear bra & tint done next week. I gotta get the tire & wheel issue ironed out quick. Both you and Dakine have been most helpful.


Dakine: I don't think I want to do the spacers. I've heard bad things about them.
Either the 215 or 225 will be fine. Your wheels look perfect without. That's the look I want.

 

That's funny you mentioned that! I just installed 5mm spacers on the rears to help match the fronts! It looks way better now that the rear is pushed out.

Wheel spacers get a bad rap because people don't know enough about them. You have to buy spacers that are hub-centric so that you don't have any vibration. I've always had spacers on the rear of my cars and never had any issues whatsoever.

I believe some select Porsches, BMW and Mercedes even came/come from the factory with wheel spacers. Can anyone validate that?

I can only speak for my setup with 18 x 8, 40mm offset with 215/40-18 that the front wheels (not tires) are right flush with the fender or slightly sticking past when viewed from the top of the fender looking down.

Also keep in mind tires will vary somewhat dimensionally even though the size is identical. My tires are the Falken ZE-912 which got decent reviews from Tirerack. My criteria for tire selection were to be low noise,comfort(hey it's a Prius people!) and long treadwear.

I was glad to hear that you have had experience driving and riding in cars with aggressive tires. I had 235/35-19's on my last car and you're right, my current tires ride better although I haven't lowered it yet!

Do you have plans to lower it? One thing you will notice once you put on the wheels is, "gee my car looks jacked up/lifted now!" You probably never noticed it on the G37 because it's a sports car and is already low. Now you will be shopping for lowering springs!! It never ends! Next up an aero/body kit!! LOL!!!

That's why I try to sway most people(especially Prius people) away from aggressive tire fitments. I don't think they will be happy with the ride quality when switching from 15" to 18" tires. But hey, what do I know?

 

I actually got Kuhmo ASTs which rated mostly in the green (excellent) on tirerack except for a couple reds in deep snow and ice traction.

Kumho Ecsta AST

Based on the price, they were decent tires based on the price. But I really don't know anything about performance tires or four cyl cars for that matter.. All my vehicles are 8 cyl trucks and I'm about to add a 6" lift and 35" tires to my '07 Avalanche. Price was around $80 a piece... ride is a bit harsher than the stocks but not as bad as I thought. I think Noise is similar to stock as far as I can tell.

NJCHPD.... LOL... I thought that was New Jersey Cherry Hill Police Department.... Wow, I guess I was really off... I should've just looked at your user info which says Houston, TX.....

Well... next up for me is a set of HIDs.. Dakine/wifey of NJCHPD... any suggestions?

 

Jonny, I like this site, but the Prius isn't listed as one of the cars on the left... which should I select to see compatable rims with the Prius bolt pattern?

 

Wow, 35" tires and a 6" lift. I need that for these Texas floods. haha I think we are finally leaning towards the 18's. Your posts help immensely.

We had the windows tinted on Monday and the clear bra was installed today. Next we will change the wheels.

As far as the HIDS....well I'll have to do some more reading about them. I definitely like bright white lights, not the yellowish hue. I think I will order the LEDs to change the interior lights & license plate light next. I changed them all in my Infiniti. (yes I did it myself) hehe The headlights are a different thing though. I am mechanically challenged to say the least. ;-) The illuminated sillplates will be the next major purchase. We were quoted $40 to install by a stereo shop also. (big thanks to someone on the forum who said they went to a stereo shop for installation)

Geeeez, this stuff is getting expensive... ;-)

 

ok so I just found tirerack.com... what a fanTASTIC site! I love their virtual upgrade garage, 83 different rims available for the 2010 prius and you can see high rez previews of what it would look like on your car/color. Nice!!!

 

I tried to buy 4 steelies at CanadianTire for my winter tires. They don't have the Prius 2010 in their data books to know which model I need (bolts pattern/spacing). In fact they don't even have the 2009 Prius in there! Is there another Toyota car which uses the same 15" rims as the Prius so that I can buy my rims from the specs of that model? Thanks!

 

Have your try tiretrends . ca, they are store Van
I would like to 16/17 for summers and keep the 15's for winter

 

Yeah, they aren't going to have the Prius as one of the options so basically what you are looking for is a bolt pattern of 5X100. If you see something you like on that website, your best bet is to give them a call to see whether they have it with that bolt pattern. You would probably go with 17x7s up to 18x8s. To get an idea of what would fit, check out tirerack.com as well.

Good Luck...

 

Okie, update on the OEM 17" wheels. A Toyota dealer in the US was kind enough to provide me with some part numbers for these rims;

42611 47170
42611 47200

Numbers don't show up on the Australian parts master whatsoever. Might have to look at importing them. Bugger!

 

Thank you!!!! I've been looking for the part number but too lazy to call a dealership.

I searched the few online toyota parts online store and got the pricing.

$314 each plus shipping. Not too bad... time to start saving money. :bounce:

 

Here are a few pictures of the wheels and the tint.


---------------------------------
Many thanks to Dakine & Jonny's expert advise. Now we are triplets!!
At least we in different states. My husband took the pics, so please forgive the DRY
tires. He came directly from Discount Tires and snapped the pics. For shame! In my book, NO tire dressing is almost a sin...right? hehe

Signed

Wifey

 

Those wheels look awesome. What kind of a MPG hit did you take with those? I tried changing out the wheels on my IV to 17" rims (only 17lbs) with Michelin tires but took almost a 10MPG hit. Decided to go back to the 15" wheels for now until there is a more reliable option.

 

I don't know what happened with such the big MPG hit. I have a V with 17's to start and have done pretty decent with my mileage for being on the hilly side of L.A. I average around 45-46mpg's to and from work climbing two big grades everyday from Camarillo to Hollywood. On a flat drive out to Anaheim I averaged 52mpg's round trip. Now I just put aftermarket wheels on today so we'll see how she does, but am hoping that the 4lbs. per wheel drop will offset the aerodynamic penalty. I also came from driving an '01 Camaro SS so my driving style has had to adjust. None the less, it's a huge improvement over what I was getting and I love the car way more which if you knew me is really weird for me to be saying.

 

It's a little too early to tell about the MPG, since we have only had them on for a day. Check Dakine & Jonny's earlier posts in this thread. Very helpful info.