Do Prius C wheels work on a Gen 1?

Maybe the wheel you were looking at is the 42611-52A00 shown here for the 2012 c?

I see that it's a 15x5J, where your original is 14x5.5JJ, and looking it up aftermarket shows it has a 39mm offset, as opposed to the original 45mm. (The 6mm offset difference is about what you'd expect taking half an inch off the width). Maybe no one will have tried it on a Gen 1, so it might be worth trying to borrow one, and make sure it doesn't interfere with the brake calipers, etc.

The original spec tires are P175/65R14, and increasing the diameter to 15 while taking the aspect ratio down to 55 ought to give you roughly the same outer diameter and revs per mile. And looking around, 175/55R15 does seem to be a real size, there are some tires in that size ... but they are load rated around 908 pounds max.

I looked hard into the Gen 1 tire load requirements a few years ago and the upshot was that the per-tire (front) load is 985 pounds at the car's maximum load, and 947 pounds (front) at the "normal" load used for the safety standards. The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (the easy bar to meet) says that normal load has to be <= 94% of the tire's rating, which working backwards requires a tire rating of at least 1008 pounds. To meet the higher bar of the Tire and Rim Association standard (the Gen 1 didn't, as equipped), the normal load has to be <= 88% of the tire rating, which would require a tire rating at least 1076 pounds.

You're gonna need a bigger tire.

-Chap

 

By the way, I was getting quotes on wheel refinishing recently, and the outfit I talked with had one price for recreating the original painted-pocket/machined-face look, and a lower price to just do the all-over-silver-paint look (which would be a lot like that c wheel). Maybe that would be an option?

To me, taking a nice alloy wheel and spraying it silver all over just makes it look like a plastic wheel cover, but then you're not married to me.

-Chap

 

I am glad that now I know the Gen 1 Prius has the 4x100 pattern like my C. More wheels to look for. But I want to stick to 15s.

 

If you get used Gen1 wheels from a state where they don't salt the roads they can be quite nice, but shipping could be expensive. AdoptAPart in Denver has plenty of used Gen1 wheels. (they don't use salt in most of Colorado) If you are non-local, ask them to email you pics before you buy.

 

The C has 2 options: Steelies and Alloy wheels. Steelies are 15" and Alloys are 16". Alloys only come on the model 4, I believe.

 

The 42611-52A00 is a 15" alloy, and shown in the dealer parts catalog for the c. I'm sure I don't know what combination of trim level/options/magic words were needed to obtain it, but there it is. To my own taste it's nicer looking than the 16" with the hey-look-at-me twisty spokes. Here it is in the wild....

On the other hand, it looks a lot like a Gen 1 wheel would look if you painted it all-over silver, which might be the simple option here. When I was getting wheel-refinish quotes, all-over silver was $15 less (per wheel) than redoing the silver/machine/clearcoat look. Then you'd know you had the original spec'd wheels and tires, and it should even be easy to bring back the OE look later if you want. (I'm pretty sure the OE finish steps were: 1. spray silver all over, 2. machine faces back to clean metal, 3. spray clearcoat. The all-silver option just omits some steps.)

-Chap

 

Here's a $15 solution: 2 cans of Dupli-Color wheel paint and a couple of sheet of 100 grit sandpaper.

This paint has been on for a year a still looks fine. These wheels looked funky when I got the car with some rash and pealing original finish.

If you are replacing you'll also want to consider wheel weight, lighter is better and these stock wheels are very light.

Tim