Help! Rims on my civic?Need advice!

[Ticket2ride21]

Ok guys/ladies,
I have a 1996 honda civic ex. I love the car. I have decided to put rims on it though and im rather new at the whole rims/tires thing. I want 17 inch rims...preferable crome....but I dont know what all there is to do? Do i just get rims and remove the old ones and add the new ones or is there more to it than that? Can i put 17's on a civic without making body modifications? What are the pros/cons of chrome vs polished silver. I want my ride to look tight and it's all factory...except for the tint. Advice guys....lots of advice, thougts, comments, insults...lol...anything at all would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

~David

[TeriyakiBroccoli]

Originally posted by Ticket2ride21
Ok guys/ladies,
I have a 1996 honda civic ex. I love the car. I have decided to put rims on it though and im rather new at the whole rims/tires thing. I want 17 inch rims...preferable crome....but I dont know what all there is to do? Do i just get rims and remove the old ones and add the new ones or is there more to it than that? Can i put 17's on a civic without making body modifications? What are the pros/cons of chrome vs polished silver. I want my ride to look tight and it's all factory...except for the tint. Advice guys....lots of advice, thougts, comments, insults...lol...anything at all would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

~David

ah, dont get chrome...

You can get the rims, make sure they're a 4 lug set with the correct offset for a civic. .. you can put the rims right on w/o modifications.... pros and cons of chrome/silver... chrome is harder to keep clean, and its ugly. silver... is just better ;)

.. ;) theres my 2 centz.

[juvenile]

Hmmm I believe on that year civic it's 14's stock
won't 17's be a BIT too big? ;)
I would put 16's (unless it's 15's stock)

[firstgeardude]

like juv said... 17's im my opinion will leave u with practically no rubber between rim and road

[Ticket2ride21]

but that makes no sense. I have a friend who has a 99 civic. She had 14 inch stock and put 17 inch rims on her car and had no problem. I will have z rated tires on my car...which are rather thinner than regular tires so it will give me a little more room. How do i find out how big i can go?

[TeriyakiBroccoli]

I see people with 18"s... I'm running 17x7 rims right now with no problems. And i do believe the stock rims are 15.

[juvenile]

Originally posted by TeriyakiBroccoli
I see people with 18"s... I'm running 17x7 rims right now with no problems. And i do believe the stock rims are 15.
That might explain it! I usually go by the rule that you can go up 2 sizes generally. But that's me, since I'm still a newb too. :yes:

[TeriyakiBroccoli]

Originally posted by juvenile
That might explain it! I usually go by the rule that you can go up 2 sizes generally. But that's me, since I'm still a newb too. :yes:


I'm not too sure about the whole 2 sizes thing, but I've seen people who have 18's so i assumed 17 would be decent. I just had to make sure that my rim wasn't too wide.

[Ticket2ride21]

wow...still decidin about my rims...if i get 17's that will make my car sit quite a bit higher off the ground...correct?

[nittanys1]

Originally posted by Ticket2ride21
wow...still decidin about my rims...if i get 17's that will make my car sit quite a bit higher off the ground...correct?
no not really, you need to get a smaller tire to make your speedo not read wrong thus you will not be off the ground any more, rather your wheel gap will look bigger cuz you changed your wheel & tire size

[slowEJ6]

stock 96-00 civics come with 14" wheels except for the 99-00 Si.
a 17" wheel is not too big for a civic, at all. your car will LOOK higher due to the fact that since you have to go with a lower profile tire - you will have a lot more gap between your wheel and fender.
you need a 4x100 bolt pattern and if you go with a 17" wheel, look for something with at least a +43 offset. +45 would be better.

[cashizslick]

Originally posted by Ticket2ride21
Ok guys/ladies,
I have a 1996 honda civic ex. I love the car. I have decided to put rims on it though and im rather new at the whole rims/tires thing. I want 17 inch rims...preferable crome....but I dont know what all there is to do? Do i just get rims and remove the old ones and add the new ones or is there more to it than that? Can i put 17's on a civic without making body modifications? What are the pros/cons of chrome vs polished silver. I want my ride to look tight and it's all factory...except for the tint. Advice guys....lots of advice, thougts, comments, insults...lol...anything at all would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

~David

Why not go with 16's? They are lighter, plus you can put more tire on them so you get a better ride.

[slowEJ6]

ride quality is a matter of opinion, i had 40 series on my 16's and had no problems.
16's are lighter, but he wanted chrome wheels, obviously hes not looking for something light.

[4jacks]

1st. Chrome is 20 times easier to clean than POLISHED SILVER.. A painted Wheel (silver, white, ect) is easy to clean also, but you run the risk of Getting Nicks in your paint.

2nd. Having Larger Wheels and Less Tire Height, does not nessecerily give you more wheel gap. The goal is to maintain the same Overall Diameter of the Wheel and tire, thus giving you, an equal wheel gap.

3rd. 99% of the world agrees with me when I say Chrome is not ugly. Don't argue, it's pointless, every car manufactor offers chrome wheels for a reason.

4th. If you going for strictly looks, the larger the better. Do not enter a car show without 18" rims with high hopes.

5th. z-rated tires doesn't mean they have a smaller sidewall. All tires have a size that looks like this ###/##/##

The first three digit number is the Depth of the tire in Millimeters
The Second two digit number is the Sidewall height as a percentage of the first number.
The third number is the size of the rim that fits into the tire.

Thus my Wheel are 215/35/18 They are 215mm deep, 75.25 mm high (215 * .35), and I have an 18" wheel

Lastly this link will help you to determine what size Wheel And Tire you would like to purchase for your Civic.

http://www.2k1civic.com/stuff/tire_calc.cfm

I hope all this helps, and I hope I didn't step on too many toes.

If you want my Opinion, Buy some very large Chrome Rims, get a style that is not very common, and then save up and lower your car. People tend to notice wheel gap when you have huge wheels.

[Senshi]

go ahead with some 17's you'll be fine