What wheel & tyre size would be ideal?

[IDV8]

Honda Integra 2003 DC5, don't want to have to roll fenders (atleast not yet) and its pretty much stock at the moment so what wheel size/tyre would be ideal and sit atleast semi flush with the body? I was thinking 17 x 9 +35 .. any other suggestions? Thanks :D

[Nuci]

17x9 +35 you're going to be pushing it. Is the car lowered? Camber?

[chargeR]

Honda Integra 2003 DC5, don't want to have to roll fenders (atleast not yet) and its pretty much stock at the moment so what wheel size/tyre would be ideal and sit atleast semi flush with the body? I was thinking 17 x 9 +35 .. any other suggestions? Thanks :D

17x9 +35 will almost definitely need a roll at the rear. Unless you put a 215/40 or something equally foolish on it or adjust the camber to be quite negative. 17x8 +35 with a 225/45 should fit without any need to roll the guards, depending on ride height and alignment. Honestly the rear guard lip is 15mm wide or so, so without rolling that up your wheels are always going to be at least 15mm sunk to clear it.

[IDV8]

Well its completely stock so I'm not sure of the exact measurements at the moment though if I did lower it I'd roll the guards THEN just don't want to do it before hand. Thanks for the replies!

[45SET]

Lower the car and roll the guards first.

DC5's sit really high out of the factory, so if you put a set of 17's or 18's it's going to sit even higher, and look stupid.

But 17x8 +35 with 225/45 is a fairly safe size.

[IDV8]

Can't lower it yet, need to wait until I move. There are literally 6 speed humps I have to go over twice a day and about 500m of deep pot holed road and I don't want to scrape/damage the undercarriage :(

[45SET]

If that's the case, getting rims with low profile tyres also isn't a good idea.

Save up and do it all at once.

[Nuci]

Why does he have to do it all at once? Wheres the benefit in that? Apart from stretching his wallet.

[new2teg]

i had a similar question but it probably vague but what is the best (cheapest) way to make the dc5 sit a little nicer? just lowered springs? or would a different rim + tire combo help?

sorry to hijack a bit cheers!

[Nuci]

The cheapest way would be to cut your springs in half. But that seems to only work on commodores. King springs would be the next best option. Can buy em from places like autobarn for like 150 a pair from memory. Dont expect them to improve anything other than to make it sit lower though. Not something I would ever buy for my DC5R. If you wanted to buy something a bit more decent, get yourself some Tein s-tech lowering springs. Bit more expensive but better quality product. Or man up and just buy coilovers :)

[new2teg]

lol if by 'man up' you mean pull $1000 out of my arse then I agree, except its empty :) I will probably go with springs as I don't want to spend to much on the car it just looks painful at stock height imo. Also, I keep reading lowered spring on stock shocks will damage them eventually it seems lose lose unless you want to spend around a grand on it all...

[Nuci]

Well unfortunately taking the cheapest route can end up costing you more money in the long run. And one thing ive learned in modifying the DC5 is that rarely is there a good cheap option.

Ive heard of stock shocks struggling with lowered springs, but then again ive also heard of people who have had lowering springs and stock shocks on their DC5 for a few years and no problems. What condition are your shocks in? If theyre ok, i would just get some quality lowering springs (skunk2, eibach, tein - have a look on ebay), and if after time your shocks give away, just replace them then. You might find that you will never have a problem. Do you drive the car hard?

[45SET]

Why does he have to do it all at once? Wheres the benefit in that? Apart from stretching his wallet.

Have you not read any of the above posts? I'll recap for you.

He wants to get bigger rims, but if you put bigger rims on a DC5 with stock suspension, it sits even higher, and looks really bad.

To avoid this, I said that he should lower the car first, as the car looks better lowered on stock rims, then stock height on bigger rims. OP stated that due to where he lives at the moment, he can't lower the car, but he'll be moving in the future.

SSSOOO... I said that he should wait till he has moved, then get the rims, tyres and lowered suspension at once. He'll still be spending the same amount of money, except in one hit, instead of two.

OP seems to have understood my posts easily.

[new2teg]

Well unfortunately taking the cheapest route can end up costing you more money in the long run. And one thing ive learned in modifying the DC5 is that rarely is there a good cheap option.

Ive heard of stock shocks struggling with lowered springs, but then again ive also heard of people who have had lowering springs and stock shocks on their DC5 for a few years and no problems. What condition are your shocks in? If theyre ok, i would just get some quality lowering springs (skunk2, eibach, tein - have a look on ebay), and if after time your shocks give away, just replace them then. You might find that you will never have a problem. Do you drive the car hard?

Hard? Lol I wouldn't now how to and if I did I'd get blasted for driving a base not an S or R right? :s I only drive on the weekends so I doesn't get much use its only done 64,000k so I'd hope the current shocks are okay? Anyway to easily check? Thanks for your btw

[Nuci]

Well if its only a weekend car then i cant see a problem in keeping the same shocks. Not like its a track car or anything. Do some research on the brands i mentioned and see which one will give you a drop closest to what youre after.

[Nuci]

And R.E. 45SETs post, I never said there was anything wrong with doing it all at once, but theres nothing wrong with doing it one step at a time either. Chill.

[45SET]

And R.E. 45SETs post, I never said there was anything wrong with doing it all at once, but theres nothing wrong with doing it one step at a time either. Chill.

The way you worded your post would suggest the opposite.

[Nuci]

The way you worded your post would suggest the opposite.

My point was that however he does it the end result would be the same. Not everyone can go get rims, tyres, suspension and guard rolling in one hit.

[45SET]

My point was that however he does it the end result would be the same. Not everyone can go get rims, tyres, suspension and guard rolling in one hit.

Again... read my initial post. I said he should save until he has moved out of where he currently lives (as even he admitted it has shit roads), then get it all done at once.

Atleast I didn't tell him to "man up" and get coilovers.

[Nuci]

Now you're talking about a completely different person. The reference about coilovers was made to new2teg, and was said tongue-in-cheek. I thought the :) made that obvious.

[IDV8]

This is why high jacking threads is a no no.

What if I just wanted to make the current stock wheels appear a little bit more aggressive for the time being? Spacers, if so what mm?

[Nuci]

Well I wouldn't get spacers until you have the car the the height you want it at. Because the natural camber that you get from lowering a car will mean that the spacers you have won't look the same after the car has been dropped. Best way to do it would be lower the car to your liking, then grab a tape measure and measure the distance between the sidewall of the tyre and the inner lip if the guard. That's how wide you want your spacers to be. They come in all different sizes. Just make sure you get the hub centric ones, and the right stud pattern and offset.

[azzacrombe]

45SET is right. The DC5's sit really high. I just put on 18" rims on mine and theres about a 2.5" gap between the tyre and the car. Looks pretty average. Going to lower it on Kings which drops its down about 1.6" (40mm) which is good enough so im not scrapping the bottom everytime i go up my driveway.

[IDV8]

I might look into Kings Springs too, thanks guys! Can any mechanic install them? (Eg; if I supply them)

[azzacrombe]

If you know what you are doing and have the necesary tools it isnt too hard. See below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT_jgVqxH5U

[azzacrombe]

I might look into Kings Springs too, thanks guys! Can any mechanic install them? (Eg; if I supply them)

But in answer to your question, yes any mechanic should be able to install them.

[IDV8]

Thanks for the link :D

If I can only find a wheel with the offset of +45, would this sit exactly as the stock wheel would? And in this case if it was the only offset I could find would that be the better time to put spacers on for a more aggressive look?

[45SET]

Get rims with a lower offset... around +30. A 17x8 +30 would be ideal for performance and looks.

If you ran a +45 with a 7.5 rim, it won't sit exactly the same as the stock rim because the stock rims are 6.5 wide.

Running spacers should be a very last resort.

[IDV8]

17x9 seems to be more common with the wheels I'm looking at, will that extra inch be an issue?

[45SET]

17x9 seems to be more common with the wheels I'm looking at, will that extra inch be an issue?

No.17x9 +30 would actually be ideal (this is the size I am looking for to use as track rims).

[IDV8]

I mentioned it in another forum some time back and they mentioned 9 inch may rub? Or could've been 9.5 - no chance of that happening? My car will be 100% for road use, just the rims I want I've only seen below 9 inch like.. once

[45SET]

I mentioned it in another forum some time back and they mentioned 9 inch may rub? Or could've been 9.5 - no chance of that happening? My car will be 100% for road use, just the rims I want I've only seen below 9 inch like.. once

You'll need to roll the rear guards and run some camber. You might also need to trim the top of the inside of the rear bar (You'll understand what I mean by this once you have drive the car with the rims)

Fronts will be fine, they'll probably rub on the middle fender lining tab, but after a while it'll rub it away.

But of course, this all depends on how low you are going to go.

[IDV8]

Thanks for the reply, not sure how relevant it is but regardless of how low I go the tyres will always be under the fenders - not a fan of the cut off look some lowered cars have (where the top of the tyre is sitting under the fender)

[Dubstein]

I bought my Integra with 17x7 (Looking for new ones now) And he has the fenders rolled (His job is so bloody dogey..). I honestly wouldnt recommend getting any bigger, because when someone is in the backseat, every bump the car drives over it scraps so hard at the back. My only options atm are buying smaller rims, which is what i want to do.

[45SET]

Thanks for the reply, not sure how relevant it is but regardless of how low I go the tyres will always be under the fenders - not a fan of the cut off look some lowered cars have (where the top of the tyre is sitting under the fender)

Yep, I understand. So you tyres won't be tucking under the guards. If that's the case, you should expeciance to many problems.


I bought my Integra with 17x7 (Looking for new ones now) And he has the fenders rolled (His job is so bloody dogey..). I honestly wouldnt recommend getting any bigger, because when someone is in the backseat, every bump the car drives over it scraps so hard at the back. My only options atm are buying smaller rims, which is what i want to do.

Do you have a DC4 or DC5? Both are very different. For a DC5 anything less then 17x7 is to small.

[Dubstein]

Dc4 Shit, ill take more notice of Ops first post more often xD