Wheel size specifications

[kimbi]

I'm having a little problem with the legality of my wheels. The Rta says (in basic terms) you can go no more than 2-inches in height and width bigger or smaller than the stand wheel size your car same with.

Cops tell me its only one size and i can be defected.

I have 17in wheels with low profile tyres on my VTIR civic (which as most know came standard with 15in wheels)..

This is a royal pain in my ass cause i also have king springs (the real low ones) in my car so to the cops it looks like it would scrub - but i can safely fit 4-fat asses in my car (been done before) without anything happening (not even speeding over a hump, or turning a corner sharply)..

Does anyone have any news/imput into the wheel business??? :) :) My wheels are legal right?

[tinkerbell]

depends on the profile of the tyres...

what are the tyres specs?

[A'PEXi]

they should be legal... the ride height is the thing which could be illegal... min 10cm off the ground at the lowest point of the car?...

[kimbi]

well i know my cars at least 10cm of the ground.. i hope :) just the cops are trying to tell me 17s are too big but they havent ever caused any problems..

[Spunkymonkey]

well i know my cars at least 10cm of the ground.. i hope :) just the cops are trying to tell me 17s are too big but they havent ever caused any problems..

hi kimbi...I believe technically the cop has a right to defect you. I have a copy of the relevant pages of the ADR somewhere at home..unfortunately I can't seem to find the relevant ADR on the rta as I think they've removed it. As far as I recall I believe the amount of give they give you for height is an extra 1.25 inches on stock...and width was different about 2.25 inches if I recall correctly.

If I find the information I'll post it.

[bizee_1]

Spunkymonkey, is this it : (it's about 6 pages in pdf format)
"Guidelines for alternative wheels and tyres" Vehicle Information Standards 9 Rev 3. Oct 2003 ??

A section of it says,

Minor changes to wheels
Wheels up to 26mm wider than the largest optional wheel recommended by the vehicle manufacturer for the
vehicle can be fitted without the need to notify the RTA.
The outside diameter of the wheel and tyre combination must be no more than 15mm over the largest diameter
wheel and tyre combination specified for the vehicle and not more than 15mm below the smallest diameter wheel
and tyre combination specified for the vehicle.

[kimbi]

DAMMIT..

Does anyone know the complete diameter for the wheels (rims and tyres) that came on a vtir? i need to see how much bigger these really are.. :?

[bizee_1]

hmm.....a Vti-R "Coupe's" standard fare are : 195/55/15 (correct me if i am wrong) is that the same for a EK Vti-R ?

With the Coupe's stock tyres. On 17" rims, using anything larger than 215/40/17 rubber would technically allow big brother to come down on you, according to the RTA guidelines that i posted above. (From my calculations with the help from : http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html)

But hey, i could be missing something here.


depends on the profile of the tyres...

what are the tyres specs?

[madgrk]

Get an engineers certificate with the 17's on saying they are safer than your 15's and that the extra fat tyres are better for stability or somethin, then show the police next time they pull you over :)

If they are LEGALLY approved by the RTA, then the certificate will only be used to shut up the police. By right any modifications on your car should be backed up with a certificate, to show that everything is safe and fine and dandy :D

Hope this helps!

[Spunkymonkey]

Spunkymonkey, is this it : (it's about 6 pages in pdf format)
"Guidelines for alternative wheels and tyres" Vehicle Information Standards 9 Rev 3. Oct 2003 ??

A section of it says,

Minor changes to wheels
Wheels up to 26mm wider than the largest optional wheel recommended by the vehicle manufacturer for the
vehicle can be fitted without the need to notify the RTA.
The outside diameter of the wheel and tyre combination must be no more than 15mm over the largest diameter
wheel and tyre combination specified for the vehicle and not more than 15mm below the smallest diameter wheel
and tyre combination specified for the vehicle.

that's it.

Ok...so how should we interpret that in ENGRISH :shock:

[kimbi]

ahh i see :) i dont think its worth my while getting an engineers cert tho, but all this business confuses me.. my car has 17s and all together with the tyres it comes to 20.5in in diameter... ??

[_Wing_]

Let me decipher that for you:

it means you can go ~one inch wider than largest optional wheel from honda, and it means you basically have to keep the overall diameter the same as that "largest optional rim".

So as tinkerbell said, it depends on tyre size.

[MTX BOY]

I have 18's on my EG and im 80mm from the ground but i haven't ever been pulled over :) sorry to hear of your troubles kimi!

[kimbi]

bummer :( mine arent even chrome so you couldnt even say theyre flashy!

youre lucky with your 18s then! think ill just have to play it dumb then.

[s2k]

my GF had 17s on her CXi and they only came out with 14s, and she never had any problem with the cops, had the FEELs kit on aswell and lowered

again my cousin had 17s on his lancer which only came with 13s, he has only been defected for his blue lights, again he took it to the cop station to clear it and it was all ok, they didnt even mention nothing about his 17s, lowered with kings superlow, and a evo 5 bodykit.
only trouble was the lights, LOL

the cops are mainly out to gain a few $$$$$ with the fines they issue you, if they dont do little things like that, where are they gonna get money from

[kimbi]

ok yall i need help again :(

i actually got issued a defect notice tonight (watch out anyone in the hills area in syd.. RTA station set up near norwest)

they said i can only go two inches bigger with your rim size than standard, (and to quote them) "that means you can only have 16in rims" (FYI my vtir stock had 15s..if you do the math, 15+2=17???)

i looked on the rta website and apparently its all based on the weight of the car.. over 1201kg = 2in bigger (anything over 1K to 1200 is 1.5)

im very very confused.. everyone (even the cops) say 17s have been ok on a car stock with 15s. DAMMIT :x i am sooo pissed off right about now. I dont have my stock wheels and i certinally dont want to have to buy new ones that are only 16s.

So just to annoy you all once more.. can someone help this lost blonde! I only have 14days to comply..

i currently have 17x7.5 with 205s on them. I mean its hard to believe the RTS inspector would get it wrong, but i guess im an optimist.

[toE]

i say either get a black and white from rta about the "mod" involved...or borrow a stock wheel just to comply with the defect and then swap it back to ur 17s...and stay out of the hills area.... :)

[kimbi]

how much does it cost to get them to OK the current mod??

[bizee_1]

how much does it cost to get them to OK the current mod??

can't help you there.

After reading the info from the rta site, it has been updated as to the old one i had referred to before. Although assuming you are running 205/40/17 tyres on your 17" wheels, you should be fine as i mentioned before in an earlier post.

Pretty much as toE said, go to an RTA inspection station & show them the proof.

Show them the tyre placard & the owners manual where it says that you have 15 inch wheels/tyres as standard fare.

Mention it is the VtiR model, as i think MAYBE, the lesser models [ie CXI etc] had 14 inch wheels on them, & maybe they got the model confused. Otherwise they are just trying to make life a little uneasy for you.

Guess i missed that RTA station on the way home the other night...

PS. FYI http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/heavyvehicles/downloads/vsi/vsi_dl1.html is the location of the ADR thingy's if anyone wishes to read up/refer to them...

[Jus-10]

Man I wouldn't sweat it...you only got defected for your rims and from my previous experience you should only have to get a Pink Slip to clear it (that's all I have ever had to do when I got defected)- I doubt you would have got a canary for just your wheels....

Assuming you only have to get a Pink Slip, don't you have a regular mechanic that you go to and can explain the situation to? Just take a print out of the RTA details and show him that and the tyre placard and you should be sweet. If he won't do it, he shouldn't charge you so then you just need stockies. Surely one of your mates has a set of stockies you can borrow for half an hour while you go to the mechanic to get it cleared?

As for the 14 days things, don't worry about it. Have you even received the letter from the RTA yet confirming the defect notice being issued? If you don't receive it, they haven't processed the defect and you are in the clear.

Above all else, don't worry about it....sure it sucks getting defected, but it's a pretty easy fix. Just don't argue with the cops. They will defect you if they believe it is defective. "Believe" is the key word......whether it is or not is not the point becasue it is then up to you to prove that it is not defective. I think that is why there is so much agro towards cops defecting people when they obviously have no idea what they are talking about...they don't need to, but you need to prove that your car is roadworthy.

J

[kimbi]

thanks heaps for that.. i just dont want to go the shifty and put on stockys, then put my 17s back on because my parents are already flipping over this (when i bought the car with 17s everyone including the insurance company said it was all cool and legal). And i dont want to have to go through this if i get caught again.

What happened was the defect was issued by the RTA at an inspection site. On the defect it just has the 'minor' box ticked but the guy did say if i didnt get it all fixed there would be serious implications.

I just love my car the way it is so i dont want to have to chage everything unless i know for sure its illegal.. then i want to look at getting a cert. for it to say the 17s are cool..

:( just a little stressed.. dont have the spare cash to change my wheels along with whatver else they want me to do (nothing major.. apparently my headlights shine blue when the dont at all!!!!)

[ian]

i drive a 2000 civic vtir coupe with 18x7.5 rims and 215/35 rubber and it's lowered with springs but not guard rolled, therefore an occassional rub on the front wheels but fine in the back. my original factory rims measure 15x6.

[SCRAPN]

go the 18s.... i want 20's on my coupe but the gaurd work will be a killr! defects cleared easy! dont stress

[lieos]

the law (at least in nsw) is you can go 2" above the standard size where the standard size is referring to the whole wheel/tyre size if you have gone from 15's to low profile 17's i cant see the problem. There is a website called tyre size calculator or something along those lines which works out exactly how much different your wheel size is but apart from that just take it to your local mechanic get him to give you a pink slip take it to the rta and you should be apples.
p.s : i am a mechanic

[J2daW]

that's so rude mate i know how you feel they open up the pits and send cops out to drag everyone in there and do some fund raising and discouraging of people cruising. even if there's nothing wrong they'll just try to piss you off somehow like tell you your lights are blue or you must have a switch that turns off your number plate lights 'cause they weren't working before... if i were you i'd write a letter (preferably with some evidence from a professional tyre fitter or quote from rta website about the law being a 2" increase in rim diameter (because it is) and also a photo of your tyre placard which will give the standard as being 15") and dispute the defect claim.