Insurance - modifications

[lil4civ]

Hi, was just wondering. I'm going to get rims for my car soon and wasn't thinking of notifying the insurance company about it.
If I was to get into an accident (knock on wood) and the other party is a fault and something happened to my rims, would it still be covered?
Or is it best to notify the insurance company and pay alittle extra to cover it? I'm it AAMI.
Also i've driving a civic 99 and the stock rims are 14" but planning to get 17" and lower it about 2", do you think they will still insurer my car?

[Bayani]

No.

They will say the car is not roadworthy; thus nulling your insurance.. = bad when you get in to a smash.

AAMI underwrite JustCar. Best of going with them and list all your modifications. It is YOUR responsibility to ensure compliance with legislation; they will simply ask to tell them the estimated price, etc. But it can bite you in the ass.

[lil4civ]

Thanks i just called them and they said theres no charge to it. just as long as its road worthy and by the law. They said all i need to do is notify them so they can add it to the policy and replace them if need in an accident.
So if my stock wheels are 14" and i get 17" would that be road worthy?

[Dy_]

its usually 2 sizes up from stock...but i've heard alot of different things. best calling up rta?

[omgitsmatt]

if in a series of cars like eg civic vti came stock with 16s all other egs can go 2 sizes up so in theory it you would be able to put 18's - this is just what i got told by police as i wanted to put rims on but didnt wanted to get defected for them

[wp89]

Guidelines for alternative wheels and tyres
http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/registration/downloads/vsi/vsi09_rev4.pdf

refer to page 2

[lil4civ]

Thanks, i've read the pdf but its confusing. 12.5mm increase allowed but I'm not sure how much the 14" to 17" is increased by.
I've read this in another post:

OK...this is the effect of the tyre profile on you're speedo:

Compared to stock 185/60/14

If you're running 205/40/17:
• rolling diameter increased by 18.2mm (illegal in NSW as > 10mm deviation)
• speedo is 3.2% slower
• RESULT: if speedo shows 60km/h...actual speed is 61.92 km/h

If you're running 205/35/17:
• rolling diameter decreased by 0.3mm (legal in NSW as < 10mm deviation)
• speedo is 0.4% faster
• RESULT: if speedo shows 60km/h...actual speed is 59.42 km/h

In either case the change to your speedo @ 60km/h is < 1km/h so I doubt the camera should pick that up

From reading this, its makes me think thats its legal to get wheels 3 sizes up but depending on the tyre size you have on the wheels. If this is incorrect, please let me know.

[Bayani]

Ok; Look on your driver side door well. There's a little sticker with wheel and tyre combinations.

You may fit a tyre and wheel combintion that is less than a 10mm increase in TOTAL WHEEL+TYRE CIRCUMFRENCE.

Whilst you can say - depending on the wheel you get - that you can get 3 inches up; they simply do NOT make tyres with that low of a profile.

It is NOT 'You can go two inches up' - you need to adjust your tyre combination to ensure legal road use.

2 Inches Larger is a extremely bad GUIDELINE - as it fails to alert whoever is being told that they need to adjust tyre profile to suit.

[lil4civ]

cool thanks for that. that makes more sense now. thanks again

[Bayani]

No worries :]