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Wheel/Tire Advice

2K views 8 replies 3 participants last post by  Parthros 
#1 ·
Hey everyone!

I'm new to this forum and was looking for some advice on wheel and tire fitment. I have a 2010 Cobalt LT Sedan. I'm looking at a set of 17x8" ET25 wheels. What tire size do you think would be best? I am full stock, but will probably lower the car once the new shoes are on.

Any help you could provide would be great!
 
#2 · (Edited)
Welcome to the forums!

Those might be a little bit wide for a Cobalt. My wheels are 17x7 with an offset of 45mm. I don't have any clearance issues, but I can't say for sure you'd be okay going a whole inch wider.

Hey @MP81, what size are your wheels?

For lowering, general recommendation around here is get SSC or CM springs (made by the same company). SSC's are available at zzperformance.com, and CM's at canuckmotorsports.com. You'll definitely want to upgrade your struts and shocks too because the stock FE1 suspension (base model) does not respond well to lowering springs. FE1 struts & shocks will blow out in just a couple of months. Most people like to get the Cobalt SS/TC FE5 struts and shocks because they're very well designed, available, and affordable. Another good, albeit more expensive, alternative is Koni Yellow struts/shocks, or if you want to break the bank, pretty much any set of coil-overs.


Here are the product links for what I've got on my car (except for the discontinued wheels):
CM Lowering Springs
FE5 Driver Side Strut
FE5 Passenger Side Strut
FE5 Rear Shock(s)
 
#3 ·
I have 18x8s, with an offset of 35mm - so it pushes them out a touch, right to the edge of the wheel well - which looks great. Also helps with clearance to the strut if I were to run something wider than a 225.
 
#4 ·
Well, then the 17x8 should fit as long as the offset isn't something crazy.

I had to go back and look at yours, and man does it look nice with that offset! Almost makes me wanna do a spacer, but I'd rather have more thread contact on the lugs than a better stance. I could get new wheels with that offset, but I don't wanna spend that much.

Looking through for pics of Balto, I saw you made a thread about a brake upgrade. You ever go through with it?
 
#5 ·
Haha, thanks. I like them a lot - just hate cleaning them. It takes forever.

And nope - I haven't yet. Really trying to sort my options out. My leading candidate is the TCE Wilwood kit, but I'm not sure what I want to do yet. I really don't want to switch to 5-lug, but that might honestly be cheaper than the Wilwoods.

Having the Camaro now, I'm going to have to budget my car money between the two, haha.
 
#6 ·
Thanks for the info!

The reason for wanting to go with the 17x8" ET25 is that I was able to test fit the APEX 4-Lug ARC-8 wheel they have for the old E30 BMWs. I like the design, and would go with the Hyper Silver color. I saw they are running a Group Buy right now on them as they are looking to do another production run.

The only tire size we had available at the time was a 205/40, which was stretch. There was away too much room in the wheel wells, which is why I would have to lower it. Here are some pics of the test fit.

Front
20150515_163359 by mikehurl16, on Flickr

20150515_163342 by mikehurl16, on Flickr

20150515_163411 by mikehurl16, on Flickr

Rear
20150515_164223 by mikehurl16, on Flickr

20150515_164240 by mikehurl16, on Flickr

20150515_164251 by mikehurl16, on Flickr

I'm going to see if I can find a better tire to test this with. If I can, I'll post more pics. I'm thinking a 215 or a 225 would be best. Thoughts?
 
#7 ·
Wheel gap is kinda just a stock Cobalt thing. :laugh: You don't necessarily need to lower it, even if you go with a smaller tire. It'd only be if you wanted less wheel gap and/or better handling.

What's the offset on those? They almost look like they poke out of the wheel wells (if that makes sense). I'd maybe be a little worried about rubbing, especially with tires that fit the wheels correctly.

225 would probably be best for that wide of a wheel. 225/40R17 would get you pretty close to stock diameter (for speedometer accuracy) if yours came with 195/60R15.




Man, those tires are shot. Someone went all #STANCENATION with those! :laugh:
 
#9 ·
Ah, yup, the 16" wheels got 205/55R16, so if you go with a 225 width, then 225/45R17 will be essentially the same as overall stock diameter.

If they've got the same wheels with different offsets, you might try some of the others.

---------- Post added at 04:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:30 PM ----------

Here's a tool I like to use to compare tire sizes when it's time for new ones:

https://tiresize.com/calculator/
 
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