Hello folks,
I am looking for replacement wheels for my 2006 Sentra. I have had a couple of threads on it.
My car’s wheel size is 16" x 6", 4 Lug, 4.5" Bolt Pattern and I found a good set of 16" x 6.5", 4 Lug, 4.5" Bolt Pattern for a reasonable price. I am not too sure if these will fit.
Can anybody advise if I should get these wheels?
Thanks in advance.
Honestly I don’t know if the wheels will fit.
I would advise you to make sure you can get tires for these wheels, though. The reason you may be able to get a “good price” on these wheels is it’s hard to find tires for them.
It uses 205-55/16 tires which are widely available. I suspect, the guy has gotten rid of the car so the wheels are not useful to him.
You’ll need to determine if the wheel offset values are the same.
2 more numbers you need to insure they fit.
Center hole diameter. It must e bigger than your present wheels. Best if is the same size since the wheels pilot on the center hub. You can buy ring spacers or run without them - but then the pilot is the wheel studs themselves and that can sometimes cause vibration issues.
The wheel offset, usually molded into the wheel right there with the diameter and width. Usually labeled ET 42 or ET37 or similar. That number is how far from the centerline of the wheel the mounting face is located. ET 37 means the face is 37 mm outboard of the wheel’s centerline. You can likely go up or down 6 with no issues. Any more and you might run into fit issues.
Sorry, I don’t know what that is.
@Noelm Read above. Your car needs positive offset wheels. See picture below:
Thank you.
I quickly searched. Mine is ET42 and the wheels are ET45.
The center hold diameter is same 66.1mm
Always learning something new.
Are these wheels also from a Sentra? A wider wheel needs to have a larger offset to give it the same geometry as a narrower one. The difference between the the widths is 1/2", which is 12.7 mm. Dividing this in half, the offset would need to be 6.35 mm higher to be exactly the same. The difference of 3 mm may be close enough. Maybe our tire expert, @CapriRacer can shed some light.
That doesn’t sound right. Keeping the same offset was what I’ve read. The offset determines where the center line of the wheel is relative to the mounting point, which determines the leverage of the wheel on the suspension. As long as the offset is constant the leverage is constant.
The wider the wheel, the farther the center line is from the edge. But I’m not sure my reasoning is correct here.
The offset does need to change many times, but for a different reason, according to Tire Rack:
“If the offset of the wheel is not correct for the car, the handling can be adversely affected. Often, when changing the width of the wheel, the offset will also need to change to maintain proper clearances inside the wheel well.”
I was just going to correct my post with that same info from the same source! But to the original question, these wheels may or may not be usable.
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=101&s_kwcid=AL!3756!10!78065375014659!78065397618163&ef_id=W0OYcgAAB7gZwhGW:20190625021217:s
I’d go to tirerack.com and check on the size recommended, but it sounds fine. Besides, while there, you could check the brand and see if you are getting a deal, since prices can vary wildly… $95 to $950.
6.5" replacing a 6" wheel is not uncommon for aftermarket. As said, they are often offset more to maintain inner clearance for rotors and steering components. It sounds like these wheels will stick out (maybe) 1" further than your factory wheels. (Looks nice, if your car isn’t lowered.) They should work well with your stock tires. I have had problems with rear wheels’ weights brushing the e-brake cable in cornering, when not offset. (Tie wraps fix that problem.)
It sounds like you’ve found a good replacement. Keep your old wheels, just in case.
Yes, but from a newer one. Mine is 2006, these are from 2008. The ones tirerack is selling are 16x7 with 40 to 45mm offset for my car.
The wheels that my car came with are 16x6, 42mm offset and these are 16x6.5, 45mm offset.
This is what I can not do. I am an apt dweller with very limited space. If I decide to keep even a single wheel, my wife will not be happy at all.
I had a word with the mechanic and his comment was, most likely these will fit. My car is stock, so hopefully there should be a little trouble.
After @Mustangman posted the picture, I spent some time reading about it. Also, checked some Youtube videos to understand well. One of the videos mentioned the use of spacers to fix the offset. Assuming I understood it correctly, that can also be used. The smallest spacer I could find was 0.25inch.
And that is the biggest one you should ever use with factory wheel studs!
For handling, bearing loading and drive-ability, the offsett is the important number. For clearance, the back-spacing is an important number. That is what @NYBo is saying in earlier posts.
For a 1/2 wider wheel, that is less of a concern. With the same offset, the wider wheel will stick out farther 1/4 inch on either side. If the tire you choose is the same width as with your 6 inch wheels, it will only be about an 1/8 inch wider installed on 1/2 wider wheels. So wheel 1/4 closer but tire only about 1/8 inch closer. Confused yet? You wouldn’t be the first!
If the tire chosen is 10 or 20 mm wider, that would stick out a bit less than 1/4 on each side. Plenty of room on most cars. The 16 inch wheels TireRack sells for this car all seem to be 16x7 or 1/2 wider than yours and TR guarantees fit.
Noelm , you had a thread back in February about needing to replace a damaged wheel on this vehicle your wife wants replaced . You also said your area is a good place for wheel damage . Did you replace the wheel from a salvage as planned ? I just don’t see the need to spend a lot on a vehicle you plan to replace .
No. After the thread, I called a few salvage yards around me and the prices were just as good as the new generic black wheels (~$75). So it just didn’t make sense to pay the same amount for the salvage wheels. After talking to the mechanic, he suggested waiting till summer for yard sales or Craigslist etc. So have been checking Craigslist for a month now. Came across these for $40 a pop, 3 years old, but noticed the variation in the width, hence started this thread. Wouldn’t mind spending $200 or so if I can run this car for another couple of years for local errands.
@Mustangman Thanks for the explanation. I am learning a lot in this thread.
Sorry, I wasn’t clear. Hang onto the old ones for a couple weeks
(w/o tires) until sure these feel stable and don’t rub. I had my
factory wheels bagged and in the car for that long.
I'd recommend against ever using spacers. They can cause
problems. Besides, for the extra cost, you could buy exact fit
wheels.
My son has a 2006 Sentra Spec V. It came with 17x7 on it and he has upgraded to Nismo 17x7.5 with 225/45-17 tires. No issues so you will not have a clearance problem.
Your offset on the new wheels is about right. Sometimes as they go wider, the offset isn’t increased as much as you might think in order to keep good clearance inside the wheel well. The purpose of the offset is to get the centerline of the wheel in line with the centerline of the wheel bearings. It doesn’t have to be exactly centered though, just so the centerline of the wheel falls somewhere between the inner and outer wheel bearings.
Sometimes people will use a high negative offset to get their wheel to stick way out from the wheel wells. Most often you see this on jacked up 4x4 pickups and ricers. It doesn’t hurt the handling, some think it improves it because of the wider track, but what it does do is wear out the outer wheel bearings faster. If you don’t mind changing wheel bearings/hub assemblies every 40 or 50k miles then I guess that is OK with you.
But your new wheels will not have this issue so go ahead and use them. BTW, you should upgrade to a 215/55 and you can go to a 225/55 tire when you need new tires. You will have plenty of clearance and a little better handling.