hey i have a 2004 mini cooper non s with stock 15's and i want to go with 195 55 16s 16x7 rims. the ones i were looking at on tire rack were +38mm offest and 5.51 back spacing. i have no idea about rims and offest so please help. what would be a good offset and back spacing if thoes dont work and will i need longer lugs

 

38mm offset will work fine at stock height, however if you lower your car you may need to use some "stancing" measures to get things to fit.

 

are you sure ? im not doupting you its just i dont wanna spend almost a grand in rims and tires for somthing that will not fit

 

I hear ya. Give it a bit more time and some others will chime in.

I'm running 40 offset 17x7s at stock height, and have no problems. Doubt 2mm(7 hundredths of an inch) will be much different.

Btw, Offset and backspacing are the both different methods of expressing the same thing. so 38mm offset=5.5~ backspace on a 7 wide wheel.

If you are looking at ordering from Tire Rack, Give Alex a call. You can find his info in the Stickies at the top of this forum. He'll be glad to hook you up with info.

 

Yes, giving Alex at TR a call is the safe way to go.

The offset calculator provided the following comparison data.

Compared to OE 6.5X16" ET 48 wheels, the 7X16 ET 38 wheels would provide 4 mm more clearance inside, and extend 16 mm more to the outside.

Compared to the OE 6.5X16" wheels, Agarwaen's 7X17 ET 40 wheels should provide 2 mm more clearance inside, and extend 14 mm more to the outside.

7X16" ET 43 wheels (an alternative choice) would provide 1 mm less clearance inside, and extend 11 mm more to the outside.

Tire Rack notes that 7X16" wheels that have an ET of 42 or less may require trimming of the rear plastic fender liner lip/seam. Apparently some here have done that in order to accommodate a more aggressive stance (often including lowering) without rubbing. Deciding just how much farther one wants the wheels/tires to stick out is part of the ET decision process. Then what if one wants to also mount wider than OE tires and/or lower the ride height? It can get very tight under there.

Alex can also answer the lug bolt length question, but the 7X16" ET 38 and ET 43 wheels I checked on at the TR site called for the OE bolts.

 

thank you i called and tr and they said they put that little notation about the trimming because a while back 1 customer had problems but he has only heard of that one time and said i should be fine with 195 55 16s and 38mm

 

I'm running 16x7 SSRs offset 35 with 205/45/16 tires. Car is lower little over an inch around 4 corners. No problems with rubbing.