The whole exercise with offset is to maintain wheel centerline-to-hub-face relationship. This preserves the scrub radius engineered by the factory. Large changes in scrub radius lead to wonky steering as mentioned by Greg.
Small changes (±5 mm) should have little apparent effect on steering feel. The primary criterion should be to prevent contact of wheel/tire against the car. Sometimes you have to live with a little tire contact against the fender liner at full compression.
You can use wheels with significantly more negative offset if you insert spacers. This is a poor solution though, as you will probably need longer lugs to attain proper lug nut depth. NISMO lugs are expensive ($8.00 each!) and I had bad luck with them on my SE-R (see my web site). That said, I have the NISMO 50 mm lugs in the rear hubs and a 1/4" spacer on for each rear wheel to get the SSR rims to clear the struts. The wheels are 42 mm offset.
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Bruce in Houston
'94 Nissan Sentra SE-R w/ $tuff, converting to ITA
'98 Suzuki Bandit 1200S w/ $tuff
'02 Dodge Dakota SLT 4-dr tow beast, stock!
What do you do if your wheel studs start lookin stripped or rusty? I've had my wheels taken off about 50 times within the last year and a half. What are the costs and procedures to replace these studs? Thanks, Dan
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Dan
1992 Nissan SE-R
2001 MR2 Spyder
Replace with stock studs. I don't know their cost.
Front studs can be done on the car. There is a space cast into the front upright for just this repair. Place the front on jack stands as you will be wielding a hammer. With the wheel removed, screw a lug nut onto the stud until the flat outer face of the nut is flush with the end of the stud. Line up the stud with the cast-in slot. Now, and this is the scientific term, wail away at the nut with the hammer until the stud pops loose. Remove the nut and pull the stud completely out of the hub. Install new stud back through hub, place a nut with ID larger than stud over stud, then run the lug nut down (flat side down) and pull the stud through .
I don't know how the studs are attached on rear drums. On rear disc, use a big-ass breakover bar and 32 mm socket to remove the rear hub (after you removed the wheels and calipers). If the studs are attached to the drum like old Detroit iron, remove the drum from the vehicle before applying force. If the studs are pressed into the hub, remove the drum and then the hub. Using the procedure for the front, nut the studs and whack 'em out. For the new studs, if on loose hub you can just hammer them in from the back side. If on the vehicle, use same procedure as the front.
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Bruce in Houston
'94 Nissan Sentra SE-R w/ $tuff, converting to ITA
'98 Suzuki Bandit 1200S w/ $tuff
'02 Dodge Dakota SLT 4-dr tow beast, stock!
I'm not an expert at this but I'll state my opinion. If you go for the 15x6.5" wheel and 195/50/15 tire then wheel rub should not be a problem. 7" you may encounter rub but with a 38mm offset you should be okay, if not shims are an option. I see many of you mention 205/50/15 and yes, your wheel height/diameter will be increased like Skinny G and sentrapower93 said.
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Sentrapower93 is correct. The sidewall height of a 205/50 is 50% of 205 = 102.5mm. The sidewall height of a 195/50 is 50% of 195 = 97.5mm. That's a 5mm difference in sidewall height, 10mm difference in diameter. That's over 3/8"!
Also, your speedometer and odometer readings will change. If you go with a 195/50/15 your readings compared to the stock 175/70R13 will change +0.14%. A 205/50/15 will have a change of +1.88%.
Just thought I'd throw that in the mix but you guys seem to know what you're talking about and mad things clearer to me.
dho...
Changing wheel studs/pins is not that difficult for the most part. You need a hammer and good aim although I would suggest taking it to a garage as you can easily bend the hub. One of my pins broke off about 2 years ago and I only replaced it a month ago. I looked around Town at most import shops and neither place carried it, not even Canadian Tire had them and they get their parts from Nissan to begin with. I ended up going to the Nissan Dealership. The guys in the garage were very friendly. Greg that works there told me to call back if I can't find anything locally and he would have it flown in. I went in 2 days later to pick up 1 pin and 1 lug nut for a cost of $6.83 I think. If I had my time back I would have bought 4 lug nuts at Wal-Mart for the price of 1 that I got at Nissan. If you're just looking for the pins/studs it shouldn't be too expensive. Hammering the pins out is not the problem, it's just knocking the new ones back in as it's a hard place to get at and the pin will probably go in on an angle. Best bet is the garage as they have the right tools to do the job.
Thanks, both of ya'll. Ya'll are a great help, now I've got some more questions:
Quote:
Front studs can be done on the car. There is a space cast into the front upright for just this repair. Place the front on jack stands as you will be wielding a hammer. With the wheel removed, screw a lug nut onto the stud until the flat outer face of the nut is flush with the end of the stud. Line up the stud with the cast-in slot. Now, and this is the scientific term, wail away at the nut with the hammer until the stud pops loose. Remove the nut and pull the stud completely out of the hub. Install new stud back through hub, place a nut with ID larger than stud over stud, then run the lug nut down (flat side down) and pull the stud through .
What cast and front upright of what? For the last sentence, do you mean to find a nut that won't screw on, but will just fit over it a little bit and then use the regular nut and tighten it till you can no longer tighten?
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Dan
1992 Nissan SE-R
2001 MR2 Spyder
The upright is the big cast piece that the strut bolts to. It has the spindle machined on it and the hub bolts to the spindle. The control arm is attached to it at the lower ball joint.
Yes, the extra nut is one larger than the stud, something to take space so the lug nut won't bottom out before the stud is completely seated. You can use anything.
Hey, 95SentraB13, don't forget like I did that cheap Sentras come with 13" wheels while SE-Rs came with 185/60-14. For an SE-R, 205/50-15 is the better "Plus 1" upgrade. My first answer to the question didn't account for the 13" wheel.
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Bruce in Houston
'94 Nissan Sentra SE-R w/ $tuff, converting to ITA
'98 Suzuki Bandit 1200S w/ $tuff
'02 Dodge Dakota SLT 4-dr tow beast, stock!
don't forget like I did that cheap Sentras come with 13" wheels while SE-Rs came with 185/60-14. For an SE-R, 205/50-15 is the better "Plus 1" upgrade.
Thanks for pointing that out bahearn. I knew what size both cars have for stock but didn't want to speculate on larger sizes for the SE-R since I don't own one. Also, the 91-94 or here in Canada (91-96) SE-R is illegal due to seat belt design as far as I know so I don't have the luxury of owning one or the need to know what's what. Although I would like a SR20DE engine.
NX2000, baby. I'm aware of several Cannuck owners who frequent the SE-R list. All own NXen.
Or, buy an import JDM motor and tranny. The engine electrical harness plugs as a unit, so you can swap that for the 2.0 version. The JDM engine will probably come with a useless AWD unit, so you'll have to get a junkyard 5-speed from an NX. Heck, get the entire drivetrain from a junk NX2000 though you'll probably have to rebuild the engine. At least you get a limited-slip diff in the deal.
What was illegal, the manual belts or the mouse belts? I despise automatic belts.
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Bruce in Houston
'94 Nissan Sentra SE-R w/ $tuff, converting to ITA
'98 Suzuki Bandit 1200S w/ $tuff
'02 Dodge Dakota SLT 4-dr tow beast, stock!
I despise the auto seat belts too! I hate it when you brake, stop, then attempt to get out of the car and the seat belt's locked. You can't get out of the car!! (have to do the whole procedure all over again, start the car, turn off the car, open door, step out of the car.)
Anyone know how to do a manual seat belt conversion and weight reduction? (Maybe I should stop worrying about conversions and get an SE-r?)
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Dan
1992 Nissan SE-R
2001 MR2 Spyder
Originally posted by bahearn What was illegal, the manual belts or the mouse belts? I despise automatic belts.
Automatic belts? No CDN B13 Sentra's have automatic belts. What do US Sentra's have? Frankly, I can not recall any CDN car having automatic belts. There must be one somewhere....
Some model B13 Sentra's in the US had automatic belts like the SE-R I think or maybe it never. The GXE might have had them, again I'm not sure.
A few CDN cars have had the automatic belts in the past, I see a few in Newfoundland driving around, not Nissan though. Our 1993 GLE Nissan Quest had automatic belts. It was a cool feature but was extremely annoying and was deemed dangerous, especially in accidents. I'm not sure if the auto shoulder thing or the manual lap belt that caused the problem.
Sentras come with 13" wheels while SE-Rs 
came with 185/60-14. For an SE-R, 205/50-15 is the better "Plus 1" upgrade. My first answer to the question didn't account for the 13" wheel.
205/40 R18???
Linear Mode
