17-inch wheels

[122838B]

I notice that Buick Lucerne "hyper silver" wheels are starting to appear on the market. These are 17 by 7 inch wheels with the 115mm bolt pattern. Are these wheels too tall & wide for the Reatta and, if not, what tire size would be required to make them fit? The only drawback to the wheels is that the Reatt hub and emblem will not fit. Too bad. It appears that some Cadallic wheels can take the Reatta emblem. Am I correct here?

[EDBSO]

Tire size calculator.

Tires

there shouldn't be a problem. I run Riviera 16" rims with snow tires half the year.

[F14CRAZY]

See my thread "Glamour pix and 17s". I've been running 17'' Mustang GT wheels with no rubbing or other issues. The stock Lucerne wheels may have higher sidewalls though.

[Barney Eaton]

It is not just the wheels, you must adjust the tire size when you do the "plus" sizing. The links will help, it would also be helpful to know the back spacing of the lucerne wheels. Send one of the sellers a note asking the distance from the back of the wheel to the mounting surface. We can then compare that with the stock Reatta.

[122838B]

Barney,
the tire size calculator shows that the radius, diameter and circumstance is comparable between a tire size of 215/65-15 and of 225/50-17, with the smaller tire very slightly largerin all three dimensions, and a rollling difference of only .6%. So I am guessing that the radius of the 50 series tires will not pose a back-spacing problem.

[Barney Eaton]

The 225/50r17 does look like a good choice and there should be no clearance problems, if the 17" rim has about the same backspacing as the factory Reatta rims.

My reference information shows that the 15" Reatta rim is 5 1/2 (139.7) from the mounting surface to the back of the rim. The 16" Reatta rim is 1/4 in deeper (or closer to the strut) at 5 3/4 (146mm) It the 17" rim has about the same backspacing, there should be no problem.

[padgett]

Factory 16x7 wheels have a 46 mm offset (is often cast into the back of the wheel). The same would be appropriate for any 7" wheel. OTOH aftermarket wheels generally have a 38 mm offset which moves the wheel out slightly.