Share Your Experience With Budget Wheels

[Cannabis Camry]

So I was looking into upgrading my 98 Camry CE's wheels and I noticed that Tire Rack has a lot of fairly nice looking wheels for the gen 4 Camry. I know that an OEM alloy wheel is very expensive so I was wondering why these wheels where so much cheaper. The wheels I was looking at specifically are the Sport Edition F7's found here. I was wondering what peoples experience has been with low cost rims such as these. I'm not one to go crazy about brand names, I just want a decent looking 16 inch 5 spoke wheel. Please drop some knowledge.

[ToyotaTat]

i don't have any experience with tire rack, but i've had Eagle Alloy (wtf are they) wheels on my '90 for a little over two years and i can' t complain

[Cannabis Camry]

I was just wondering if people had problems with the rims easily bending or breaking.

[Tom 2000]

If you buy from a reputable place like the Tirerack, you should be fine.

I bought a set of 16X7 Fondmetal 6700 alloy wheels from Discount Tires Direct back in 2003. I only paid $49 per wheel (closeout special, what a deal that was).

It's been 5 years and 53,000 miles. The wheels look great. and I have gone through a tire replacement already.

One thing I will note. Make sure you get good lug nuts.

Discount Tire Direct offered Gorilla tuner lug nuts with the package as the lug nuts for the original steel wheels weren't going to work. I have a little less thread engagement and I do need to retorque the lug nuts after a couple of days I take the wheels off for any reason.

I thought about getting a set of OEM alloy lug nuts, but since it's never been a problem after I retorque them, I haven't.

[Cannabis Camry]

Originally Posted by Tom 2000

Discount Tire Direct offered Gorilla tuner lug nuts with the package as the lug nuts for the original steel wheels weren't going to work.

What is the difference between the steel wheel lug nuts and alloy lug nuts that makes them incompatible?

[ONE_to_HATE]

i'd do it again!.. i spent like- $400 on the ebay 17" i have on and spent another $300 for a KICK ASS set of tires-

lemme tell you.. i drive around sf/oakland/hayward/san jose and those are ALL within the top 5 of this NATION'S worst roads.. after over 2 years of no problems- if i were to bend a rim today *knocks on wood* i'd be still be plenty pissed. LOL



j/k- i wouldn't hesitate to get another set off ebay.

[Tom 2000]

Originally Posted by Cannabis Camry

What is the difference between the steel wheel lug nuts and alloy lug nuts that makes them incompatible?

The wheel is thicker (more material) at where the lug nut mount on to the wheel/stud. If I tried to use the stock lug nuts, I would not have enough thread engagement.

Stopby a nearby auto parts store or better yet, a tire store that sells wheels . They should have a display of lug nuts/studs and explain to you how the lug nuts seat on to the wheel.

[eyeball96]

I have "budget" 17's on both my Camrys and i haven't had a problem.

They still look good, and are true...and I've drilled a few pot holes with them.

[1kdude]

I spent $550 on a set of ROTAs, 17X8.5 35mm offset. I am very happy with them. I hit a rail track sort of hard 2 times a day on my commute, no problems. I can run 235X17-45 tires also but had to roll the rear wheel wells ($100, easy, and worth it). I suspect DOT requirements make all wheels fine. I was disappointed with the 'all show and no go' of the vast majority of A/M wheels. Most sellers don't even know what widths they had or how much anything weighed, just chrome it! I wanted as wide as I could get and ROTA's has a great selection. Incidentally Tire rack told me do not exceed their width or size recommendations. I carefully measured everything and they were wrong. Another lesson learned was 18" tires are more expensive than 17", transmit bigger hits and the 'Name OZ' wheel I took off weighed 4 lbs more than the 17" ones.

Hope that helps