Planning on buying a wheel and tire for my Mustang Mach-E since the car does not come with a spare and I don’t want a flat at 6:00 pm to become a major hassle. I will most likely keep it in the garage. But buying wheels is rather complex. What I have come up with is: 5 x 108 bolt pattern. Current tires 225/55 R 19. But there is something called an offset. What do I do with that? And what other hidden measurements do I need to know?
Did you check the manual? It should tell you exactly what you need.
Do you have a scrapyard/recycler anywhere near? They may have what you need off a wreck.
You can go to tirerack.com and go through their Wheel Finder with your make and model. It will offer you a bunch of wheels that will fit your car.
Yes, Tire Rack
Last time I needed a new wheel for my old truck I found a scrapyard/recycler/U-Pick-A-Part place where the staff looked up what would fit and offered me three choices of tire, then helped me find an “organ donor” in their lot. Me and a friend did have to do the work of removing the wheel, but it cost me all of $19, a bit of time and elbow grease, and does the job. Granted, that was just for the rim, if I had wanted the rubber, too they would have charged me for that, too.
Just sayin’ if it’s a spare you want it doesn’t have to be all shiny and new, just solid and safe to swap out for a damaged tire in an emergency so I offer you a potentially low-cost way to get one.
Of course, if you’d prefer a different alternative that’s fine, too.
This is the answer. You may be able to get the exact rim that’s on your rig now from a dead version of your car, one that may even still have a decent tire mounted to it. Why buy a new one when a used one would work just as well and at less cost?
Electric vehicles require special tires. Do not just go out and buy the same size tire that would fit a non-electric vehicle.
One of the considerations is the added weight of an electric vehicle, due to the batteries. Another is the instant tourqe and acceleration that an electric car can provide. The car has different weight, handling, and availble speed and tourque.
Have you bought new tires for your Mach-E yet? The tire shop is not going to just put on the same size tires for a Camry.
Here’s why electric vehicles need EV-specific tires | Ars Technica
I don’t disbelieve you, but that article is very short on specifics. My Dodge 1500 (5600#) runs on the same Blizzaks that’s my wife’s CR-V (3600#, maybe) runs–same carcass, tread, etc. I’m sure mine wear out earlier but it’s hard to quantify. Plus the pickup is 400 hp vs 200 for the CR-V. And RWD vs AWD.
My Tesla came with specific tires, but the code (“W” I think?) apparently relates to max speed of 140mph. If I plan to stay under 110 apparently simpler (cheaper) tires will work.
If it’s just in case of an emergency, to get you to the next big city for a replacement tire, how about this? E-donut.
I’m considering the Tesla version. They appear to be full-size, just not as wide (or heavy) as a full wheel. (Believe me, having collected 4 extra rims for snow tires, OEM rims for EV’s are HEAVY to accomodate the weight of batterys.
OE wheels, even used OE wheels, are often more expensive than aftermarket wheels, because the only people buying OE wheels are insurance companies with deep pockets.
To some of the replies above, the wheel is the hunk of metal that bolts to the car, and the tire is the hunk of rubber that mounts to the wheel.
To the OP:
Ford uses this 108mm bolt pattern (4x or 5x) on some of their cars, as you’ve found. This bolt pattern is popular in Europe but extremely rare in North America, so your options are going to be limited from the start.
The wheel has a diameter but also a width. The width, combined with the offset, determines if the wheel will bang into stuff under the car. The offset is the distance (when looked at from above, say) between the mounting face of the wheel to the hub and the edges of the wheel rim. If you’ve ever seen a low rider with the wheels sticking out, those are low offset wheels – that is, the distance between the mounting surface and the inside rim is small. If you get a wheel with too low of an offset, your tire can rub on the fender during turns or large suspension movements. If you get a wheel with too high of an offset, the wheel or tire can hit suspension components or even the inner frame.
An additional measurement is the center bore. This is the hole in the middle of the wheel. Most automakers use hub-centric wheels, which use the center bore and a flange on the hub to locate the wheel during installation. It is not critical for the center bore to match the diameter of the hub flange, as that’s just for ease of installation. But it is critical for the center bore to be larger than the hub flange. Most aftermarket wheels have a very large center bore and offer hub-centric rings to fill the gap. These rings are optional. The only time you really need to worry about center bore is when putting OE wheels from a different model on your car. If you, for instance, found out that the Fiat 500L also used a 5x108 bolt pattern (it doesn’t, I just checked, but it’s also a screwy European pattern), you would have to verify that the center bore is large enough.
Lastly, most aftermarket wheels use a cone style lug seat that’s tapered at the same degree as standard aftermarket lug nuts. OEMs often use acorn style (rounded) or flat faced lug seats. This is to say that if you get an aftermarket wheel as a spare, you very well may need to order a set of lug nuts to match. Do not use your OEM lug nuts with an aftermarket wheel unless you’re sure they’re the same style.
tl;dr – yes, buying wheels can be complicated, especially if it’s not for a “tuner” car where there’s lots of options. I 3rd the recommendation here to call Tire Rack and make them do all of this work for you.
I disagree. The wheel is the whole thing. The metal bit in the middle is a rim and, yes the tyre is the rubber part that gives the car traction and smooths out some of the bumps,
I disagree. The rim is what the tire mounts to. See bicycle wheels, which have a hub, spokes, and rim. Automotive wheels have a rim too but it’s generally forged, cast, or welded into one piece. All of those pieces together are the wheel. The tire is separate. That’s why Tire Rack (and all the others) say “Shop for wheels” not “shop for rims”.
Try modernspare.com
What is your plan for getting it from your house to wherever you’re sitting on the side of the road?
I have a spare tire for my truck that I don’t carry around with my usual commute of 7 miles each way to and from work but for an extended trip it comes with me. Perhaps @dauerbach1 has a similar idea?
That would be my thinking should I buy the E-donut from ModernSpare for my Tesla. It’s one thing to wait for service or a tow in town, it’s another to be possibly a hundred miles or more from the nearest repair facility or tire shop.
I went to change off my snow tires one day for my BMW and discovered that I had misplaced the special lug nut security key; meaning I’d done several long distance drives in winter (and summer - the shop changed the wheels the previous fall) without the ability to change tires. (One bolt on each wheel had a star shaped pattern instead of hex. I would have needed that adapter.) Fortunately, no flats.