First of all, when you’re deciding what offsets to get… you are thinking of an ideal world. In real life you usually have to settle for a slightly higher offset (as that’s all you can find), and use a spacer. If you can wait, you can special order wheels to the exact offsets you want. However you have about a 5mm~ zone where your idea of “perfection” wont be noticeable. Don’t forget you can always pull your fenders/quarters.
That being said. the first thing you need to consider is: how acceptable is rubbing to you?
Once you’ve determined that, you need to think: “how low do I want to go?”
Remember low and flush = rubbing. Flush and high = no rubbing, low and sunk = no rubbing. There are ways around it of course, but it requires more work than just mounting tires and popping those suckers on.
In my opinion the extra work is always worth it, once you see how sexy your car looks with flush wheels when its SLAMMED and the top of the tires are in perfect alignment with the bottom of the fender oh man, the whit stuffs everywhere.
Anyways. So how to pick offset? Well after you’ve figured out how “hardcore” you want to be you can decide on an offset.
I’m gonna try to make it easy for you, but it never is so the shit I post here is just a guideline. This is what has worked for me.
The first thing I need to point out which is CRUCIAL is that offsets depend more on your tire size than your wheel width. If you are using 235/45/17s, tell me, is it going to be the tire that rubs the fender, or the wheel? The tire obviously. As long as your wheel is clear of your shock, its width really doesn’t determine how flush the tires will be to the wheels. Now on other sites esspecially in the states you’ll see people stretching tires everywhere. This is why you’re seeing rediculous offsets on wide wheels. 215s with like -8 on a 9". Who cares? Do 215s with -8 on a 7" Less hardcore but the top edges of the tire will be in the same spot, just that the bottoms wil not be stretched like a custy whore this time.
Of course once you start bulging tires it will be a bit diferent, and every tire is different thats the BIG KEY. My falkens on my S13 were silly wide for what they were rated!
Down to buisness lets figure out a guideline for you fellas
S13:
Front:
205 +5 ~ +10
215 +10 ~ +15
225 +15 ~ +20
235 +20 ~ +25
Rear:
215 +10 ~ +15
225 +15 ~ +20
235 +20 ~ +25
245 +25 ~ +30
255 +30 ~ +35
S14
Front:
215 +5 ~ +10
225 +10 ~ +15
235 +15 ~ +20
245 +20 ~ +22 (clearance issues start arrising here)
Rear:
235 +8 ~ +13
245 +13 ~ +18
255 +18 ~ +23
265 +23 ~ +28
275 +28 ~ +32
Like I said these are guidelines to get the tire close to the edge of the fender/quarter. For people that have no idea, this is a ball park. When you figure out what you want look for pics on the internet of what people have done and adjust accordlingly. If you can find pictures with the same tire as you are planning to get I would go with that as I think it is the key to choosing the right offsets. Dont forget to consider wheel clearance as well!
Hope this helped some and will clearup the questions people have been having it seems on an almost daily basis.
To repeat, if you’re very serious about getting new whels, look at the chart to ballpark what you want, search on the net for your size find pics and then post your shit up for some final suggestions comments if you want!
