Bought some 18" rims and have a question
 

So I recently bought a set of Tire Rack Sport Cup edition rims with Michelin Super Sport tires. I bought 18x8 and 18x9 rims with 225/40/18 and 265/35/18 sized tires. My question is do I need to do anything to the parking brake line? I know that with 10" rims they need to be tied back somewhere but not sure about 9" rims. I went with the 9's as they were a few lbs lighter.

The rims fit perfectly my only critique is that one of my wheel caps did not fit perfectly in one of the rims. I had to try it in another wheel and got it to fit fine. The finish of the wheels are pretty good there are some rough areas but my 17's where not any better. I didn't get to drive on them as I wanted to test them for any steering wheel shimmies. The wheels appear to be balanced fairly well as there aren't too many weights on them. My 17's actually had more. I have attached a rough picture and will post some more as the weather gets better.

I was thinking of skipping the rims, but when you take into account that tire rack mounts and balances the rims for free, where as tire rack approved shops charge $180 in my area(to install on my old rims). That saving makes the wheels even cheaper so for $600 why not. As much as I wanted OEM wheels I am not going to spend 20% of the value of the car on rims as I will be doing other work as well, IMS, clutch, AOS, and possibly ROW M030.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1358313295.jpg

Hey CK, nice wheels. Here's a post I did years ago answering your question: Tip for those running with larger wheels - OEM Parking Brake Line Clip

While on the topic of rims...I have seen loads of photos showing boxsters with a variety of great looking rims that do not appear to be factory. In most cases, the rims are sporting the Porsche center cap. Do after market rims come with a universal sized hole that would accept a Porsche center cap? Or, are all those rims showing Porsche center caps actually wheels manufactured by Porsche?

If you want to sell your old 17s I might know a buyer. He is in SoCal.

Read that article and learned there is supposed to be a guide thingy for installing the wheels. I'm happy now. That was a real pain when I did my brakes last summer. I love this board.

i have 10" o.z. rims with no rubbing; it may be due to 986s vs 986 uprights, as well as rim offset.

regarding centre caps, i can't get porsche caps to fit aftermarket rims; diameter is correct but clips are different. i could glue them but that's kinda hack; running with o.z. centre caps instead. anyone want some ebay aftermarket black centre caps?

I might be interested in the black center caps. Pm me price.

I have some 17" that I'm not using if you know someone that wants them lmk.
Thanks
Andy.

So I took the car out for a ride tonight. I'm so so on the 18" wheels / tires. I actually think the 17's drove better but the 18's still need breaking in so the verdict is still out. I could feel the road a lot more, I felt like the tires tracked the road a little bit and I had a steering wheel shimmy above 85, not sure if it was the road or the car. I can't remember how my 17's felt at these speeds. The shimmy I think is due to the higher psi I was running on the fronts. I was running 32/36. Tomorrow I'm going to try 29/36 and see how it drives. If not any better ill ask tire rack to rebalance the fronts. Finally I'll need a new alignment as I haven't had one done in a very long time, possibly 8 years. The tires gripped better as there is more of a contact patch with these tires. With regards to looks the 18 win hands down, but actual performance so far goes to the 17's. I'm going to keep my 17's for winter tires or another set of summers.

Who balanced the wheels, and by what method ?

tire rack with a hunter machine.

Nice car CK! I bought the same 18 inch Sport Ed 4 set from Tire Rack last summer. I don't have the money for Michelin and went for Sumitomo. Tire Rack also balanced the set but I was getting vibrations at 70 to 80. The car runs great when I had my 17's with complete suspension upgrades. Turned out, the original Porsche metal tire valve caps that I took from the old set and put in the new ones. They screwed the weights. I had all 4 wheels forced balanced at a local Firestone shop with the metal caps. Runs perfect now.

I use the plastic porsche caps. The silver ones that cover the entire stem. I am surprised that 18's are so sensitive. I plan on getting an alignment too. I was planning on taking the car to STS as they have a hunter machine and computerized alignment machine. I was going to ask them for the following alignment specs

Front Camber: -0.7 degrees
Rear Camber: -1.6 degrees

Front Toe: 0.0
Rear Toe: 0.1

I had the wheels rebalanced and it looks like one of the front wheels was off. I haven't really driven it much above 70 yet but expect the problem to be resolved. My complaint is with these wheel shopps as they don't use the right equipment. They scratched up the inside of the lug holes on one of my wheels. Now these wheel have really narrow lug access but my nylon socket fit perfectly. Granted even it blemishes the finish a little bit, but in the end it's not the end of the world. It's hardly noticeable unless your face is in the wheel. My other complaint is that they left the wheel weight residue on the wheel. Now i gotta find some goo gone. Finally this is just an observation but are wheel weights supposed to be placed one upon the other? Shouldn't they just use a heavier weight? To top it off it's on the front side of the wheel.

No more Firestone for me. I just needed it done quickly and didn't want to leave my car at the "more reputable shops" overnight.

I took my 18" wheels to Firestone too...to mount my new tires that I got shipped to my house. I then threw the tires and wheels in my SUV to take to Firestone. They didn't damage the inside of the lugnut area cause they never had to take them off the car itself. Use my 17" for the winter with snows so I just take off the 18s or 17s and leave the other set on the boxster at home so that those tire guys can't mess things up that much. The wheel weights...you have to tell them to mount them on the backside of the rim.

What a chore getting these wheels perfectly balanced. I went back to Firestone because they made the shimmy come up sooner 77 vs 85mph from tire rack. I asked if they could road force balance the wheels. They said you know just take your money back, we don't have time to diagnose your cars/wheels problems. I can take a hint. I didn't love their work so went on my way. I then go to sts and they say they can't do it but go to a shop down the road and don't tell them you got your wheels from tire rack. I go there and tell the guy I need the tires road force balanced and the wheels checked for roundness and hub centric. He also says he'll check my suspension. I pick up the car an hour and a half later and drive it down the local interstate. I get it up to 90 and It drives like a dream. It turns out Firestone didn't balance the wheels correctly as I noticed they were spun around on the rim (by the new shop) and my suspension was off a little in the rear for both toe and camber.

Their alignment was cheap too $80, can't ask for much more.

Woo Hoo! Glad you got them balanced. It can be tough to find someone who knows what they are doing.

I just get a set of the parking brake clips from Sunset Imports for around $5.00. Looks and works much better than ties.