18X10 Rear Wheels
 

Hello all, I am looking for some help with wheel / tire sizes for my 97 Boxster. Now I know that Porsche did not recommend 18" wheels on the 97, so with that aside I am looking for some advice. I have a set of BSA 18X9 ET 48 for the front and 18X10 ET 52 for the rears. I have not had tires mounted on the rims yet and just wanted to check on the car for fitment. It looks like the fronts will fit well with the correct tire size, but when I placed the 18X10's on the rear they were right up against the strut. As I said they are a 52mm offset rim so what size spacer should I use? Any help here would be appreciated!

I would recommend lowering the offset on the rears to around + 45 . +40 if you want a more aggressive stance .

So a 7mm spacer should do the trick, any recommendations of a brand of spacer? Any thoughts on tire size as well, I have read that some tires, although being the same size, may have a few mm's in difference. And one more question, do you think the front will be ok? Thanks for the response JDanger.

fwiw, I have 18x10 all around on the BMW, I run 295 in the rear and 285 on the front

Depending on the brand, sidewall angle and shape can vary between tires . In any case, I've found the following sizes to be an excellent choice with regard to fitment and performance : front/235 , rear/275 . Also, if in fact the fronts are 9 inches wide, you're going to have clearance issues as well . You'll need to lower the offset in order to gain enough inner clearance . However, the trade off will be, that the wheel may then protrude too far outward - causing clearance problems with the fender lip . A 9 inch wheel is not a good choice to use up front on a 986 boxster . Regardless of what spacer you use, I don't think that it will fit .

I must have had a brain fart, I looked at the boxes again, and the fronts are 18X8's with a ET 48. I don't think that I will have to put spacers on the front with those. Thanks for the help Johnny D!

If they're 18x8 +48 then you're good. However, ultimately you may find that the fronts look quite a bit "in" as compared to the rears . In which case, adding a 7 - 10 mm spacer will bring them out nicely .

JD
p.s. Try contacting this member, Allen K. Littlefield . He recently found an excellent source for spacers at very reasonable prices.

I am still wondering what size spacer I should get. I'm afraid the 7mm won't give me enough clearance over say a 10 or 12, yet I don't want the outside lip sticking to far beyond the fender. Has anyone had any problems with something this size rubbing on the outside? Johnny Danger, what size rims are you running on the rear? What is the ET? You mentioned running 275's on the rear, is that a 30 series or a 35? Once again guys, thanks for your help!

I run 18x8.5 et 55mm in the front with no spacers and 18x10 et 48 with 5mm spacers in the rear. I perfer the fronts to have the tucked in look. It makes the rear of the car look much wider.

I have the following wheel fitment :

front: 19 x 8 +31 et 235/35/18
rear: 19 x 10 +31 et 275/30/19

Keep in mind, my set-up is very aggressive, and my vehicle has been lowered via adjustable coilovers . However, prior to this, I experimented with different wheel
sets, along with different suspension configurations. With that said, I can tell you from experience, if you're using a 10 inch rear wheel, I recommend targeting an offset between +40 to 45 . As far as the fronts are concerned , depending on the look or stance that you're trying to achieve, with an 8 inch wheel I would recommend offsets ranging from +38 to 40 or so .

Nice car Johnny..!

Thanks. It hight lights my cheek bones .

So Allen recommended a site on ebay which offers a 10mm spacer which would put my rear offset at +42 which falls into what you are saying Johnny. My only concern is why no other sites ie. H&R, Eibach, etc offer a 10mm spacer. Normally all I see is 7mm and 15mm for the 97 Boxster, should I worry or just trust in Allen? And yes your car looks awesome!

TriGem2k what size tires are you running front and back?

I wouldn't recommend you "trust in Allen" as I am new to the Boxster game and learning all the time. I would recommend to do some more searching on your own on ebay as there are a number of of mfg. making spacers. I have seen spacers of 3, 5, 7, 12, 13, 15mm and even some up to one inch. Spend some more time looking and listen to the Dangerous one and some of the other more experienced posters have to say.

Be sure to keep us posted on what you decide on and then the results. I have had no issues mounting 15mm spacers all around. Since the rear wheel is wider than the front anyway, I still maintain the rear wider than the front look, just that they all are 15mm out further than stock. Does make the cornering even better. I have 17" stock 'windmill' 5 spoke wheels that look like they could have been designed by Chip Foose.

Party on! AKL :dance:

It's not uncommon to see aftermarket companies offering different size spacers . They're trying to fill a niche . Not everyone wants a 7 or 15 mm spacer . Case in point, your vehicle. A 15mm spacer maybe too aggressive, whereas a 7mm is not quite enough . So, as long as the quality is good and they're guaranteed to be hubcentric, they're fine .

JD

I have several sets of spacers in various sizes. I don't have the longer lug bolts you would need to use the smaller spacers, but they are all over Ebay at a fairly reasonable price. I'm not sure how good the after market lug bolts are.
The main thing, rather than brand I think, is that you get them hub centric on both sides.

First off, thanks again for all of your help, but I have another question. I contacted the ebay seller about the 10mm spacers, he wanted me to measure the hub on which the factory wheels sits on the rear of my boxster. I measured and found them to be 12mm long, so he told me that I couldn't use any spacer shorter than a 15mm spacer without causing problems. I don't think I want to run a 15mm spacer because the the wheel is a et52 which would put me at a +37 after spacers mounted, right? Won't that put the wheels out pass the fenders? Any suggestions? I'm just confused as from reading through all of these posts it looks like many people are using 5mm or 7mm spacers on their rears. Should I just look at another source for the spacers? Thanks again.

I'm not sure what that's all about,. but I know you can go to a 40 offset without fender rubbing issues. I've had 18 x 10 ET40 wheels with 265 and 275s tires and had no problems.

Having said that, you have a 97, and it is not recommended to use 18s. There were major reinforcements done with the chassis starting in 98 to accommodate 18 inch wheels. 17's ride better, are lighter, tires are cheaper, you can lower it further, and you won't likely have any suspension issues as a result of after market wheels. You can get a a set of 17 inch light weight forged wheels used for half the price of 18s.