can you help recomment 20" rims and tires for my awd 300c

[kandor]

Hi,

I just bought a AWD 300c 2006. It has stock 18" rims with 225/60R18 tires on it currently. The front tires are worn pirelli's and the rears are new dunlops- I want to switch to a falken tire with a 20" rim and perhaps a wider tire. I'm new to all this so I want to make sure I find a 'non-chrome' rim and tire combo that will work with the AWD - does awd change the space available for tire width? Any input greatfully appreciated!

Thanks,

Kandor

[kandor]

My friend is recommending a Nitto Invo 255/45 R20 on a liquidmetal-static S rim. The rim offset is 42mm I believe. Any possible issues here?

Thanks,

Kandor

[Licit]

Originally Posted by kandor

Hi,

I just bought a AWD 300c 2006. It has stock 18" rims with 225/60R18 tires on it currently. The front tires are worn pirelli's and the rears are new dunlops- I want to switch to a falken tire with a 20" rim and perhaps a wider tire. I'm new to all this so I want to make sure I find a 'non-chrome' rim and tire combo that will work with the AWD - does awd change the space available for tire width? Any input greatfully appreciated!

Thanks,

Kandor

I had just been looking into this myself. I can tell you that the offset you want should be between +32mm to +44mm for AWD. You can run up to 265 width tires and possibly more depending on the offset you can find for wheels. I am almost positive someone was running 275 tires on either 20" or 22" wheels. I am with you that 20" is as big as I want to go and I want to definitely get more tire on there.

[CSand78]

When I initially ordered my 20's for my car I ordered them with a 255/45/20 Nitto 420S Tire and that ended up rubbing the inner wheel in the front. I'm currently running 245/40/20 and they fit great. I'd also like to get more tire to fill in the wheel well gap more. I'm thinking of getting 245/45/20 tires next summer.

[kandor]

What was the rim offset - is that what caused the rubbing? Is it an AWD?

Thanks,

Kandor

[CSand78]

Yes, I have a 300C AWD. The offset of the Rims is +40 and it was rubbing the inner wheel well when you turned the wheel and rubbing the plastic push pin that holds the wheel well into the front bumper.

[kandor]

Ok, thanks for the info!

BTW what year is your car?

[Licit]

Originally Posted by CSand78

Yes, I have a 300C AWD. The offset of the Rims is +40 and it was rubbing the inner wheel well when you turned the wheel and rubbing the plastic push pin that holds the wheel well into the front bumper.

That makes me wonder how others are fitting 255 or 265's on their cars with awd as well. I guess if you had an offset down closer to +32mm that could make a difference.

[kandor]

In researching the idea of putting 20" rims on my 2006 awd 300c I've come across several things that give me concern:

The offset for the awd is said to be 55mm, yet many people seem to recommend 42 - 45mm for a replacement rim? Confusing...!

People report that gas milage will suffer going from a 225 (stock on 18") to a 255 - this makes sense to me and I'm not that interested in making the milage worse - but how much worse is it?

General performance concerns - one thread talks about how the 300c is engineered for an 18" rim i.e. the brakes, unsprung weight etc. I'm unschooled about this so....chime in!

Potential rubbing as reported in this thread.

I like the look of 20" rims and also like the look of a wider tire, but I don't want to drop $2500 on a set of rims and rubber and later regret it because of the above mentioned issues.

What are your thoughts?

Thanks,

Kandor

[Licit]

Originally Posted by kandor

In researching the idea of putting 20" rims on my 2006 awd 300c I've come across several things that give me concern:

The offset for the awd is said to be 55mm, yet many people seem to recommend 42 - 45mm for a replacement rim? Confusing...!

People report that gas milage will suffer going from a 225 (stock on 18") to a 255 - this makes sense to me and I'm not that interested in making the milage worse - but how much worse is it?

General performance concerns - one thread talks about how the 300c is engineered for an 18" rim i.e. the brakes, unsprung weight etc. I'm unschooled about this so....chime in!

Potential rubbing as reported in this thread.

I like the look of 20" rims and also like the look of a wider tire, but I don't want to drop $2500 on a set of rims and rubber and later regret it because of the above mentioned issues.

What are your thoughts?

Thanks,

Kandor

Someone with +40 offset said it was about dead even with the fender so that should tell you that +42 or so would make it a good setup. I would doubt gas mileage should vary more than 1 or 2 at most mpg.
The car is going to be fine varying from the stock setup, there are cars out there that are actually engineered for performance, this isn't one of them. We would have seen problems listed on here before when people put 22's and 255 tires on if the case was that the car was engineered for the exact wheels and tire sizes that are on there. Here is a tire size calculator for you http://www.1010tiresdotcom/tiresizecalculator.asp That will let you know what size tire to put on a 20inch wheel. For example, putting a 245/45R20 tire on a 20inch wheel will be 6 hundredths of an inch different than a stock wheel and tire combo, total diameter is 28.68 vs 28.62 for stock.
Go with the 245 tire if you want to prevent rubbing, or even 235 if you want to be 100% sure.