Will Boxster Alloys go on a '82 944?

[Guest]

As the title says really. I've been offered a really good set, and while i'm not their biggest fan, they're at a very good price.
So, will Boxster alloys fit an early ('82) 944. I think they do but best ask the experts before i make a fool of myself.

Thanks chaps.

 

[Fen]

Not without spacers of approximately 30mm (or maybe more). I have recently become the owner of a set of Bogster alloys myself [], but I haven't checked the offset to know for sure the spacer you'd need.

Mine will be surplus to requirements as soon as I can get some nice wheels to replace them.

 

[Indi9xx]

As Fen said, your going to need some monster wheel spacers but they will fit... Or you run them without wheel spacers and the car will look like a 1970's kit car (wheels sat way far inside the wheel arches)

If you go the wheel spacer route, expect the car to have a serious apetite for wheel bearings also.

 

[944Turbo]

Jon,
how does running spacers to make up for a lack of offset in the wheels increase the wheel bearing wear?
I would have thought the leverage would be around the same point. Is it a factor of the increased unsprung weight?
Obviously a wider lower profile tyre (as in this case) would increase the load but with a late offset teledial on an early car with spacers isnt this the same as running an early offset teledial?
Tony

 

[K_Claire]

I have 1988 944 so might be interested in the alloys depending on design, size, condition and where in UK. So if you decide you don't want you can pass information on to me.

 

[K_Claire]

Hi Fen,

If you are getting rid of your boxster alloys i might be interested depending on size etc. where are you based in UK. When would you be thinking of exchanging?

Kul

 

[Guest]

Here's a pic. What do you think of them? 6 and 7" wide, offset of 40 and 50 respectively

 

[Fen]

ORIGINAL: ks claire

Hi Fen,

If you are getting rid of your boxster alloys i might be interested depending on size etc. where are you based in UK. When would you be thinking of exchanging?

Kul

I'm in Devon and the wheels will be going as soon as I can find some Cup1's. The Boxster ones look to be in pretty good condition (I didn't pay much attention as I knew I didn't want them but I wasn't going to not buy the car because of them so they were irrelevant to me), but I spotted a small mark on one of them. These be they:

 

[John Sims]

I don't believe they will fit because the hub assembly is too bulky to go in to the centre of the wheel - it has nothing to do with the off set. However, if you get a spacer to push the wheel out beyond the bearing, it will fit.

If the inset of the new wheel with a bulky spacer is equal to the off set of the original wheel remains to be seen - if the two are similar (once spacer and new wheel are combined) there will be no change in bearing wear.

 

[K_Claire]

Thanks Darren for showing them.
I prefer the sort that look like boxster twist or carrera 2000 (like the original cup3s as per Fens photo).

Regards

Kul

 

[K_Claire]

Yeah Fen,

Lovely. (What size?). Its a toss up between these type of Boxster alloys or copy 17" cup3s. Is there much of an advantage buying original over copies?

Can still contact us if when you decide to sell. One problem though I live in Leicester.

(Thanks for the info about the 968 spoiler - sounds too tricky to fit).

Kul

 

[Fen]

I'll have to check the wheels at the weekend as I'm at work in Slough just now and the car is at home. I genuinely haven't really looked at the wheels because I knew even before looking at the car I'd change them if I bought it.

Funnily enough I have a set of MX5 wheels with me in the car which are being collected by a chap from Leicester on Wednesday.

 

[Indi9xx]

Tony,

I just spotted your question, sorry for the delay

Even though, on a early offset 944 with wheel spacers and late wheels, you have the tyre and wheel sat in the same position as with the standard early offset wheels, the mass of wheel ends up further away from the bearing.

Here goes for some really poor ASCII art.... ------ is the rim . S is the spacer, X is the wheel bearing...

Late wheels, early hub, moster wheel spacers..
-------
I
I-S
SX
I-S
I
-------

Early wheel, early hub, no wheel spacers
-------
I
I
IX
I
I
-------

And just to be complete... a late wheel on a late hub...
-------
I
I
IX
I
I
-------

Notice how when you have the correct wheels on the correct car, the wheel bearing is close to the mass of the centre (spokes, hub etc) of the wheel, which constitues a large proportion of the wheels weight. Also the heaviest part of the rim (-------) is where its thicker because it joins the rim to the spokes....

Now if you look at the late offset wheel on an early hub, you can see that the mass of the wheel is going to be biassed further away from the wheel bearing, which will vastly increase the load on the bearing. Your also increasing the unsprung mass of the wheel, which will not only effect handling, but also will increase the load on the bearing as you hit each bump in the road.

I would estimate that more than half the weight of the wheel is within the hub area, spoke area and where the spokes meet the rim (where the rim is thicker).

In practice, we constantly see early 944's with monster wheel spacers and late wheels going through wheel bearings in a fraction of the time you would expect, in some cases as often as every 25,000 miles.

The problem is almost as bad with early cars fitted with replica late model wheels with early offsets.. These wheels still have the issue of the mass of the wheel being further from the wheel bearing, but also have the problem of being heavier than the geniune wheels as well.

Then there is the final problem, which is generally, when people put late offset wheels onto early cars, they often go for 17 inch wheels (17 inch cup 1 or 2 replicas, boxster twists) which are again heavier than the cars original teledials, which in itself again increases the load on the wheel bearings.

Then the final problem is that when you put 17 inch wheels onto 944's as a whole, the caster mounts are not up to the job (especially if they are old and tired) so you end up with premature failure of the caster mounts, due to reduced flex within the tyre sidewall during cornering, which increases the load on the caster mount.. Which is why its recommended that you change over to 968 MO30 caster mounts when fitting 17 inch wheels onto a 944... But this additional loading isnt just confined to the caster mounts, also the wheel bearing will also see aditional load, which combined with my reasoning above, again helps the early wheel bearing on its way to wheel bearing hell...

All in all.... late wheels, early car = problems

 

[John Sims]

I see your logic Jon and stand corrected.

Nicely explained, I especially like the ASCII drawings (a skill lost to the youth of today).

I thought I would be really clever but concluded:-

╔═══════════════════════════╗
â•‘ It's a sod with proportional spacing â•‘
╚═══════════════════════════╝

To think, in the old days, I would do drawings of security screen sections with nothing more than ascii codes - happy days. [] AutoCAD is so much quicker though.