Styling Alloy Wheel Help
- Thread starter neoseal
- Start date
Currently reading:
Styling Alloy Wheel Help
Hello and welcome 
Popular wheel sizes for the Brava/o are 15, 16 or 17ins diameter. The original wheels are 4 stud x 98 PCD (although most makes of wheel will come in 100PCD, which will fit your car with wobbly bolts), can take offsets of 30-38 (IIRC, hopefully someone can confirm?). Tyres for the 14ins steel wheels are 175/65/14, I am running 195/50/15 on my alloys but I'm sure someone with them can confirm what tyres came with Bravo/a 15ins original alloys.
Popular wheel sizes for the Brava/o are 15, 16 or 17ins diameter. The original wheels are 4 stud x 98 PCD (although most makes of wheel will come in 100PCD, which will fit your car with wobbly bolts), can take offsets of 30-38 (IIRC, hopefully someone can confirm?). Tyres for the 14ins steel wheels are 175/65/14, I am running 195/50/15 on my alloys but I'm sure someone with them can confirm what tyres came with Bravo/a 15ins original alloys.
195/50 are the stated tyres to fit to a 15" wheel.
You will also find that 195/50R15 are one of the cheapest sizes to buy tyres for.
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2005
- Messages
- 1,829
- Points
- 422
The two Bravo HLX's i've owned came standard with alloys. The tyre size for 15" Fiat Bravo HLX alloys are 185/55/15.
Aftermarket alloy wheel shops sell 15" alloys with a 195/50/15 tyre.
If you start messing with tyre sizes compared to the orignal tyre required you run the risk of making your speedo inaccurate. E.g the 195/50/15 tyre compared with the original manufacturers required tyre size of 185/55/15 is infact slightly larger than required, therefore making the cars speedo approximately 2mph inaccurate at 70mph, therefore you are only travelling at 68mph. Bigger wheels will increase speedo inaccuracy, on a 17" 205/40/17 tyre compared to orignal size, the 70mph your speedo indicates could be in fact 71.3mph. These are relatively small inaccuracies however, like i mentioned before, if you mess around from recommend tyre sizes you can really throw off your actual speed.
See here...
http://www.chris-longhurst.com/carbibles/tyre_bible.html
You can fit 14", 15", 16", 17" and 18" without any problems on a Bravo/a. Yes 18" alloys do fit, aslong as you keep the rim width to 7".
14" - 185/60/14
15" - 185/55/15 (Original) or 195/50/15
16" - 195/45/16
17" - 205/40/17
18" - 215/35/18
Most common alloy wheel upgrade is to 17". I would recommend either a 15",16" or 17" alloy wheel upgrade size.
Problems with upgrading the size of your alloys from manufacturers standard, is that the ride become more harsh due to the smaller tyre wall on bigger rims. Fitting 17's will make you feel every bump in the road, 18's even more so. For comfort i would stick with 15's. Some people choose 16's as an inbetween, to improve the cars looks aswell as try and keep as much ride comfort as possible.
Things to consider when choosing alloy wheels.
Make sure they are 4 stud. The number of people i know who have purchased 5 stud alloys for there fiats. lol.
The ideal PCD is 4x98, this is Fiats fitment. 4x100, is vauxhall, ford etc but they can be made to fit with wobbly bolts. Personally i would try and find 4x98 fitment alloys if you can.
The ideal offset for 17" alloys is ET37. However if you keep the offset between ET35-ET45 you should be fine.
Ok the last thing you need to know is the centre bore size. The fiat centre bore size is 58.1. Anything smaller and it wont fit. You can buy plastic/metal spiggot rings to help decrease centrebore size. They dont cost much and most alloys wheel shops will supply them with the alloys. There are no real advantages between metal and plastic spiggot rings. I have had plastic ones for over 3 years and no problems.
The above applies to both Bravo and Brava. Hope it helps.
Aftermarket alloy wheel shops sell 15" alloys with a 195/50/15 tyre.
If you start messing with tyre sizes compared to the orignal tyre required you run the risk of making your speedo inaccurate. E.g the 195/50/15 tyre compared with the original manufacturers required tyre size of 185/55/15 is infact slightly larger than required, therefore making the cars speedo approximately 2mph inaccurate at 70mph, therefore you are only travelling at 68mph. Bigger wheels will increase speedo inaccuracy, on a 17" 205/40/17 tyre compared to orignal size, the 70mph your speedo indicates could be in fact 71.3mph. These are relatively small inaccuracies however, like i mentioned before, if you mess around from recommend tyre sizes you can really throw off your actual speed.
See here...
http://www.chris-longhurst.com/carbibles/tyre_bible.html
You can fit 14", 15", 16", 17" and 18" without any problems on a Bravo/a. Yes 18" alloys do fit, aslong as you keep the rim width to 7".
14" - 185/60/14
15" - 185/55/15 (Original) or 195/50/15
16" - 195/45/16
17" - 205/40/17
18" - 215/35/18
Most common alloy wheel upgrade is to 17". I would recommend either a 15",16" or 17" alloy wheel upgrade size.
Problems with upgrading the size of your alloys from manufacturers standard, is that the ride become more harsh due to the smaller tyre wall on bigger rims. Fitting 17's will make you feel every bump in the road, 18's even more so. For comfort i would stick with 15's. Some people choose 16's as an inbetween, to improve the cars looks aswell as try and keep as much ride comfort as possible.
Things to consider when choosing alloy wheels.
Make sure they are 4 stud. The number of people i know who have purchased 5 stud alloys for there fiats. lol.
The ideal PCD is 4x98, this is Fiats fitment. 4x100, is vauxhall, ford etc but they can be made to fit with wobbly bolts. Personally i would try and find 4x98 fitment alloys if you can.
The ideal offset for 17" alloys is ET37. However if you keep the offset between ET35-ET45 you should be fine.
Ok the last thing you need to know is the centre bore size. The fiat centre bore size is 58.1. Anything smaller and it wont fit. You can buy plastic/metal spiggot rings to help decrease centrebore size. They dont cost much and most alloys wheel shops will supply them with the alloys. There are no real advantages between metal and plastic spiggot rings. I have had plastic ones for over 3 years and no problems.
The above applies to both Bravo and Brava. Hope it helps.
how will they perform compared to what?
compared to the standard steel wheels they will feel firmer and give better handling.
compared to 17" alloys with 40profile tyres they'll feel like sponge and barely go round corners.
if you have standard steel wheels i'd get them, but when the tyres need changing replace them with 195/50/15s. the ride is a bit firmer than with the 55s on which gives more predictable cornering and its easier to feel for grip when cornering hard. i found the 55s to be a bit too soft even when they were inflated to 36psi, but 50s feel much better.
compared to the standard steel wheels they will feel firmer and give better handling.
compared to 17" alloys with 40profile tyres they'll feel like sponge and barely go round corners.
if you have standard steel wheels i'd get them, but when the tyres need changing replace them with 195/50/15s. the ride is a bit firmer than with the 55s on which gives more predictable cornering and its easier to feel for grip when cornering hard. i found the 55s to be a bit too soft even when they were inflated to 36psi, but 50s feel much better.
Hi, i just bought a set of wolfrace on ebay. Theyre 4x100pcd but i dont like the idea of wobbly bolts. Is it really wobbly or is it a safe wobbly? is there any kind of fitting that i can place to stop it being wobbly? Many thanks
wobbly bolts arent really wobbly, they simply have a modified collar with a slightly (1mm) offset centre bore. this means they will tighten up solid on 100pcd wheels. they are perfectly safe.
