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New to forum, and have wheel questions.

2K views 4 replies 2 participants last post by  2000GMLS 
#1 ·
HI!

I just joined this forum. I just purchased a 2000 G/M LS yesterday! One of the previous owners were trying to go for a "Marauder Clone", as the badging on the trunk was taken off, and the grill was painted to match the body. Very nice oxford blue, with leather interior, and digital dash. They put on dual exhaust (with an "X" pipe), and it sounds nice! With the dark color, and dark grill, it looks like a cop car in your rear view! My wife actually wanted a P71, with a spotlight, so people would get out of her way, but I wanted more of a 'road car' for trips. So, once we saw this car, this was the best of both worlds! Driving it home, no one wanted to pass her!

Anyway, I do have some questions on wheels. I have a set of almost new P225 (or maybe 215) 75R15 studded snow tires, that I used to put on an old Pontiac Pariesenne wagon I owned. Obviously, I will have to get new rims, but was wondering if I can get a set of Ford 15" rims, with the same offset (front wheel drive offset?), that I can use on the G/M? The tires that are on there, are 'street' tires (forgot the manufacturer). It does handle good in the little snow we got yesterday, but the T/C was kicking in quite a bit. Since this is going to be my wife's 'daily driver', and she is a big 'chicken sh*t' driver, I will HAVE to put these snows on!

I understand that the G/M has 16" wheels, but I use a tire calculator online (Miata.net), because I put new tires on my Cougar, and needed the correct diameter to match up my speedo. According to that, my snows will be either 1-2" taller than the tires currently on the car! And, with checking the speedo with my GPS, the car is running 1 mph slow anyway, so I'll either come out 1, to 2 mph fast.

So, are there any rims I can use, to accommodate these tires? And, speaking of speedometers, I imagine that the 'driven' gear is electronic on this car? So, there would be no gear swapping, to adjust the speedo? I have a good OBDI-OBDII reader (Auto XRay), but I don't have any tuners. Is there an inexpensive 'tuner' out there, that I can use to adjust the speedo?

In the glove box, there was an instruction manual for a Superchips MAX MicroTuner, that had the Ford DTC Reader instructions. Unfortunately, the unit itself was gone! Seeing as how most tuners are 'car specific', then either the car was brought back to 'stock' condition, or someone has an expensive DTC reader, that can't tune anything! Is there any way I can find out if the car has been 'tuned'? With my Auto XRay maybe?

Any help you can give, would be appreciated.

John
 
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#3 ·
Thanks for the info, I guess I'm stuck buying new tires, and/or rims. The tires I have look like one of them on the advertisements above. Directional. I will check the thread depth today, to see if they're worth keeping. If not, then I'll buy a set of all season tires, at least. I would like to keep these tires/rims, and just get a set of stock steel rims, and put the snows on them. Maybe even get a set of the 'cop' hubcaps, to make it look even more menacing! Are the stock steel wheels relatively cheap? Just trying to have another option here! Actually, what I would like to do, is get a set of Marauder wheels, for the summer, and the cop steel rims, for the winter!

But, I do know what you mean about looking too much like a cop, as when we were driving it last night, people in front of me were slowing down, and blocking my way! Now, I just need the headlight flashers cops have, that make the lights flash opposite each other, so people will get out of my way!

Thanks,
John
 
#5 ·
Thanks for the link, but even the stock steel wheels are expensive! I was going to get a set of all season tires instead, but I might just keep these one's I have on currently. I checked the tread depth, and it's still good (at around 7/32"). And, when driving my wife to work this morning, took off the traction control (finally found the button!), and tried sliding it around the parking lot. I had to put quite a bit of 'oomph' to it to make it slide, so maybe these tires will be OK. They looked more like 'street' tires (they're "Toyo" tires, don't know the model), so I thought they'd be horrible in the snow. We're supposed to get a 'blizzard' tomorrow, so I'll have a chance to test them. If we do get what they're forecasting (up to 2 feet!), no one will be moving anywhere!

And, I just sold my '02 Blazer ZR2 4X4 to get this car! Can anyone say 'bad timing'?

Thanks,
John
 
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