alright first off im not sure if this should go in show and shine or now but that is the only place i could think of putting it.

secondly a little background of the issue. i bought 17" wheels about 4/5 months after i got the car. no problems there. my problem is that for some reason i cant keep a set of tires for more than 25,000 miles. i dont know if it is the size of the tires/my driving(not crazy burn outs or anything like that...a few spirited hairpins and stuff, nothing major)/crappy tires that i purchase or what but it has to stop. i bought a set of Nitto NT555's, great tires, seemed like they were gonna last a long time but they are hitting about 26,500 miles right now and i am needing to buy a new set. THEY COST $650 TO GET THEM TO MY DOOR!!!! so here is what i am thinking that i may do: take my stock OZ wheels to a powder coating shop and get them powdercoated flat/gloss black and get stock sized tires(way cheaper and seem to have a better milage). it will cost about $200 to get the wheels painted and then the tires, shipped to my door, are only like $174.32 and they are a good set of tires.

so could i get some suggestions on what you guys think that i should do about my problem? should i go through with my plan with the old wheels or quit crying and pay another $650 for 25,000 miles? if you say go with the old wheels, should i go for flat(which i have now) or go gloss?

thanks,
Richard

 

did you get an aligment when you got your tires????... hmm thats what i usually do... thats what i think you should at least do!!! my tires last long

 

Yea aligment sounds good, any other mods to the car? I read some where on this forum Hankook are good again that only what I've read.

 

yeah that is the weird thing...i get an alignment everytime that i get new tires and everytime that my car seems to merge to one side of the car.

as for my other mods i have a AEM cold air, 2.5" custom catback, RRM slotted rotors, and the damn wheels that are costing wayyyy too much money. other than that i am stock.

 

It could be tire size, could be alignment, could be any number of things, really. I think the max size you should go with is a 205/40 HR17, either the HR or ZR. ZR wears faster then HR, and HR wears faster then a regulat S or T tire. You can get Hankooks and Wainlis in the HR, I know this, but just about any tire will come in a ZR. The reason that HR and ZR wear faster is because they are a softer compound. If you do most of your driving in a very hot area, then you will find the tires wear much faster. Now if they wear unevenly on the shoulders it could be alignment, but if both inner shoulders are getting screwed, go to the garage, and get your suspension looked at. I don't know much about most things, but I hope that helped a bit.

 

that helped out alot. i think that the biggest things are that they are 205/40/17zr. they are pretty much good tires but they are wearing down really fast.

does anyone have any comments about the whole powdercoating the stock wheels black? i have been thinking about a dark bronze also. what do ya'll think?

 

I actuall painted my stock OZ's flat black, and pushed them out a bit with a .25inch spacer....looks awsome! All I did was a heavy sanding all over the rim, tape off the tire (took a long time to get the line perfect)...fill primer, and super high temp paint. It's been on there for a month now, and still looks great. People tell me they look like thay came that way :-)

 

so pretty much all i have to do is sand them down a little, primer, and then paint? will that stay on there good? also, how do ya'll think that it would look to paint the wheels black and then take the oz stickers off so that the gray/silver will show through? will it do it or will it leave sticky crap everywhere?

 

Take the OZ stickers off, then clean the wheel with googone or lighter fluid, that will take the glue off. Then you can re-order the sticker online (they pop up on e-bay from time to time)

 

ahhhh sweet! should i stick with like a silver or should i go crazy and get something like a yellow?

 

id stray away from yellow...us LY guys have enough yellow to begin with but perhaps gunmetal with chrome lip?

 

i meant the sticker...getting the oz stickers in yellow...i pray to god that you didnt think that i meant get yellow wheels!

 

haha, guess i should have read the thread...instead of doing the ol' college "skim and scan" lol...but yes, i did mean wheels...but i have seen crazier things...such as carbon fiber stickers in door handle pockets...

 

yeah...none of that stuff here. i just need to get rid of my current wheels and it is cheap/easy as hell to paint the stock ones black. i think that they will look better than the ones that i have now anyway.

 

expensive tires dont last long ....LOL welcome to capitalism