steelies
 

bahh.. i wanna take the 14" steelies off my 01 civic, and put them on the 02 protege to use for winter tires . i called mazda, and the guy got me all paranoid about putting on a wheel that will fit. he said- even if the bolt pattern lines up, the wheel offset may be off. you also have to consider calliper clearance and wheel well clearance.

then he started talkin about how it might not drive right without the right size wheels / tires.

why does this have to be soooo complicated!!

what should i do?? i guess i can do a test run, and just stick the 14"s on and give it a whirl. i could also just get random steel wheels from a junk yard... what a pain in the ass tho. i realllly dont wanna shell out tons of $$$ for oem steelies. Jesus, I payed $23 just for the knob on the oem cd player last week!

anyone here have some oem steel wheels they wanna sell??

Civic wheels will fit fine on a protege, and will drive prefectly fine.
If you interested, I have four 14" oem steelie wheels 4lugs, that i'm willing to get rid of. make me an offer. you can PM me or email me at prelude_sh_racer@hotmail.com and maybe we could work something out.

ok, ill take your word on it.

do you have 14" civic steelies on your car, or have you ever?

thanks, for the offer on the 14"s, but like i said- ive got a set i can use.

the original tire on the mazda is a 195-55-15
what would be the 14" equivilant? i used a tire calculator and figured out 198-60-14 does that sound right? is that a common cheap size?

the 14's should work just fine the suspension is the same on a protege with 14's or 15's so puttin a differen't size won't hurt,
plus think about it this way when you buy aftermarket rims you can put the same rims on a protege that you can put on a civic so its the same concept.
peace
dante

they dont make a 198-60-14. The equivilant to the 195-55-15 would be a 195-60-14 or a 185-65-14. they are pretty common, i have the 185-65-14 my mazda steelies. Cost depends on the brand and tire rating. I had some stock civic rims on my car for awhile until i sold them, they will fit just like dante explained. hope that helps.

these guys say its not cool

eh. im just gonna do a test fit.

The idiots over on clubprotege dont know much on 3rd gens, they know more about 2nd and 1st gen pro. trust me i've gotten false info from them before. If its 4x100 lug pattern on bottom civic and pro they fit. I've worked at a tire and wheel shop.

yay! turns out they do fit just fine...but none of this matters anymore because we found someone selling almost new bridgestone blizzack (supposed to be the best winter tires) 14" wheels, tires, lugs and hub caps that were used on an 02 protege! wow- thats some good luck. Also- the tire size is perfect- exactly what i needed to do a match from her old wheels. $250 for everything. thanks again

read the Protege FAQ...Civic wheels are recomended as a good autox wheel...lug pattern and offset on them are just fine...usually dlr employees are pretty much committed to selling mazda parts so of course they will balk at using other companies parts

See i was right, ignorant people at clubprotege give false info again and trying to rag on peeps on protegeclub the other thread :FU2:

Whoa..I read that thread...Edwin(the Man) wrote the FAQ....If he says they wont clear, they wont clear. Didnt think about clearing the brakes. Just offset and lug pattern. Look for some 15" steelies in the same pattern and off set