Someone local is selling a set of wheels off of his wife's Forester Premium. They're 16x6.5 5x100 and I know that's compatible, what I'm unsure of is caliper clearance. Still new to this WRX, my only concern is will they clear the brakes?
A little Google-fu looks like they will, but thought someone here probably has already done it.
His photo for reference:
Just need the wheels for snow tires for rallycross. Keeping the 17" gold STI wheels for autocross/track events, or selling for $$$ later.
Forester wheels (at least from the golden era of subarus IMO) have less offset than wrx wheels of the same time frame. WRX wheels are ~+53mm while the 6.5" forester wheels have a +48 offset. I'm not sure what years those wheels are from. Brake fitment should be doable in the radial direction and should theoretically have more space between the caliper and spokes. In the past I have done the converse of your question and run 16" wrx wheels on a forester. I can confirm that the offset difference looks silly on the forester. It should look a little more pokey on the wrx.
As noted above, they should work. WRX wheels don't work well on a Forester, though. The Forester uses a wider tire than early WRXes did, too. I had to run 10mm spacers to keep tire rub from happening using WRX wheels on a Forester.
I haven't had coffee yet, but if I read you guys correctly the offset on these means they will "poke out" of the wheel well slightly more? Or be more inside the wheel well?
Jerry wrote: I haven't had coffee yet, but if I read you guys correctly the offset on these means they will "poke out" of the wheel well slightly more? Or be more inside the wheel well?
Less offset means that they will be further out in the wheel well - but it's 5 mm or about 0.2 inches. Not much unless you are already close to rubbing.
In reply to NGTD:
Thank you. Seems like a good deal for $200
Depends on the year of your WRX. If you have the 4pot(red) front calipers, they may not work. If you have an early wrx, they should clear without issue. The Forester tires will be taller than wrx tires, if they rims come with the tires, so plan on changing those.
Little known fact: '03-08 Forester uses the very same front brakes found on your '02 WRX. With the little less offset on the Foz wheels, they'll fit your car with better clearance than factory.
In reply to ValuePack:
02 wrx and pretty sure factory brakes, so woo hoo.
Yup, 02 is fine. If rallycross is in your future, you can replace the current pad carrier bracket with one from a 2000 2.5rs, change the rotor, and voila 15 inch rims fit just fine. Caliper/pad stay the same.
I was all set to buy these this week, then last night I get "I have to take these off the market. Long story short, these are on the car now, and the set I was about to buy to replace them with got sold. So I don't have a replacement set as of now"
berkeleying craigslist.
You should be able to buy wrx wheels all day long for that price or cheaper.
In reply to sachilles:
Found one set with a bent lip on one wheel (looking at $ for repairs), otherwise it's $500 or 4hr drive or both.
Where are you? I just sold off a set to friend for $100. Might have another set I could part with for the same price(plus shipping). They are currently acting as a go kart stand for my son's kart. I still use 16's but go with the RS rims when I can get them as they are 16x7 instead of the wrx 16x6.5
Dayton Ohio. But I'm guessing shipping 4 wheels would not be cheap.
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