Installed G35 wheels

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knightarmor

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 19, 2011
Messages
97
Finally got my set of G35 wheels installed this past weekend. Car looks and handles great even with the factory Michelins (Not as good as the Advans on my "really fun" car though). I went with these wheels because I wanted to push the wheels outward a bit and keep the factory tires, and also keep the wheels within the Nissan family.

g_leaf.jpg


These are the rear 17X8 wheels found on certain 2005-7 G35 coupes, offset is +33. I was originally going to mount a set of 17X7.5 fronts (that also come stock on the G35 coupe) but opted to go 8" wide all around for ease of rotation. These wheels are approx 3.5Lbs lighter than the factory 17" wheels and have already shown a significant improvement in range/power consumption reduction. The factory Nissan centercaps also fit perfectly. I did have to shave approx 3mm off the front stud of the axle shaft that was preventing the centercap from fitting. For anyone who is interested I have the factory 17X6.5" SL wheels that came with the car for sale, no tires no centercaps and no TPMS.
 
Thanks, I originally was after the TE37's but couldn't justify the cost of the wheels for my daily driver. I'll be getting the TE37's for my race car instead HAHAH
 
knightarmor said:
I'll be getting the TE37's for my race car instead HAHAH
Nice. What are you running? What venue/series do you run in? Just curious, I always want to hear about other Leaf owners that have an interest in motorsports.
 
Drivesolo said:
knightarmor said:
I'll be getting the TE37's for my race car instead HAHAH
Nice. What are you running? What venue/series do you run in? Just curious, I always want to hear about other Leaf owners that have an interest in motorsports.

Been building up a Volvo for the longest time (10+ years), being built up as a club/track car.
 
bwatl said:
Those look really good. Did you roll the fenders?

I did not roll the fenders. At the current ride height the suspension travel is limited so there is no need. I'm still fighting the urge to lower the car more but I have settled on this ride height for winter and turning the 7.5" wide G35 fronts into my winter wheels at all four corners. I'm hoping the lighter weight will offset any rolling resistance introduced by the winter tires.

Here's a side shot of the car photochopped to where i'd like to drop it to. Really makes the G wheels stand out.

leaf_chop_drop.jpg
 
Original poster: Can you update this thread with your review of these wheels over a longer period? What was the impact to accleration and mileage/range? How about ride quality? Thanks!
 
knightarmor said:
Drivesolo said:
knightarmor said:
I'll be getting the TE37's for my race car instead HAHAH
Nice. What are you running? What venue/series do you run in? Just curious, I always want to hear about other Leaf owners that have an interest in motorsports.

Been building up a Volvo for the longest time (10+ years), being built up as a club/track car.

I'm a Volvo/Leaf guy too - link to the Volvo?
 
I bought a set of G35 wheels off of Craigslist. They're a bit rough, and need new tires, but I put them on my car this morning to see how things fit. I love the look! They push the tires out all the way even with the body. The 8"-wide rear tires are pretty insane on a front-wheel-drive car, but it looks good. The 7.5"-wide fronts look good too. They came with 225/50R17 & 235/50R17 tires that are pretty much shot, so I'll need to get some new ones.

Click on the thumbnails for a larger picture.
Comparing the 17"x8" G35 wheel to my OEM 16"x6.5" wheel.


Checking out the fitment on the car:


And finally, how they look on the car. Stock suspension.
 
Comparing these wheels to the OEM 16" Leaf wheels.

OEM: 16”x6.5”, 40mm positive offset. (1.68” outside, 4.82” inside)
Front: 17”x7.5”, 30mm positive offset (2.57” outside, 4.93” inside) (0.89” further out, 0.11” further in)
Rear: 17”x8.0”, 33mm positive offset (2.70” outside, 5.30” inside) (1.02” further out, 0.48” further in)

Tires:
OEM: 205/55R16 (sidewall: 4.44”, width: 8.07”, diam: 24.88”, circ: 78.16”, rev/mile: 811)
Front: 225/50R17 (sidewall: 4.43”, width: 8.86”, diam: 25.86”, circ: 81.24”, rev/mile: 780)
Rear: 235/50R17 (sidewall: 4.63”, width: 9.25”, diam: 26.25”, circ: 82.47”, rev/mile: 768)
 
I'm trying to visualize what the wheels will look like if I cover them with black plasti-dip.
Here's my attempt to use gimp to change the wheel color.
 
I'd be a little wary of being too off with the OD of the tire... the traction control in these cars is way invasive, and it won't help if the RPM of the tire is already different than what it's expecting. Just a thought... generally street cars are biased towards what's safe, and that means very invasive traction control, a frontward F/R brake-bias, and mondo understeer.

Cheers,
Tal
 
If all wheels/tires are the same size, traction control won't make a fuss.

If you have smaller wheels up front and larger wheels on the back, it might brake the rear wheels, since it interprets the speed difference as a skid.
 
I would think you would get reduction in the range due to the much bigger contact patch and higher rolling resistance...however wheels are bigger so you get reduced number of revolutions per mile...let us know what are your observed range changes and impact on miles per kwh
 
I had the tires mounted on the wheels yesterday, and put the wheels on the car last night. Here's a quick plug for Turbo3's Leaf Spy Pro program - it allowed me to register the new TPMS sensors myself. Saved me paying $50 to the local shop.

Drove to work this morning, and boy was that an eye-opener! I was expecting a reduction in range, but it felt like I was hitting a head-wind the whole time. With the charge I had left, I thought I could make the trip to work (30 miles) at 65 mph with no problem. I started out at 65, but quickly dropped to 50mph as I saw how quickly I was depleting the battery. I made it, but I was deep into VLBW (about 14 gids left - thanks again Leaf Spy!). I know a lot of that is due to the wider, stickier tires, but I hope I get some of that back when the tires wear in a bit more.

One concerning episode - there's this one curved bridge that I go over. I got stuck behind someone going slower, so I let off the gas. Every time I hit an expansion joint (about every 20 yards), the traction control kicked in. It felt like a bucking bronco. It took me a while to figure out what was going on, but I finally noticed a light flashing on the dash when it happened. I'll try to pay more attention tomorrow, reproduce it, then figure out how to stop it.
 
I gave up on these wheels. :(

The main problem was the hit to my range. It was over a 20% drop! I can get about 5.0 miles/kWh on my normal commute when I'm taking it easy. With these wheels & tires, I was only getting 3.8 miles/kWh. I have a 60-mile round-trip commute, and that's simply not going to be possible on a single charge with these tires.

The other problem was with the stability/traction control. It kicked on a few times while going around curves at decent speeds. It seems that this sometimes happens when you go to tires with a different diameter. Some vehicles have a setting that can be adjusted to account for this, but I don't know if that's possible with the Leaf.
 
garsh said:
The main problem was the hit to my range. It was over a 20% drop! I can get about 5.0 miles/kWh on my normal commute when I'm taking it easy. With these wheels & tires, I was only getting 3.8 miles/kWh.
Well, 235/50/17 tires are about 7% larger in diameter, so not quite as bad as you think unless you accounted for that. And since the tires are new, many people report up to a 10% hit in range from new tires that gets better as the tires break in.

I suspect that your ABS issue is because the two different sets of tires you put on actually have a noticeable difference in diameter and are messing with the TC/ABS system, not the fact that the tires are larger than stock. What tires exactly did you put on?
 
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