Hello! everyone. I just purchased a 2007 Lx civic, 4 door 1.8 140 horsepower and it came with 16 inch wheels. If I upgrade them to 17 inches or 18 inches...will that slow down the car?? will it affect acceleration?

thanks!!!

 

depends n the weihgt. If thyer'e light weight they'll help out your accel. If theyre heavy chrome or somethin, they'll defintley hurt it. 17" or 18"s will prolly be heavy though [&:]

 

thanks!! Flip

 

Larger diameter rolling stock will decrease your final drive ratio which will help you easily maintain high speeds, but it takes a little more momentum to get those things rolling from the get-go. Lightweight wheels do help, but they still hinder off the line performance a little. But they do make your car handle a little better as it fills in the space with metal instead of cushiony rubber so that the contact patch doesn't distort under high cornering forces like the stock tire and rim package.

 

In other words, find out how much each of your stock wheels and tires weigh and then select a larger wheel/tire combo that weighs the same or less. This is what I will be doing with my 97 CX. I can go from 14-inch steelies to 16-inch Rotas and still lose weight.

 

along with looking at the weight, make sure that the overall diameter of the wheel does not increase. meaning if you get a bigger rim, you will have to have a lower profile tire to keep the overall diameter. if the wheel is bigger than oem, then theoretically the engine will have to work harder to accelerate. and take more brake power to stop the car.

so lighter wheels with same overall diameter is what you want