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I don't get it? I like alloy wheels and would rather have them than not but do they actually make the car any lighter like they are supposed to? I certainly would never pay money for alloys.
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Something to do with unsprung weight - in their purer form.
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I like alloy wheels and would rather have them than not certainly would never pay money for alloys.
Make your mind up
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I'm not bothered whether they're lighter or not. I prefer alloys because they have greater dimensional accuracy and hence give rise to fewer wheel vibration problems. They have better circularity, and less radial and transverse runout.
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Does that mean they're round then ? :-)
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rounder
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The reality is that in most cases they look nicer. That is a perfectly valid reason to want them. However, the other reality is that for all normal or everyday purposes they provide no real benefit. They are 99% for decoration. This doesn't make them a bad thing. The victory of form over function is well known in many aspects of life.
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They're so darn expensive when you go over a pothole.
Not that we have potholes in the UK: all our roads are well-maintained.
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As far as I am aware all car wheels are alloy.
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Seventeen inch alloys on the CC3 - look like they should be on a bicycle.
All that extra brake-dust encrusted alloy real estate to clean as well.
Bring back hub caps.
Edited by ifithelps on 15/03/2009 at 20:27
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Alloys are expensive, easily damaged, liable to corrosion and in many cases, according to some, no lighter than steel wheels. And if steel wheels were not deliberately made to look ugly (by painting them black and so on) alloys wouldn't have any appearance advantage either. They look a bit better than plastic silver wheel trims though. I suspect those are made purely to persuade people to buy alloys. Design sleaze.
Still, as the OP probably knows, there isn't much point in having either sort of wheels without a car to bolt them to. On yer bike Rattolo! Get a motor or resign yourself to 100,000 bus trips a year.
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"form over function"
They are prone to sealing less well with age. This is sometime described as 'porosity' but I suspect it's because of corrosion round the rims when the tyres have been changed a few times. This doesn't seem to happen with steel rims, unless they're horribly old and rusty.
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Does that mean they're round then ? :-)
The dimensional parameters of all objects have inaccuracies. Nothing is perfectly round. Alloy wheels have better roundness.
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I know it was a feeble joke.
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I'm with Humph. Sorry Humph.
Most alloys look much better than a scratched plastic hubcap atop a blackened steel carcass usually put on base models. Alloys are one unit and look neater and they definitely appeal to me. They can, of course, also look truly daft if you insist on having inappropriate ones.
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I read that alloys on modern cars, although they might reduce unsprung weight a bit, have little beneficial effect. Since most steel wheels are fitted with silver plastic trims that imitate alloy wheels to some degree, one might as well go for the real thing.
Some heavy lorries are fitted with polished alloy wheels. Although this is partly cosmetic, there is a significant saving in unladen weight on, say, a rigid 8-wheeler, which actually has 12 individual wheels, those on the two back axles being paired . If 12 alloys save 250kg on unladen weight, that gives an extra 250kg of payload within the 32 tonne limit for rigid 8-wheelers.
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Might I repeat my earlier post to the effect that all wheels are alloys. Surely steel is an alloy.
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"Simple" steel is an intersticial compound of iron and carbon. Steel for wheels is indeed alloyed in order to improve its mechanical properties.
Aluminium and its alloys are unsuitable materials for wheels due to poor fatigue performance - whack a kerb with a steel wheel and it can safely be straightened. I was able to get the alloy wheels on my car changed to steel as part of the purchase deal and having subsequently bent a wheel on a kerb, I'm glad I did.
Dirty alloy wheels look marginally worse than dirty steel ones. As my car is more often dirty than clean...
659.
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Dirty alloy wheels look marginally worse than dirty steel ones. As my car is more often dirty than clean...
A steel wheel looks nasty. A dirty steel wheel looks like a nasty dirty steel wheel.
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The base CRV is sold with steel wheels - which I thought was a bit mean.
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My Suzi V came with alloys, the C3 came with plastic trims. Personally I couldn't give a stuff, I can't see them when I drive and I'm not bothered about onlookers 'cos I don't think they even notice. The Alloys are easy to clean 'cos they're not too intricate. The plastics are a pain...all little holes and angles. I have a set of Citroen plastics on my Renault van which are completely smooth except for the valve hole. One sweep of the wet brush and the muck's off.
What I think looks ridiculous is big Mercs and Beemers with very low profile tyres and 3 spoke alloys. Lots of dosh....no taste !
Rattle, mate, it's about time I was seeing you hurtling about Chorlton in something flash !
Ted
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Hehe been very busy with work so car hunting has stopped but will take a good day out this week to look. Driving my dads Fiesta Ghia at them moment a bit, that has those four spoke alloys which are known for cracking - eek! The tyres also cost £60 each even for a cheap one.
I never really got the flash car thing, just want something modern, reliable, safe and nice to drive.
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"silver plastic trims that imitate alloy wheels"
There aren't many that look convincing, but some trims are quite nicely finished and it's difficult to be sure from more than a few yards away. Citroen Picassos had some reasonable ones for a while.
In the early 70's, Porsche fitted alloys that looked distinctive, but which were quickly copied by the trim designers. My college friends and I used to pretend that the Porsches were all fitted with cheap trims, but when we saw the plastic versions, we would call out 'Porsche alloys'. Simple pleasures...
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Don't indy cars have steel wheels under the regulations? And perhaps for good reasons?
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The majority of alloys that you come across are cast. These are cheap to make but heavy. I personally used forged alloys, these are ultra light weight and infact without a tyre can be easily picked up with one finger. Changing from the standard alloys on my car i noticed increase performance and better handling. So yes as far as I'm concerned there is a big fuss! Of course they don't come cheap, my 15" wheels cost £300 each, I could buy a set of four cast wheels for less than that!
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I don't think anyone's mentioned alloys tend to mean you have larger diameter wheels and lower profile tyres, which is fine if you're into competition - less unsprung mass, larger discs etc. I prefer the comfort of higher profile tyres.
Someone mentioned form over function. A neighbour had a rear spoiler fitted to his family hatchback. I suggested he'd get the same downforce with reduced drag if he took it off and carried it around in his boot. He replied 'but no-one would see it then'. All his cars have alloy wheels!
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I'd prefer to have steel wheels with trims (much easier to clean, and easier to fix if kerbed) but last two cars have had alloys as part of my preferred trim / spec level
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I don't think anyone's mentioned alloys tend to mean you have larger diameter wheels and lower profile tyres .........
All of the cars I've bought which had alloys as standard ~ Ford Fiesta XR2, Ford Escort XR3i, Citroën ZX Volcane, Peugeot 306 XSi, and Ford Focus Ghia ~ had "normal" diameter wheels and "normal" profile tyres.
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The majority of alloys that you come across are cast.
When I had my alloys off the car I came to the conclusion that the mounting face and the mounting holes were machined. I assume the reference point(s) for machining would be the tyre bead seating diameters.
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in rural Spain recently, saw an A3 with wheel trims - they really don't care for the showy stuff!
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I find it refreshing, when abroad, to see Mercs and Beemers on steel wheels!
I think alloys must be a British thing. Are we really such suckers for fashion?
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Alloys (or aluminium alloys to be correct) are a very British thing. Most other European countries realise that they are an expensive fashion item, and top class cars often are sold with steel wheels.
Apart from 832ark's correct observations, most cast alloys are of no practical benefit to the average driver, apart from cosmetics. Steel (an alloy of carbon, iron, etc) wheels are in the real world just as round, and more resistant to kerbing, cracks and never go "porous".
On a lightweight bicycle, I can certainly feel the difference in alloys as compared to steel wheels, and the braking is better. On a motorcycle, I can just about feel the difference. In a car, I can feel no difference at all on the public road.
They are fashion items. I have no problem with that. They are in the same catagory as as spoilers on repmobiles, fluffy dice etc. If you wish to pay extra for them, then fine, it is a free country. But for the average motorist and average car, they provide no tangeble benefit to performance...they are designer wheels. On a second-hand car I would never pay more for alloy wheels.
Rattle is correct.
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Rattle>> four spoke alloys which are known for cracking - eek!
I suggest you walk instead. You'll be happier. Although you might be hit by a thunderbolt.
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Mapmaker if you look on the car by car HJ mentions that the alloys on the Fiesta Ghia have a habit of cracking.
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