Wheels. To stagger or not to stagger?

[izzywashe]

Hi all. I have just bought a 2007 is250 and it was handling terribly. Very twitchy, all over the road. I took it to 2 garages (second being a Lexus dealership and service centre) and they both told me it's because I have the wrong sized wheels on it and the tyres are the wrong size for the wheels. 

Lexus have told me to change wheels and tyres and gave me the specs. He said the back wheels should be 8.5j and front 8J, if 18".  However looking around for a set of wheels, I can't really find any second hand lexus ones that follow this spec. 

So my question is, do I bother with wider wheels at the back? I don't want to pay out for a full new set just to find out it doesn't solve my problem. Also, there are a lot of 17s around but I just don't think it'll look right after buying it with 18s on.  Thoughts?

Any advice on this greatly appreciated. Even better if you've got a stock set laying around you are needing rid of. 

Too nervous to get another set of aftermarket alloys incase it also doesn't solve the problem. My partner has a ST Mondeo and bought different wheels with exactly the same spec as standard but it's made it handle terribly too. 

[RX-Men-8]

I think the stagger is not the issue, the IS250 came with either a non-staggered 7J16 ET45 inch wheels F+R with 205/55R16 tyres, 8J17 ET45 F+R with 225/45R17 front and 245/45R17 rear tyres, or 18x8 ET45 with 225/40R18 front and 18x8.5 ET50 with 255/40R18 rear.

https://www.wheel-size.com/size/lexus/is/2007/

The thing I would look at first is the tyres themselves, you would be surprised at the sensitivity to the right tyres to road camber and tramlining.  Then vehicle alignment, and possibly your aftermarket wheels are a low offset ET40 or less making the track wider affecting the steering geometry. Best to stay close to the stock ET45.

[LenT]

On 4/11/2024 at 4:18 PM, izzywashe said:

So my question is, do I bother with wider wheels at the back? I don't want to pay out for a full new set just to find out it doesn't solve my problem. Also, there are a lot of 17s around but I just don't think it'll look right after buying it with 18s on.  Thoughts?

Well my IS250 is the later model which came with the staggered 18s, low profile tyres.  The option would have been the 17 inch with the same tyres fore and aft.

It depends on what you’re after in driving style.  The larger wheels with the low profile, more rigid tyres are supposed to provide better handling at speed; the 17 inchers should give a softer, more comfortable ride due to the greater flexibility of the sidewalls.  Also it’s easier to buy four new tyres if they’re all the same!

Had I bought the car from new, I would probably have opted for the 17 inch setup - prioritising ride comfort.