Tyre / alloy wheel dilemma

monkeyslayer

Just looking for quick bit of advise on something, I bought a 2007 ford focus early this year to learn how to drive and use etc it came with really ****ty scuffed alloys which I never bothered replacing as I inevitably kerbed them myself a couple times since... I want to change the wheels now but
I got a double puncture one day and had to get two new tires, so I've four **** wheels and 2 good tires and 2 pretty much new tires. I'm not fussed about 18' low profile wheels but I don't really want to buy four new tires as well, I don't use the car much so looking at what would be the cheapest way of making this car somewhat respectable looking. Any thoughts?

Alanstrainor

What size are the tyres on the car?

monkeyslayer

18's

Cee-Jay-Cee

Get a tin of spray paint, mask the tyres off and spray the wheels black, you wont notice the scuffs and kerb marks afterwards.

Or alternatively go to a breakers yard and pick up a set of genuine Ford focus wheels (which may or may not come with tyres) which is what I would do. There are very very very few, if any aftermarket wheels that look good unless theyre quality items from Japan from the likes of Rays/Advan/Enkei etc etc

colm_mcm

WHat make tyres did you just get?

monkeyslayer

No idea, but they cost 200, I know I was totally overcharged for them as I was towed to the only open shop at 1755 on a Saturday evening when the double puncture happened.

I thought about spraying them, but anything DIY with cars hasn't really worked out so well for me so far (ie Scratch pens... )

I'll look into breakers, was just wondering maybe on adverts or on donedeal, is there any danger in buying second hand alloys? I've no knowledge of cars, its not like buying carbon fiber or anything like that is it?

Alanstrainor

monkeyslayer wrote: »

No idea, but they cost 200, I know I was totally overcharged for them as I was towed to the only open shop at 1755 on a Saturday evening when the double puncture happened.

I thought about spraying them, but anything DIY with cars hasn't really worked out so well for me so far (ie Scratch pens... )

I'll look into breakers, was just wondering maybe on adverts or on donedeal, is there any danger in buying second hand alloys? I've no knowledge of cars, its not like buying carbon fiber or anything like that is it?

200 for both? For 18" 225/40 that's reasonable money to be honest. Even if they are a poor brand. Could have been much worse.

I would be cautious about following the DIY steps given here... to do it properly would require a decent amount of effort. They would end up looking horrendous very easily.

Anyway, I think you have two options. Leave the wheels and tyres as they are, cheapest and easiest. Especially with two new tyres it would make financial sense.

Option 2, is to source standard ford 16" alloys which should be easily and relatively cheaply available. But I would expect to have to put new tires on whatever you buy which really brings up the cost. It all depends on how much you have to spend.

monkeyslayer

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Anyway, I think you have two options. Leave the wheels and tyres as they are, cheapest and easiest. Especially with two new tyres it would make financial sense.

Option 2, is to source standard ford 16" alloys which should be easily and relatively cheaply available. But I would expect to have to put new tires on whatever you buy which really brings up the cost. It all depends on how much you have to spend.

Yep, in a nice position that nothing is broken as such and under no pressure to fix... best case scenario I'd hope for maybe is to find some reasonably good quality second hand alloys for 200 and someone to put my tires on them for 50. Apart from visually I wouldn't know tho if the alloys were any good or not though.

colm_mcm

18s are too big for a regular Focus. Best to find a set of 16s with decent tyres on them and cut your losses with the 18s.

selectamatic

By the time you'd have new Alloys got and the tyres changed over you'd have the price of decent refurb well spent.

If I was you I'd get a few prices from wheel specialists in your area for a basic refurb and see how it'd pan out. Just be wary as there's plenty of cowboys out there too.

Alanstrainor

selectamatic wrote: »

By the time you'd have new Alloys got and the tyres changed over you'd have the price of decent refurb well spent.

If I was you I'd get a few prices from wheel specialists in your area for a basic refurb and see how it'd pan out. Just be wary as there's plenty of cowboys out there too.

But if the wheels that are on it are poor quality even the refurb is not worth it... as colm says, 18's on that focus just won't look right no matter what.

selectamatic

Alanstrainor wrote: »

But if the wheels that are on it are poor quality even the refurb is not worth it... as colm says, 18's on that focus just won't look right no matter what.

18's look alright on a focus certainly better than 16's. They've a pretty exaggerated arch.
17's would be the ideal really.

I dunno I'm working off the assumption that they're pretty middlen looking 18" Alloys where as I feel ye're working off the assumption that they're some sort wolfrace sh1te.

We can't really advise properly unless we see pics and tbh it'd be hard know whether the tyres are of any use either unless we know what brand they are.

monkeyslayer

This is two of them from when I originally bought the car, they're a bit worse now (esp the front one which I kerbed a couple times in Crumlin shopping centre car park when my drving was still pretty rough) a lot dirtier and just as horrendous looking as ever. the spare in the boot looks nicer imo. I'll try get the brands off the tires later or tomorrow. Whenever I can get a good look at them in the the light.

selectamatic

Not worth refurbing unfortunately. They're not the worst but not great either.

In my mind you're options are as follows: pick up a nice set of factory 18" wheels and run them if they've no tyres use your own ones, if they have middlen tyres keep your own ones and put them on when ever the other ones need changing. The drawback to this is cheap good 18" wheels are hard found in 5x108 and your current Alloys will be close to worthless without the tyres.

The other option would be to get yourself a nice clean used set of either 16" or 17" wheels with good tyres and sell your 18's for whatever you can get.

I'd strongly recommend going for factory manufactured Alloys as they'll be much stronger and of much better quality than your current cheap aftermarket ones.

Besides Alloys from similar aged focus' you can look at other ford one's such as the Mondeo and cmax etc. Also ones from similar aged Volvo s40's and jaguar xtypes will fit too and depending on the wheel in question they should look fine. Ford wheels would be best though.

You're after wheels with pcd measurements of 5x108 and a centre bore of 63.4mm

colm_mcm

Oh Jesus, put them in a skip

monkeyslayer

Soon... I hate them. Tyres are Powertrac City racing...

colm_mcm

Have you a silage pit to put the tyres on

rex-x

Something like this is ideal for you: https://www.donedeal.ie/alloyswheels-for-sale/17-quot-genuine-ford-17-quot-st-focus-mondeo-alloy-wheels/17029238

Those tyres are only fit for the bin unfortunately

monkeyslayer

Cool they look like what i want alright, how much (roughly) would 4 decent tires for them cost you reckon?

selectamatic

Adverts is a good spot to look for used Alloys too as it cost around €8 to put a set up on dd therefore not many bother.
Some of the fb pages have good bargains also.

Sell your old Alloys with the tyres as there literally is a market for anything with legal thread as long as the price is right regardless of quality.

Try and stick to tyres from the premium to midrange brands in future. The Chinese ones generally aren't fond of rain to put it mildly :P

colm_mcm

monkeyslayer wrote: »

Cool they look like what i want alright, how much (roughly) would 4 decent tires for them cost you reckon?

You'd pay around €100 each for 225/45/17 tyres in a mid range brand.

colm_mcm

https://www.donedeal.ie/alloyswheels-for-sale/17-quot-ford-focus-alloys-5x108/17006187

More money but you wouldn't need tyres (assuming they're the right size)

monkeyslayer

colm_mcm wrote: »

You'd pay around €100 each for 225/45/17 tyres in a mid range brand.

Ouch.

Huawei Gallagher

I had a set of aftermarket alloys and low profile tyres on my 04 focus, they made it look good but I was doing a lot of miles and was always kerbing them. I even damaged one when a lump of ice caught the rim! Car handled a lot better with the low profile tyres too.

But I got sick of getting them fixed all the time, you can easily go through the cost of a full set of alloys.

I ended up getting a set of the smaller standard oem ford alloy rims and tyres with a lot of tyre showing (not low profile). They should be easy to get a set on donedeal with tyres too maybe. Will not look as good :(but will save you money in the long run.

rex-x

The ones I linked have good enough tyres, I mean the tyres you bought for your current alloys are only fit for the bin

Hebegeebee

On Tyreleader you can get Fulda SportControl 2 tyres 225/45/R17 for €78.84 each.

Notch000

you can get cheaper tyres

https://www.oponeo.ie/tyre-finder/s=1/summer/t=1/car/p=9/avon,falken,firestone,fulda,hankook,kumho,toyo,uniroyal,vredestein/r=1/225-45-r17#&&_wEXDgUOcGNrX1RyTFNTc25JZHMFATEFFXBja19Mc3RTU29ydFBhcmFtZXRlcgUCMTAFCnBja19UckxTUEYFAjcxBRVwY2tfVHJMU1NvcnREaXJlY3Rpb24FATEFCXBja19UckxTUgUD4pSkBQdwY2tfSVBQBQIyNAUJcGNrX1RyNDhoBQPilKQFCnBja19UckxTUFQFAzE1MgUNcGNrX1RyTFNWVElkcwUBNAULcGNrX1RyTFNST0YFA-KUpAUHcGNrX0NQZwUBMQUMcGNrX1RyTFNTSWRzBQMzMzMFCnBja19UckxTU0wFAjIxBQxwY2tfVHJMU1BJZHMFKjY04pSsMzDilKwzMeKUrDMy4pSsMzfilKw0MOKUrDUw4pSsNTLilKw1M5dG_d3zxrImdZyU7-ugQsmM56b7
expect 10-15E each to fit

monkeyslayer

Cool thanks for the help, i tried to buy those wheels on donedeal but as per my usual experience with donedeal the items are either sold already but still listed and or the seller is some illiterate hick... I know what I'm looking for now so thanks and I'll keep my eyes open

monkeyslayer

Any thoughts on these? Look ok to me

http://www.adverts.ie/alloys-wheels/ford-focus-alloys/13921040

Alanstrainor

monkeyslayer wrote: »

Any thoughts on these? Look ok to me

http://www.adverts.ie/alloys-wheels/ford-focus-alloys/13921040

Yep, they look like a great option.

colm_mcm

Look good to me anyway. If the tyres are as good as the ad says then it’s definitely worthwhile.

monkeyslayer

Not the wheels linked earlier, but ran the gauntlet of donedeal and adverts tossers, chancers and timewasters and eventually found these from a reputable seller, four excellent alloys for 250 and then four brand new tires too for 280. Pretty happy, feel a little more respectable driving around.

Alanstrainor

They look great! Nice to have a set that isn't on every focus in the country! Well done!

colm_mcm

Nice wheels anyway