Jesus Christ this is such a boring minefield! The car is almost 15 years old and is on factory option 17” alloys so the chance of getting a single matching replacement is low. Having one unmatched wheel just weirds me out, so I need four 17x7” alloys, preferably five slim spokes and grey like the current wheels.
Any recommendations of suppliers, brands, etc. Bear in mind the car isn’t worth much on paper but works very well, so it’s bit of an odd thing cost wise.
If you’re not bothered about the look dealers will sometimes have steel winter wheels tucked away in the back of their parts catalogs. VW winter wheels used to cost about £30 a corner I think, Honda May do the same.
It may be an old car but it’s actually rather a good car, so I’d like it to still look ok! So steel wheels are out.
Breakers yard ?
Try a wanted post on Civiclife, ludebehaviour, ctr owners etc.
Just use one of the wheel fitment websites to see what else shares the same pcd, offset and stuff.
I ended up with Jag wheels on my old Mondeo. Can open up a bit more choice when searching around.
Hondas share very little fitment usually the offset is wrong. Plus these fitment calculators rarely take spigot sizes into account.
I got a couple of wheels from OPONEO recently as they were the best value and free delivery too.
ebay
Yeah, it really is a minefield for the uninitiated and like you say a completely boring one. If you can be bothered to do your homework, you may find that you can fit other wheels with the same bolt geometry but different offsets by using spacers.
It sounds like you just need to find a good independent wheel shop that will tell you what you need.
Bung a bit of Stans/TyreWeld in each one and see if that seals them?
I reckon these would look good, and no doubt they'll be available in the Honda PCD & Off-set
They always had a good rep when I was into my Honda's
Bung a bit of Stans/TyreWeld in each one and see if that seals them?
That worked for the alloys on my old Mondeo. I presume you've tried getting your tyre place to slap on that heavy duty bead seal stuff they try to sell to owners of elderly alloys?
This place is the answer to all geeky questions! 😉
I'm going to stick the wheel in the bath tonight, as the parts chap at Honda suggested it's more likely to be the tyre or valve than a previously refurbed wheel.
Not sure about sealant in a car tyre longterm - google seems to suggest it's not such a good idea, and my brain worries about it on 4 hour motorway runs in warm weather.
Just seen this thread and so wanted to post Carlos Fandango but given the demographic of this place I obviously need to a be a whooooole lot quicker.
+1 for "Being the King of the Road"
Not sure about sealant in a car tyre longterm – google seems to suggest it’s not such a good idea, and my brain worries about it on 4 hour motorway runs in warm weather.
It never worried me - something like Tyreweld won't harm your tyre or your wheel, and if you're just using it to seal a bit of seepage round the rim it's not going to fail suddenly. You just need to check it regularly to make sure it's still doing the job. If you've some sort of TPMS that'll be constantly monitoring anyway. I wouldn't suggest Tyreweld for a long term fix on a "proper" puncture, though IME it doesn't work for them anyway!
I’m going to stick the wheel in the bath tonight
Might be worth just brushing some soapy water over the more suspect areas first to see if that finds anything.
Inner tube?
You could swap the tyre on the 'leaky' wheel with another and see if the leak follows the tyre or stays with the wheel.
Cost involved with that approach though.
My Mrs' little Micra has alloys (all 4!) that leak(ed) like a sieve. I stuck roughly half a can of tyreweld in each one and they are now only losing a little ( 2 or 3 psi) between checks instead of the 50% it was losing before.
My 15 year old Honda had a similar leaky wheel.
I just whacked 200ml of stans sealant in and it's been perfect for almost a year.
It's only sealing any porous bits, not holding anything together.
Not got any fancy valves on my car.
We did the tyre weld things on my wife's Beetle - original steel wheels leaking around welded joins and also my son/s classic Mini - porous alloys; both stopped leaking and no side effects. Only real issue is if you get a puncture I'd imagine it could be a bit messy but the sealant probably dries over time and won't stop sealing the porous bits when it does.
Have a look to see if there's anyone local that can do this
We used to use it on cylinder heads that we cast. Don't know the costs involved as it was part of the manufacturing process, but it would involve stripping to bare metal and later recoating
I've got a civic type r that's at 17 years old this year. I re-inflate pretty regularly, just bought a cigarette lighter pump. They do look poor though.
Might be cheaper to get them refurbished. Think it's about £60/wheel and seems to work well
We paint the inside of the rims with yacht varnish on our historic race cars where I work,seems to work fine.
Rota wheels are cheap and cheerful. They are generally cast copies of expensive forged Japanese wheels.
I was just going to say paint the inside. Polyurethane floor paint should do it.
Or lots of stans tape!
surely sealant isnt going to work well as it works on tyres by being flung out to the inside of the tyre during rotation.
As the MG Rover range were basically rebranded Hondas there is a good chance you can pick up a set of cheap rover alloys that will bolt straight on.
Andyl - I figure that putting about 200 ml in there will be enough for it to slosh around as it stays liquid, and coat all surfaces.
It then dries on the bits where it contacts the air In The tiny porous holes.
Certainly worked on mine.
I had plenty of sealant spare so didn't have to by any.
Tyreweld seems to be working rather well! I feel like this car is on its way out - have had to replace the tailgate and most of the exhaust in recent weeks, and last week one of the blipper fob things self-destructed leaving my wife locked out (without setting the alarm off), sixty miles from home in the rain with two small children - aaarghhhh!!!
I got a set of alloys from performancealloys and they were priced well - 'replicas' of the OEM wheel but I think actually from the same manufacturer - or at least one with all the same quality symbols :
https://www.performancealloys.com/
