Where to buy rims used/cheap (Denver)

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

Pretty self-explanatory. I am thinking of mounting our snow tires (for 99 Accord and 2008 Fit) on separate rims this year instead of having them put on the existing rims, if only to protect our summer tires in storage. I already own unmounted snow tires for the Accord, but not for the Fit.

I didn't see anything helpful on Craigslist, but I'm not sure I'm looking right--I don't necessarily care if they are OEM and I'm not sure how to tell they're the right size.

Any advice on where to look and what to look for?

[StacheInAFlash]

Easiest place to look is Tirerack.com. Even if you definitely want used, it will at least give you a starting point to go off. Enter your Make and Model and it will tell you what size you need. Finding the right size rims can be a huge challenge as there are bolt patterns and offsets and diameters and other stuff you need to be aware of. If you aren't finding it on craigslist, I'd say the other good option is the junkyard. You may be able to find some OEM rims for cheap. Use www.car-part.com to check all the area yards for your factory rims. Keep in mind for the '08 Fit, you'll need to also deal with TPMS....

[COlady]

Look on CL.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

Easiest place to look is Tirerack.com. Even if you definitely want used, it will at least give you a starting point to go off. Enter your Make and Model and it will tell you what size you need. Finding the right size rims can be a huge challenge as there are bolt patterns and offsets and diameters and other stuff you need to be aware of. If you aren't finding it on craigslist, I'd say the other good option is the junkyard. You may be able to find some OEM rims for cheap. Use www.car-part.com to check all the area yards for your factory rims. Keep in mind for the '08 Fit, you'll need to also deal with TPMS....

Thanks! TireRack is showing me wheels with different offsets when I enter my make and model, and not saying anything about bolt pattern. How would I know if the bolt pattern is right, and how would I know what offset I need? Is it an exact thing, or is there a range?

Also, is there any reason not to get the cheapest possible wheels?

[Jack]

Go somewhere like honda-tech.com and post a "want to buy" ad saying that you want cheap rims for a '99 Accord and an '08 Fit and don't care if they're scratched, steelies or a mis-matched set. Explicitly mention that you're willing to buy fewer than four at a time, from different sellers. I'm sure there are plenty of people who bent a rim or something and are willing to get rid of the other three cheap.

(They'll also know exactly what size rims fit your application.)

By the way, to figure out bolt pattern, count the number of bolts on your existing wheels and then measure the distance between them. It's probably something like 4x100mm on the Fit and 5x114.3mm on the Accord. A range of offsets will fit, but you'll want it to be relatively "close" so that the car's handling doesn't get weird.

[Le Poisson]

Easiest place to look is Tirerack.com. Even if you definitely want used, it will at least give you a starting point to go off. Enter your Make and Model and it will tell you what size you need. Finding the right size rims can be a huge challenge as there are bolt patterns and offsets and diameters and other stuff you need to be aware of. If you aren't finding it on craigslist, I'd say the other good option is the junkyard. You may be able to find some OEM rims for cheap. Use www.car-part.com to check all the area yards for your factory rims. Keep in mind for the '08 Fit, you'll need to also deal with TPMS....

Car Part has never let me down. As for TPMS, just don't worry about the light until spring.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

Car Part didn't find anything for under $90! No thanks! And that was an hour way.

Thanks for the other suggestions--I'll get looking. Although I don't think Mr. FP is going to tolerate having the light on all winter.

If I can't find them cheap, I won't get them at all, because Mr. FP has been making noises about moving somewhere warmer.

[hyla]

Look up salvage yards in your area and call them to ask if they have any in stock (Note that if you go this route it's cheap, but you will likely end up with rims that are correctly sized but not matched cosmetically).  I managed to find an affordable used replacement rim at a local salvage yard in a much smaller city, so I'm sure there are plenty around Denver.  It will be easier if you know the part number for your desired rims when you call them - a tire place will be able to let you know what this number is. 

[Le Poisson]

Really Car Part didn't work?


For the Fit:

I used zip code 80222 and found that "Falcon Auto recycling" has three 15X6 wheels with TPMS to match the Fit for $50 each.

Falcon Auto Recycling
4979 N. York St
Denver, CO 80216
303-297-2020 (office)
888-857-3357 (toll free)
303-297-3680 (fax)
sales@falconautorecycle.com

LKQ has the 4th one for $95.00, but since its a lower condition you may be able to talk them down a little and offer cash.

LKQ-Colorado USA-CO(Denver) 303-534-5692

For the 99 Accord:

Depends if you have a 4 cyl or 6 cyl (different bolt pattern, one has 4 bolts and the other has 5)

4-bolt +/-$40 each just about everywhere. Here's an example:

14" Tire ($45 rims), 4 rims in stock:
Falcom Auto Recycling (as above)

15" tire ($40 rims), 6 rims in stock:
Foreign Automotive
1245 S. Kalamath St.
Denver, CO 80223
303-733-4544
800-480-4544

5-Bolt Wheel

15" Steel Wheel, 4 in stock - $45
2200 W. Radcliff Ave.
Englewood, CO 80110
Phone: 303-781-4200

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

Prospector, I see those now--don't know what I was doing wrong the first time. I don't know why you're seeing a lower condition for the $95 one, though--they have it listed as "undamaged" whereas the other three are "condition C," meaning at least 3 points of damage,

The reference to wheel-size.com has me more confused than ever, though--because the tire size shown is not the size of the tire on the car. Maybe the Fit Sport has different size tires? Would that mean it has different size rims, and we're looking at the wrong thing?

Also, are used OEM wheels better than equally cheap new aftermarket rims?

[Le Poisson]

In the tire size for your car, the last two digits are your rim diameter. Or use a tape measure to measure across the rim.

For instance, 225/65 16 would be a 16" rim. The advantage of going to teh wreckers is that you don't have any guesswork about offsets, widths, hub bores, etc. You are getting a straight swap. Aftermarket steelies are in 'new' condition, and are less likely to have rust or other damage, but apart from that no big difference. Either one can be returned if it doesn't hold air, and either one will be useable.

[StacheInAFlash]

Also, are used OEM wheels better than equally cheap new aftermarket rims?

In the grand scheme of things, both will undoubtedly work fine...however, OEM rims are designed specifically for that model and are definitely of higher quality than cheap aftermarket rims. OEM rims were designed and tested to thoroughly last the life of the vehicle because the manufacturers want to be absolutely sure that bad shit doesn't happen to people driving their vehicles on year 1 or year 20. If 2 to 10 BILLION dollars worth of merchandise (total price of all cars produced of that model and year) is sitting on low quality rims that could randomly fail (bend), that spells bad news for the manufacturer...so they put the resources into making them perfect. If you looked at buying new factory rims from the dealership, they'd probably be at least $300 each. Yes, a lot of that is unnecessary mark up, but there is still an actual, high quality product there. Aftermarket rims are designed to be flashy, cool looking, fit on all sorts of different vehicles, and be built for a price (quality) that is low enough to encourage people to replace perfectly good factory rims for something different.

But again, I'm not suggesting that the aftermarket rims are going to instantly (or ever) fail...that would just be silly to suggest; but the factory rims are built to a much higher spec as a means of insurance protecting the manufacturer. Just my two cents!

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

Hmmm... but a lot of people say it's better to have steel rims for the winter? Because of the salt factor?

[Le Poisson]

Steel wheels can be either OEM (from a scrap yard) or aftermarket (from Costco etc.)

[Jack]

Hmmm... but a lot of people say it's better to have steel rims for the winter? Because of the salt factor?

Steel rims are better only in the sense that people don't want to mess up the finish of their fancy, expensive alloy rims. If you've got a set of cheap, beat-up, mismatched alloy rims (as I advocated for above), steel rims have no advantage.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

New steelies were cheaper than used alloy rims, so that's what I went with.

I decided against getting rims for my 99 Accord--they would take too long to pay off.

ETA: Major thanks to Prospector, ZinCO and Jake--you guys were really helpful in walking me through this undeniably useful skill!

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

I'm opening my zombie thread back up to let you folks now--if you are still around--that I DID make better use of this skill this year. I have a new-to-me 2011 Fit with 16 inch wheels and decided it would be worth having another set of wheels for my snow tires. I found a full, matched set of used OEM wheels and successfully retrieved them from the junkyard, which was an interesting experience.

It still cost me a whopping three hundred dollars--apparently the 16 inch costs more. (I did not think until it was too late of doing 15 instead--I had negotiated a set of snow tires from the dealership where I bought the car so needed rims to match.) But even the cheapest aftermarket ones were a hundred a pop, so it worked out.

[Jack]

$300 for OEM isn't bad if they were in half-decent condition and 16". I still suspect you could have done better though -- I paid only slightly more than that for the brand new aftermarket (name-brand) 15" wheels I bought from Amazon.com last spring.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

$300 for OEM isn't bad if they were in half-decent condition and 16". I still suspect you could have done better though -- I paid only slightly more than that for the brand new aftermarket (name-brand) 15" wheels I bought from Amazon.com last spring.

15" is much cheaper. Checked CL and car-parts.com and a variety of places for aftermarket. I recall paying $55 each for aftermarket 15" wheels. And actually the wheels I bought were individually $100 if you needed the core (that is, if you were not trading in an old wheel), but they gave me the set for $300, and then took off another $15 when I pointed out one was more scratched than the others.