What are the effects of offsets on cars?

Question

What are the effects of offsets on cars? The differences between positive, zero, and negative offsets (I can't understand what wikipedia is saying)? And the good and bad sides?

I have a car and I wanted to modify it, little by little. I wished not to change my tires and mags but they seems to look my car with narrow wheels, the length/gap of a wheel to the other wheel at the other side (because they are "inserted" against the body/wheel well of my car). What I want is to look it wider (what do you call it, negative or positive offset?). Now I wished to adjust my offsets but how will the adjustments affect my car's handling, acceleration, fuel consumption, etc.?

Thank you for answering my questions and happy new year to all of you. =)

Answer 1

Wheel offset refers to the position of the center part of the wheel rim that bolts to the wheel hub as you would be looking at a cross-section of the rim longitudinally(front-to-back).

Positive offset=center located closer to the outside of the rim.
Zero offset=center is in the exact center of the rim.
Negative offset=the center plane of the rim is closer to the wheel hub.

Negative=wider wheel track. Positive=Narrower wheel track.

Too narrow a wheel track may cause rollover of the vehicle in a hard turn (tuck-under, oversteer-the vehicle wants to spin out, rear-end first). The old Corvairs were good for this effect, mainly because of their independent rear suspension, but also because the car's wheel track was so narrow.

Too wide a wheel track may make the vehicle prone to understeer(the vehicle wants to continue in a straight line, regardless of steering direction. Wider stance also contributes to the friction coefficient of the vehicle in some cases, decreasing fuel economy and making handling sluggish. Many circuit track race cars have a wide stance to maintain stability around curves at high speeds-but next time you watch Formula racers going around a track-notice how often the cars 'drift' in a tight turn. Remember-they're using super-sticky tires and running in near-perfect track conditions and have the training necessary to handle understeer.

Then there's always the clearance issues. Tire-to-fender and tire/rim-to-brake/suspension. Ya don't want things hitting stuff they're not s'posed to when the wheels bounce or are turned.
Best to choose a rim design you like that most closely resembles the stock wheel offset.
When choosing aftermarket rims, it's a good idea to remember that the rims that came with your car are the best offset for the car's design parameters. To make the car operate outside those parameters-ya gotta change a whole lot more than the wheels.

Answer 2

Positive Offset Wheels

Answer 3

Negative Offset Rims

Answer 4

A wheel with less positive offset will look like a wider wheel on the car, giving a similar effect to wheel spacers, this can improve cornering by widening the space between the wheels, careful though because too much of this will make the steering a bit unpredictable and can also increase wheel bearing wear
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.raceandroad.com/images/ns-offsetexplained.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.raceandroad.com/offset.asp&h=365&w=290&sz=26&tbnid=47AWcxVrF8j2YM:&tbnh=121&tbnw=96&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwheel%2Boffset%26um%3D1&start=1&sa=X&oi=images&ct=image&cd=1 there's a pic here

Answer 5

The more extreme your go in either direction will add stress to the ball joints and bearings. Basically your are adding a lever arm on to the end of your tire, and the longer the lever arm, the more stress the weight of the car will have on the various components.

Answer 6

You're asking to many questions to answer here..

0 offset is where the center of the wheel is the same as the point where it is bolted to the axle
negative is where the bolting point is moved toward the outside of the wheel..so the wheel is moved farther under the fender, and the tread width is narrower
positive offsetis where the bolting point is moved to the back of the wheel, the wheel is then farther out and tread width is wider.

Answer 7

happy new year t you too.