Wheel question for 2018 CX-5

[torbuck]

I have a 2018 CX-5 Touring edition. I purchased used from a Mazda dealer in BC, Canada. The CX-5 came with 17 rims. I have since purchased winter tires, so every year I swap to my summer tires in the spring, and then my winter tires in the late fall. I have been swapping the tires between the same set of wheels, and feel this isn’t great for the tires, so want to purchase another set of wheels\rims.

I was originally interested in going with a set of 19” wheels, however when chatting with a sales rep at a shop where I tend to do my tire swap, he suggested that I go 18” as it would be a compromise, slightly lower profile however the wheels and subsequent tires would be less priced than going with 19’s.

I have been doing a lot of research on wheels and do want to get a set that are flow formed, rather than cast as I hear there can be a risk of cast wheels cracking. I am trying to determine the wheel specs if I want to go 18”. From what I can see, I can only go with a width of 7 or 7.5, offset of min:43 & max:47, bolt pattern of 5x114.3 and hub bore is 67.1mm. The problem is, when I put this info in for wheels on any Canadian online wheel retailer, I get very few wheels if any to select, and none that I can see that are flow formed (hoping to go with either Fast Wheels or Replika). Is there any issue with going with a width of 8 or 8.5 for an 18” wheel on a 2018 CX-5? Will that cause the wheel to stick out and cause any issue with turning? I can see that the OEM 19” for a CX-5 is still either a 7 or 7.5 width, but there doesn't seem to be a lot off wheels available with a 7 or 7.5 width, especially in a flow formed aftermarket wheel, and espesially if you go above 17" in diameter. I want the wheel to be as close to OEM as possible. I am not planning to modify the car. I just want an extra set of wheels so I can easily swap out my winter wheels in the fall\winter and summer tires in the spring\summer

 

[murky]

I have a 2018 CX-5 Touring edition. I purchased used from a Mazda dealer in BC, Canada. The CX-5 came with 17 rims. I have since purchased winter tires, so every year I swap to my summer tires in the spring, and then my winter tires in the late fall. I have been swapping the tires between the same set of wheels, and feel this isn’t great for the tires, so want to purchase another set of wheels\rims. I was originally interested in going with a set of 19” wheels, however when chatting with a sales rep at a shop where I tend to do my tire swap, he suggested that I go 18” as it would be a compromise, slightly lower profile however the wheels and subsequent tires would be less priced than going with 19’s. I have been doing a lot of research on wheels and do want to get a set that are flow formed, rather than cast as I hear there can be a risk of cast wheels cracking. I am trying to determine the wheel specs if I want to go 18”. From what I can see, I can only go with a width of 7 or 7.5, offset of min:43 & max:47, bolt pattern of 5x114.3 and hub bore is 67.1mm. The problem is, when I put this info in for wheels on any Canadian online wheel retailer, I get very few wheels if any to select, and none that I can see that are flow formed (hoping to go with either Fast Wheels or Replika). Is there any issue with going with a width of 8 or 8.5 for an 18” wheel on a 2018 CX-5? Will that cause the wheel to stick out and cause any issue with turning? I can see that the OEM 19” for a CX-5 is still either a 7 or 7.5 width, but there doesn't seem to be a lot off wheels available with a 7 or 7.5 width, especially in a flow formed aftermarket wheel, and espesially if you go above 17" in diameter. I want the wheel to be as close to OEM as possible. I am not planning to modify the car. I just want an extra set of wheels so I can easily swap out my winter wheels in the fall\winter and summer tires in the spring\summer

I did a lot of searching when I bought wheels for my 2018. I replaced the 19s for summer and also bought a set of 17s for Winter. You can get a larger hub bore and use hub centric rings, you just don't want to go smaller.

Generally Hyundai, Kia, and Mazda all use the 67.1

I got a very inexpensive, maybe $200, set of Mazda 3 wheels for my winter tires.

Got some aftermarket and swapped the basically new OEM tires and TPMS sensors onto them and sold the original pizza wheels.

 

[N7turbo]

So flow formed wheels are still cast before drawing out the barrel as in clay pottery. But semantics aside, I get you're trying to avoid cast barrels.

To answer your question, those widths are not a problem. I spent a few months researching this and to cut to the chase, you can run up to a 9" wheel on the 2nd Gen CX-5 with no issues as long as you don't go crazy with the tire.

Known good setups that maintain speedometer accuracy and fit at +45 offset:

245/50/19
245/45/20

These should be supported by an 8-9" wheel. 8.5" is a common size with aftermarket wheels.

At 9.5" you'll likely have to reduce the offset. There is one user running 20×9.5 +35 with 275/40/20 tires. The tires are another reason the offset needs to be reduced to avoid rubbing on the strut.

You can also stick with the stock sizes of 225/55/19 or 225/65/17 but I recommend an 8" wheel as the stock 7" wheels are a bit small and cause squishy handling.

You generally want the same size wheel and tire. The stock tires have a 9" section width and are on a 7" (actually 8" from face to face) wheel. Ideally, for best handling, they would be a 9" section width on an 8" wheel (9 inches face to face).

For example, I'm now running a tire with a 10" section width (accounting for my wheel size, read up on Tire Rack how these interplay). My wheels are "9 inches", however, that is the advertised number because that is the width from bead to bead. The wheel is actually 10" wide. Most wheels I've seen have the tire bead 0.5" in from the lip.

You can use tiresize.com to compare different setups.

 

[torbuck]

So flow formed wheels are still cast before drawing out the barrel as in clay pottery. But semantics aside, I get you're trying to avoid cast barrels.

To answer your question, those widths are not a problem. I spent a few months researching this and to cut to the chase, you can run up to a 9" wheel on the 2nd Gen CX-5 with no issues as long as you don't go crazy with the tire.

Known good setups that maintain speedometer accuracy and fit at +45 offset:

245/50/19
245/45/20

These should be supported by an 8-9" wheel. 8.5" is a common size with aftermarket wheels.

At 9.5" you'll likely have to reduce the offset. There is one user running 20×9.5 +35 with 275/40/20 tires. The tires are another reason the offset needs to be reduced to avoid rubbing on the strut.

You can also stick with the stock sizes of 225/55/19 or 225/65/17 but I recommend an 8" wheel as the stock 7" wheels are a bit small and cause squishy handling.

You generally want the same size wheel and tire. The stock tires have a 9" section width and are on a 7" (actually 8" from face to face) wheel. Ideally, for best handling, they would be a 9" section width on an 8" wheel (9 inches face to face).

For example, I'm now running a tire with a 10" section width (accounting for my wheel size, read up on Tire Rack how these interplay). My wheels are "9 inches", however, that is the advertised number because that is the width from bead to bead. The wheel is actually 10" wide. Most wheels I've seen have the tire bead 0.5" in from the lip.

You can use tiresize.com to compare different setups.

To maintain speedometer accuracy, is it best to stick with either a 17” (what I am using now and came with my cx-5), 19” or 20” wheel? Is it not recommended to go with a 18” to maintain speedometer accuracy?

 

[N7turbo]

To maintain speedometer accuracy, is it best to stick with either a 17” (what I am using now and came with my cx-5), 19” or 20” wheel? Is it not recommended to go with a 18” to maintain speedometer accuracy?

That's just a function of the total tire diameter. When you get smaller wheels, you need bigger tires, and vise versa. That's because we can't reprogram the computer.

I didn't give an 18" example because I'm not as familiar with those sizes. But you can plug sizes into tiresize.com to compare them.