Can mag wheels improve the driveability of a 95 Maxima or they just change its looks?
Even if mag wheels are more rigid than steel wheels, the tires shear much more than wheels while taking a curve at high speed.
Ideally both for safety and comfort, the wheel assemblies should have zero mass, an unattainable goal. The mag wheels are a bit lighter than steel wheels; is it important?
The only advantage I see to mag wheels is the fact that brake disks are more exposed to air so they could cool more rapidly.
"Jean Castonguay" wrote in message news:IbxCuxQzw2Ms-pn2-L3e6t5zdiTW6@localhost...
BOTH driveability AND looks for aluminum mags in the terms of UNSPRUNG/SPRUNG weight... from Wikopedia:
Unsprung weight is a term used to describe that part of a vehicle's mass that is directly connected to the wheels, and not isolated through the suspension. Unsprung weights typically consists of the weight of the wheels, tires, brakes (if within the wheels), spindles, bearings, and a portion of weight of the half-shafts, springs, and suspension links. Because this part of a vehicle is in direct connection to the road and therefore subject to all of its imperfections, it is important that this weight be as low as possible, or at least much lower than the weight of the sprung part of the vehicle, in order that the wheels maintain optimal contact with the road surface. The greater the unsprung weight, the greater the inertia of the suspension, which will be unable to respond as quickly to rapid changes at the interface between the road and wheel. Unsprung weight can be reduced by using light alloy wheels, independent rear suspension on rear and all wheel drive vehicles (where the weight of the rear differential is not part of the unsprung weight) (also obtained by the use of front-wheel drive) and the location of brakes inboard rather than within the wheels. The classic design of rear-wheel drive through a live axle ("Hotchkiss Drive") gives quite a high unsprung weight, which is one reason why it has fallen out of favour for anything other than trucks. The use of independent rear suspension allows the handling and response under acceleration and braking to be finely tuned. The Hotchkiss Drive has one significant advantage in that very high power can be transferred to the ground with less tendency to induce wheel hop and so is favored in drag racing. This advantage also accrues to a similar rear drive suspension, the de Dion. The de Dion uses a rigid beam to connect the rear wheel bearings and uses half shafts to transmit power from a chassis-mounted differential, reducing the unsprung weight. A recent vehicle using this suspension was the Ford Ranger EV which had a an aluminum beam on leaf springs and a chassies mounted geared electric powertrain unit located between the rear wheels. The basic balance is between the ability of the suspension system to supply reactive forces to the mass of the unsprung weight in order to counteract the forces supplied by road surface imperfections. Heavy unsprung weight can overload a suspension systems ability to react, leading to tire hop, slapping, poor traction & bad ride and handling.
Looks. You won't pay $400 for a steel wheel, now will you??
With equal sized tires and wheels, there isn't enough weight difference between steel and aluminum alloy to make any practical difference. Since you can't redesign the underpinnings of the car, the discussion of independent/beam/live etc. axles is just theoretical.
Also, no one mentioned that cast alloy is fairly weak compared to steel. Forged alloy much better structually, but maybe not equal to steel either.
How many alloy wheels have you broken? I cracked ONE since
1983. One of 28 alloy wheels on cars I've owned since. It was a 1983 VW alloy wheel. I've found they've become not only lighter since then but a heckuva lot stronger too. Steel wheels are not oblivious to the same punishments. Once they're bent, they are no better than a cracked alloy.
Not only that, but steel wheels tend to be more cushioned by high profile tires. If there's a low profile tire in the mix, you know it's on a non-steel rim.
Aluminum wheels are usually must straighter than the steel ones so have less vibration issues. Also they do flex less which helps. Sounds like you've talked yourself into thinking steel wheels are just as good already?
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