Steel vs Alloy rims

I plan to buy 4 dedicated Blizzaks with rims for 2001 Forester S---I have been told that the only reason to use alloy is for appearance . Are there other reasons to justify the added cost of alloy over steel ?

Thanks Amanda

Reply to
amanda
Loading thread data ...

Alloys are certainly usually lighter. I don't know if it makes for a smoother ride seeing as there's then less impulse for the suspension to absorb when your wheels hit bumps, but I figure that at least it's better to be lugging less weight around - presumably that pays for itself in gas at some point. I've heard some people say that alloys are less likely to crack, too, but I don't have experience of enough wheels to really say.

-- Mark

Reply to
Mark T.B. Carroll

Alloy wheels are lighter, giving the wheel assembly a lower "unsprung weight". As the suspension system of a vehicle would be designed for the unsprung weight of alloy wheels, changing to heavier steel wheels may effect the ride and handling.

Reply to
David Coggins

By the same man who drives a Prius?

On Forester with Blizzaks: I doubt it.

Reply to
Body Roll

We use alloys for the summer rims, and cheap steel for the snows. Alloys react pretty swiftly to salt contamination once the paint/powdercoat or what ever chips and wears. Corrosion from winter road salt will be much faster and damaging to the alloys than to pressed steel.

Got our steel rims from the Suby dealership. Apparently they are 'take-offs' that come on some of the more elevated Forester models, and which are then swapped in the dealership for the more costly alloy rims before the sale. Those 'take offs' are often available at about the same price as cheaper, plainer generic rims from discount parts joints, but they are orig. Suby parts so they look right.

Alloys are lighter, reducing unsprung weight as mentioned by prev. posters. Because of the weight differential they may also 'spin up' faster but the difference on something like a Forester would be virtually undetectable.

One possible downside is that alloys have been known to let the air out of tires when it gets very cold out. By 'very cold' I'm talking about -30C or so. Nothing like coming out on a morning like that and finding 2 or 3 flats in your driveway.

Reply to
Kevin Hall

Thank you very much for all the replies and information.

Amanda

Reply to
amanda

Well, I live in a climate with such cold temps, and I've never experienced such drastic air loss in my snow tires mounted on the

1998-vintage OEM alloys of my Audi.

I leave these tires on the car for 5 months a year, and that's a long time to be looking at the same wheels, hence my preference for the alloys over the ugly steelies.

Reply to
KLS

I've had alloys on vehicles which had no problems in cold weather, but have personally had alloys allow tires to go flat in winter on a full sized Chevy Blazer, a Ford Exploder and a Chrysler minivan. Lots of other folks in this area have had similar experiences, so I don't tempt the fates.

I'm also not willing to feed $1,000 worth of fancy rims to the salt fairy every year.

Reply to
Kevin Hall

my wife's Beretta has alloys for the last 17 years. We live in Winnipeg (-40 in the winter) and they lose air over time in the winter, but never quite that dramatically.

I'd say 2-3 psi per week would be "normal" for the cars I've owned with alloys in the winter. Just enough to be annoying.

If I was putting snow tires on a car, I'd go with steels, or if I had nice wheels and didn't want them to look like crap in 3-4 years, I'd go with steels in the winter.

My Legacy has stock steels and hubcaps...

Ray

Reply to
news

"Alloys are certainly usually lighter." This is common myth. Did you ever weigh them? Alloys are almost always heavier. At least here, in Europe.

"Mark T.B. Carroll" píse v diskusním príspevku news: snipped-for-privacy@ixod.org...

Reply to
Jirí Lejsek

That's curious. I'd thought that my WRX STi has aluminium alloy control arms, pistons, etc. instead of steel so they could get good enough strength while making the car lighter. Similarly IIRC the Ford Prodigy was full of aluminium alloy in a rather non-cosmetic role, I thought, and consequently lighter? In Europe, I thought that some recent Audis had much more aluminium alloy in them, including in structural parts as well as just body panels, etc., to save weight? Am I mistaken?

So, no, I hadn't actually tried weighing the wheels, but I seem to see plenty of use of aluminium alloys to replace steel in other engineering applications, to reduce weight, where the parts will be under some stress and their strength is important - is there something odd about wheels that makes them an exception?

-- Mark

Reply to
Mark T.B. Carroll

And probably wrong ...

A quick google search finds:

formatting link
formatting link
of which imply that alloy wheels are lighter.

Yes, enquiring minds want to know.

Cheers,

Reply to
Paul Pluzhnikov

You are right, commonly using aluminium alloys brings less weight. But I know that usual alloy wheels are heavier than steel (I don't know about alloy wheel that is lighter than steel - maybe some racing or very expensive are.) I think reason is that steel is more elastic, so must not be so tough as alloy. Steel bends and returns back, but alloy stays bended (which have to be avoided). Some of reasons for using alloys is better heat distribution (from breaks) - but it is important only for sport or racing cars.

"Mark T.B. Carroll" pí¹e v diskusním pøíspìvku news: snipped-for-privacy@ixod.org...

Reply to
Jiøí Lejsek

I think volume for volume alloys are probably lighter. However on a couple of cars I have owned the steel wheels seem to be thinner metal ( I haven/t measured). alloys probably have to thicker in stress parts because of the strength and elasticity issues raised in early post. Just MO Howard

Reply to
Howard Nelson

Iron is about 2.9 times as dense as aluminum. However - one of the features of aluminum I learned in basic metallurgy is that one can make it aluminum stiffer by using greater volume, and stronger with certain alloys. It might not actually be stronger than an equivalent steel wheel though.

I had a complete blowout on a steel wheel once. I just happened to be close to a tire dealer and got a replacement. The installer (the manager) noted that steel wheels are tough. I guess it probably flexed a bit, but didn't permanently deform. I don't think an aluminum alloy rim would have survived the same incident.

Reply to
y_p_w

I think there are some magnesium alloy wheels that are very light and expensive and used in racing; IIRC they're not really very durable. Not something I know about. I don't think anyone uses titanium alloy wheels

- they'd be light and strong, but very expensive indeed. (-:

(snip)

Ah, I don't know enough to know how the elasticity trades off against being able to make the piece a bit thicker for the same weight - if they just balance linearly or what.

-- Mark

Reply to
Mark T.B. Carroll

This thread leaves me wondering - what exactly *are* advantages of alloy wheels if any? There are a lot more expensive then steel, so there has to be something that justifies spending that much extra money? My list of what I can think of:

- Lighter. Are they really? How much of a factor is this driving a normal car?

- Don't rust. Are there really 10-15 years old cars where wheels are compromized from rust?

- "Better looking".

- Heat dissipation. Again, how much of a factor is this driving a normal car?

- More uniform to begin with and better keeping their shape. Perhaps that makes alignment easier or suspension lasting longer?

DK

Reply to
DK

"DK" pí¹e v diskusním pøíspìvku news:qI_mh.1369$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe03.lga...

Extra money? In last year I saw cheapest alloys have almost the same prize as steel rims.

No, they are heavier. For a normal car probably no difference.

Alloy wheels also rusts, especially cheaper ones - from salt in winter - they have internal corrosion, not visible, after few years they can break down suddenly. (Some are "certified" for winter use.)

Definitely yes.

For a normal car zero. For sporty maybe some.

Alignment (balancing) easier? No, more difficult and more expensive.

Suspension lasting longer? No, they are harder so suspension suffers from that, especially if you use bigger rims and lower profile tyres (So they are also less comfortable). For profile /60 and higher will be no difference.

Handling better? Yes (especially with bigger rims and lower profile tyres). For profile.... (see above)

It is also more probable that you deform (permanently) alloy wheel so add further $s for aligning.

I think steel rims are not usable for extra low profile tyres - must be used extra hard (and expensive) alloy wheels.

Did I forget something?

Conclusion: for normal car and driver it is only a fashion, for more demanding driver it has a sense, but only with low profile tyres.

Reply to
Jiøí Lejsek

I read a little thing about this on a tire shop website while I have been shopping for new tires. They say alloys are lighter and stronger. Alloys wheels have a positive affect on tire wear, steering is more responsive , brakeing and performance is better compared to steel wheels.

Reply to
Mike

You've made this statement twice now without *any* substantiation.

Would you care to tell us *where* you got that info from?

Are you an expert on wheel design? Did you personally weigh 100s of steel and alloy wheel pairs for the same car? Did you find a web site that carries both steel and alloy wheels for the same car and shows their weight?

Or are you just repeating your unsubstatiated *opinion* ?

How do you *know* that?

Cheers,

Reply to
Paul Pluzhnikov

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.