Wheel question
 

Hello, My Daughter has picked out some pretty aggressive Wheels for her 2006 Mini Cooper S , I want to make sure they will work ok before i ordered them
17 x 8.5 with a 30 offset , I'm putting Coil-overs on it as well

My Daughter is looking for that Slam stance look , Im new to the mini scene:(
I just got my 15 year old soon to be 16 year old daughter the car for Christmas , and she is into cool cars and custom cars like her dad, so she wants to get it all fixed up and looking good , so i want to make sure the wheels she wants will work ok:eek:

hello... Well you are facing a bit of a dilemma. How to keep your daughter happy but also make sure it fits the car properly. Tough one dad!! Let me see if i can help. 1st off as you know the car uses a pretty narrow rim. probably a 7" wide wheel with about a 48mm offset if they are stock wheels. What that means to you is that from the mounting pad of the wheel (the part that comes in contact with the rotor when you bolt it on the car) outward towards the fender you have approx. 1" of rim plus about 1/4" rim flange and from the mounting pad backwards towards the inside of the fenderwell you have about 6" of rim plus about 1/4" rim flange. you are wanting to go to a 8.5 wide wheel with a 30mm offset. that means you will have approx. 1 3/4" to the front plus about 1/4" rim flange and on the backside you will have about 6 3/4" of rim plus about 1/4" rim flange. So you need to check to see if you have 7" of clearance from the rotor face back into the fender well and 2" of clearance from the rotor face outwards towards the fender sheet metal. The easiest way to do that is make a cardboard circle the same diameter as your current tire which is approx. 24.5" and bring it out 3/4" from where the current rim and tire sit on the car and that's where your new rim and tire will sit and see if you have clearance. that part is easy. the backside clearance check is a bit more labor intensive but not difficult. you will need to take your same circle and cut a large hole in the middle. Jack up the car and take off the rim and tire that you are going to check for clearnace. (i strongly suggest you check front and rear) slide your cardboard circle over the rotor past all the components then bolt the rim and tire back on. your cardboard should move freely behind the rim and tire so you can position it to check for clearance. you will need to make sure it can sit obstruction free 3/4" further back than your stock rims and tires. on the front you will need to have some one turn the steering wheel all the way to one side and check for clearance and then all the way to the other side to check for clearance. If you have clearance using this method you should be fine. The only thing this cannot account for is brake caliper clearance and 99.9% of the time a mini cooper brakes are not so large that they will interfere with the barrel of the wheel so you should be good to go. hope this helps. Good luck with your project.