Nick-L

In follow up to previous threads about winter tires/wheels on Sport Pkg cars, the final answer is in: 18 in wheels do NOT fit on the Sport cars.

The Sport Pkg has larger brake rotors (14 in front, 13.8 in back, compared with 13 in on other cars). Today my dealer physically took an 18 in wheel from a base car and tried to mount it on a Sport car for me. It fit, but just barely. There was literally only enough room to maybe slip a piece of paper between the brake caliper and the inside of the wheel - definitely way too little clearance for safe driving (when things would expand with heat, or just move around at all, there would clearly be hard contact).

So, my search for how to drive a 6MT Sport in the winter continues. No one makes all-season tires in the 19 in size of the Sport, and now it's clear 18 in wheels do not fit.

Any ideas?

Techuinang

Good to know, thanks a lot for this information. If it is that close, you're right, no way is that safe. Maybe the only option will be to use spacers.

bostonmerlin

so if you go onto tire rack and size out 18" wheels and tires for a g37 they come up with several wheels to choose from plus 1 or 2 tires... so you're conclusion is that they are selling tires that wont fit on the g37..the vey car they are marketing them for? I"m looking for winter tires and wheels as well so this is an honest question.

N50

I guess there are going to be plenty of people who will garage their sport G's (provided they have a better winter going car) this time around. I was checking out the rotors today, and I can imagine that 18's would barely fit.

Callaway

You don't want to get dedicated winter tires and just use your stock 19's? I'm gonna pick up a set of Blizzaks from Tirerack in the next few weeks.

Techuinang

He meant the base G37 18" wheels will not fit safely, not every 18" wheels. A lot of people were thinking of just buying the G37's 18" and mount them with winter tires (or keep the All Season tires) to keep the stock look.
My understanding is that it is very difficult and expensive to find winter tires in 19" and close to impossible to find some with the same offset as the stock 19" wheel. But then again, I just heard it, never really researched it yet so I could be totally wrong.

Callaway

I just searched Tirerack and they list Blizzacks that match the size of the stock tires.

ABQG35c

No, 18's would fit the non-sport models, Sport offers the bigger brakes, which is why you get 19's (not just for looks) So those 18's are meant for the non-sport model's I believe.

Garnet Canuck

Well take it FWIW, but my dealer has already fit 18" steel wheels and winter tires on the G37S. This is according to the Parts Manager that I spoke to.

bostonmerlin

if you run through tireracks wizard and select 'g37 sport' (they allso offer non sport as an option in the wizard) it returns 18" tire and wheels to choose from. i hear what you're saying but someone is reporting incorrect information here. tirerack could be completely off base but i'd side with tirerack first as selling tires is their bread and butter.

Techuinang

Yea I remember you saying this. Actually the thread starter is claiming the same thing, that they do fit. However it is so close to the caliper that it is not necessarely very safe in case something goes wrong. I kinda agree with this. I think the best bet would be to get them anyways and use small spacers.

I know the pain in finding rims that fit the G37, us 3/s VR4/TT are having the same issue since early 90's. Our brake calipers are so huge stock that we have a very limited choice. Our forums are full of thread asking if these will fit without spacers. I personally just gave up and decided to use spacers. But that's a small disadvantage for having such great break setup and I'm sure most G37 feels the same.

Callaway

+1 The brakes on this car are incredible.

Garnet Canuck

I am not sure if my dealer used spacers to fit the 18" steel wheels, but I'll see if they are using spacers with their winter wheel and tire packages.

Nick-L

From what I saw, I don't think spacers would solve the problem with trying to put stock Infiniti 18 in (5 double-spoke) wheels on the 6MT Sport Pkg. The clearance problem was not between the caliper and the front of the wheel, it was between the caliper and the inside rim (inner diameter) of the wheel, where there was barely room to slip a piece of paper. Spacers would move the wheel outward, but wouldn't change the very tight clearance between the brake and the inside of the rim.

Maybe an aftermarket 18 in wheel might fit with more clearance, if it was a "thinner" wheel, but there still will not be much clearance.

Techuinang

Oh I see, I totally misread your original post.

Uhm... I never thought the calipers were that large. The rotors are what 14"? So if there is indeed a potential issue with the inner rim fitment, it would mean the calipers are sticking out over the rotors about 4". In pictures I've seen, we can clearly see the calipers behind the 19" wheel which have plenty clearance with the inner rim. Does 1" (so only 0.5" radius) less make that much of a difference?

EDIT. Forget it, I just realized it all depends on the style of the rims regardless of it's actually size. I have no clue what the 18" wheel look like so can't really comment.