Trying to find vehicles with compatible wheels to 98 sebring
 

Hello,

I have a 98 Chrysler Sebring LXI coupe. It's not the convertible. When I bought it, the tires on it were way too large and caused a lot of problems on my car. I realize I can buy things stock wheels online, but I don't have $1000+ to drop to do this, so I've been looking around craigslist, and salvages, but can't specifically find any 98 chrysler sebring wheels and tires. There of course are tons for chrysler 300 and other cars. I'd be happy to get wheels from another car, but I'm not certain how to tell what vehicle make/model is compatible with the 98 chrysler sebring. At first I thought it just came down to rim size and bolt pattern, but there is apparently also offset, center bore, etc., and I don't know how to find out what my car has and what it's compatible with.


This is what I know: my rims are size 17'' X 6.5''. The bolt pattern is 5 X 4.5''. My tires are size 215/50R17.

The Sebring coupe was built by Mitsubishi. You might have more luck looking for Mitsubishi wheels than Chrysler wheels.
Most reputable tire/wheel sources will quote you for wheels to fit. They'll tell you the sizes and specs for the wheels as well. It's no secret. Be sure you tell them it's a coupe, not a converible. The Convertible was built by Chrysler and is totally different.

Hmm.. that's the issue I'm having though. It's true I can call tire shops and say "I need wheels for my car" and they'll say "yeah! Here's a set for one grand", but they can't seem to tell me any specifics such as offset, center bore, etc. The most I've gotten out of any tire shop I've called is the rim size (17 X 6.5) but I can't seem to get more than that, and I mean I really had to pull arms for them to tell me that much. This doesn't seem to be enough though, as I got rims of this size and the right bolt pattern, and they didn't fit due to having the wrong offset. Do you have any good tire shops you might recommend that I could call? Because all the places I called just seemed to be plugging my year/make/model in to a computer and it spits them out tires they can sell me and nothing more.


See my problem is I'd like to be able to have a list of cars that are compatible. Say for example a Mistubishi Galant from 2000 was compatible. (I have no idea if it is, I'm just randomly chosing a car), then I'd be able to go on craigslist and look for galant wheels and know they'd fit if I found them.

Try Tirerack.com. They seem to be pretty good about that stuff. Be persistent.

There are a couple of problems I am having with tirerack:

(1) The only consistent information I get the bolt pattern and rim size, which I all ready have

(2) Offset is different for different wheels they sell. My goal is to find the specs for the OEM wheels for this car.

with regard to the offset issue - I've now gone through 2 different sets of wheels that had the same bolt pattern and rim size, which didn't fit on the car due to offset. That's why I really want to find out what the specs for the OEM wheels are, so I can look for something that matches exactly.

And about being persistent. I'm really not sure what else to do, which is why I posted here. I just have no more ideas. I've tried calling tire shops, I've tried calling the Chrysler dealer, I've tried looking at the online databases. It has all led no where beyond bolt pattern + rim width.

Here's another reason why I'm completely confused. So for example, I went to onlinewheelsdirect.com. I plugged in 98 Chrysler Sebring LXI. I chose the 17'' rim selection. I selected the 17 X 6.5 type rims and when I looked at the tire/rim package, the tires that were automatically included on it were size 205/50-17, which is NOT the size of tires for my car. I realize there's not a huge difference between 205/50-17 and 215/50-17, but the point I'm trying to get at is I just want to be able to find what are the specifications for this car in particular?


Is there some sort of manual I can go to? I tried to find a manual for my car, but they are very expensive, and there's no point in buying one if I don't even know for sure the information I want is in it. I'm just very frustrated, and very confused why it seems so difficult to find this information. Am I just looking in the wrong place? If so, I just don't know *where* to look.

Maybe this will help:

Wheel & Tire 101 - Measuring Wheels and tires the right way

Used wheels source with size info.
 

New Used & Refinished Wheels Factory Aluminum Rims CHRYSLER SEBRING COUPE CONVERTIBLE SEDAN GTC TOURING LTD LIMITED TSI Alloy Wheels OEM Original Factory Aluminum OE Chrysler Wheels Philadelphia PA NJ NY DE MD CT VA MA OH DC NC Alloy Wheels Rims Sale

You can cross reference thier part numbers to find other cars with your fit or alternate sizes.

As for measuring the wheels - the unfortunate thing for me is I live 1500 miles away from where this car is physically at and I have no access to it unfortunately :/


As for the link with the part numbers - so I called the shop. They mentioned that the part number listed is the hollander interchange manual number for the OEM wheels for that car. It so happens that for the late 90s Sebring LxI coups, chrysler made them specific for that car and never used it on any other car, so the hollander interchange number will be unique just to the sebrings. However, my goal here is to be able to find out what the exact specs are (offset, center bore, ect), so I can find other cars with the same specs. The hollander interchange manual number listed is: H2084. I went to go look this up, but I am confused how to use this hollander interchange manual. It seems like a manual which is really expensive to buy, and I'm not certain I understand the process in looking things up in it even if I had a copy. Does anyone happen to have a hollander interchange manual that might be able to plug that number in, and let me know what specifications are there for the wheels?