Diesel Brethren:
For the past week I have been working diligently with my truly excellent parts man to find a steel GM wheel for our Diesel models.
First let me begin by explaining the factory wheel that all North American diesels wear. The wheel is a 17x7", 5x115mm bolt pattern with a 41mm positive offset.
I could find only three 17", 5x115, steel wheels in GM's vast repertoire. I measured and test fit them as follows:
9595657 17x6.5 5x115 52mm offset Uplander - Does not clear Diesel calliper.
9596578 17x6.5 5x115 46mm offset Impala - Does not clear Diesel calliper.
9598749 17x7.5 5x115 53mm offset Impala - Clears the Diesel calliper by 5mm but spins closer to the strut than stock. When combined with the .5" greater width and 12mm more offset the wheel is 18mm closer to the inside of the vehicle than stock.
So as you can see there is only one 17" wheel that could work. However with a rubber tire mounted the chance of interference is magnified by the 18mm greater intrusion into the wheel well. As a result I did not mount a tire to the wheel to test further.
This meant that I had to expand my search to 16" steel wheels that could work. Again, an in depth search of GM's substantial history of steel wheels resulted in only five wheels turning up with the requisite 5x115 bolt pattern. They are: 9595551 16x6.5 Impala; 9595560 16x6.5 Impala; 9595642 16x6.5 Aztek; 9595647 16x6.5 Impala Police; 13259235 16x6.5 Orlando.
As Orlando is a P car relative of Cruze I decided to focus on 13259235. It measured 41mm offset, identical to that of our factory wheel, and when mounted it had better brake calliper and wheel well clearance than 9598749.
So for anyone looking for OEM steel wheels to fit their Cruze Diesel the part number you want is 13259235.
When combined with a 215/60R16 winter or snow tire the rotational difference is only 0.58% from the stock 215/55R17.
I want to thank my long-time parts man, Chris at Tubman Chevrolet, who's ongoing patience and support were vital to the completion of this project.
