i feel a lil stupid asking this but how exactly does offset work? i hear ppl talking about 45mm offset and stuff like that. what exactly does that do?? and are the wheel spacers what give that offset? like i said im clueless. please help me out.

Offset is a term that describes where the mounting surface of the wheel is relative to the centerline of the wheel. ET0 puts it dead center. For example, a wheel with an 8" width with ET0 has the backpad right at 4" (½ of 8"), and a wheel with a 7½" width with ET0 has the backpad at 3¾" (½ of 7½"). Most vehicles nowadays run ET35 to ET45. This means that the backpads of these wheels are 35mm to 45mm closer to the face of the wheel from the center of the wheel. The lower the offset, the further out the wheels sit, and the higher the offset, the more the wheels will tuck underneath the fenders. Spacers lower the offset by pushing the wheels out even further. If you have a wheel with a 45mm offset, and you use a 5mm spacer, it creates a 40 offset application. If you use a 10mm spacer on a ET45 wheel, it creates an ET35 application, etc. etc... For a more in depth description of wheel terms and what they mean, check this link http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/tech/0205scc_wheelguide/ which can also be found in the tech section of this site.

thanks