Hey guys. I touched on this in another thread, but I think it would be beneficial to have it out there.

Which tire size do you all recommend putting on the stock 17s. 215/45-17 or 225/45-17.
The pros to the 225s over the 215s, are that the handling is superior, and there will be slightly more protection of the rims (as they are a wider tire).

The cons to the 225s over the 215s, are that they are slightly more expensive, it slightly throws off the speedo/odo (60mph on the speedo would mean 60.9 in reality), and the snow handling is slightly lessened.

EDIT: 225s could offer possibly less MPG as a heavier/wider tire.

What do you all think?

 

its not gonna throw it off a whole lot the tire are almost about the same in money wise maybe 10 more....if you go to any americas tire company shoot them a price 40 dollars then what your looking to spend and they will work with you trust me... i work there we beat prices all the time no biggy....its easy as of the 215 there awesome but 225 will give you better handling better stoping distance so its really up to you

 

so it sounds to me like your a supporter of the 225s b/c I can probably get the same price and better handling and stopping distance (which is something I didn't realize). The throwing off of the odo and the speedo your saying is minimal.

Any other opinions?

 

bump, i'm really looking for some opinions here

 

bump

 

yeah as of the 225/45/17 which tire are you willing to go for and i will tell you.. how good that tire is and what you should pay for it....just that the 225 is more contact surface with the road and better side wall configuration and better you sticking to the road cause of the rubber compound in the 225 is a lil more stickier just depends on the tire

 

i'm going with the toyo proxes 4s

 

spect2k3.. i'd also add that going larger would also be a heavier tire because it's larger. And that rolling mass (welcome to physics) would take more gas to get it going, and keep it moving.. Which you'd end up having to push the gas down further to get the car moving..
You would end up have less fuel economy, and using more gas.. it's another aspect to think about..

basically a 215 to a 225 on the same oem wheel is called a +0 upgrade.. i've done it before on other cars. And the trade off was a loss of gas mileage by about 2-3 mpg.. ouch.. it didn't hurt me then, since gas was cheap, but now? i think every little bit helps..

 

really, 2-3 mpg? That's a significant number, but sounds too extreme to be true. Were there some sort of other factors that could have led to that kind of drop in gas mileage???

I'll add it to the list though, thanks

 

bump

 

no other factors, it was a different car, it's not like i had the exact same tires in the 225 size you're asking about, but it was the same idea.. a +0 upgrade, bigger tire on original stock wheel. and i lost about 2-3mpg, i was amazed as well.

 

If mpg is the biggest factor, what I can do is get the 225s and try them out for the 30 day trial period. If they ruin mpg, I can always trade em for brand new 215s.

 

Let me ask you this, more so to get your own thought process going, you seem to be pretty set on the 225s, before you werent sure, what is your reasoning?What has swayed you one direction or the other? (If that sounds dickish, its not meant to be at all... im just trying to get you thinking so you know you make the decision you really want)

 

Not dickish at all. Any advice is appreciated. I think the reason that i'm talking about the 225s is because I don't know that the consequences of having them are worth giving up the handling and braking power (however minimal it may be). I got the tire place to quote me the same amount on both 215s and 225s, and I don't plan on driving much in the snow with the tC, so its really just a factor of throwing off the speedo/odo a tiny bit. To me, if I had to choose between the speedo/odo issue and handling/braking power, i'd choose the handling/braking. Thats how I came to the 225s. I'm just looking for opinions b/c I am really 51% in favor of the 225s. Its really close and maybe there is something that i'm overlooking?

 

Well ... to be honest, I doubt your going to notice the handling/braking power difference at all. These tires are going to outperform your stock tires so much, that the negligable difference from the slightly (and i mean slightly) larger instantaneous contact patch will be unnoticeable. As far as handling, again, with a stock tC or even one with a few mods (no FI) your not going to over power these tires in turns and such. Off the line your not going to see any difference either, atleast not one that YOU will notice.

I see where you are coming from but I think you are downplaying the speedo/odo thing while up playing the handling/braking thing ... but its not my car!

I just like to go with what I KNOW works properly... but again thats just me, and Ive probably over voiced my opinion lol

 

lol, nah. I appreciate what you have to say. Believe me, I could use the advice! So it seems that your a pretty strong advocate for the 215s. Like you said, my car isn't FI and the toyos will be such a difference over the abilities of the stock yokos, that that will be great in itself.

I didn't mean to play down the speedo/odo issue. In fact, I could see how its a probably as over the course of time, my odo will be quite inaccurate.

Well, you brought me back to 50% on each lol. I'll ask the guys at the tire store when I go in, but now i'm considering the 215s again. Like you implies, better performance is going to be achieved from more mods i'm sure, and not by tires that a 1/2 inch bigger!

 

Go with the 225/45



Using the wheel/tire tool at http://www.rims-n-tires.com/rt_specs.jsp \/\/\/

- A 225/45 is only going to be 0.1" taller overall.
- Your treadwidth will go from 8.5 to 8.9"
- When going 60mph you will be going 60.8mph on the 225/45 wheel.


Go for it man. Someone posted up a while ago of 225/45 wheels on spacers on the stock wheels and it looked sweet. I plan on going to a 225 when my stock 215's wear.

 

Thanks for the info prototype. It seems that your saying the effects wouldnt be a big deal?

I'll take more opinions if they're out there!

 

i was going to got 235 or 245/35

 

on a 17" wheel? the stock wheel is only 7 inches wide, and a 235 or 245 would never be safe and no tire shop (who doesn't want to get sued) would ever mount that. Minimum width for a 235 or 245/35 on a 17 would be an 8 inch wheel width.

Hope you're not actually thinking of mounting this on a stock wheel. If you do, you're not going to be safe at all!!