DarthXB

Anyone who has upgraded to larger rims and tires...did your MPG change at all or did it change the way your car accelerates?

the_ill_switch

If they are heavier, they will certainly slow you down, drop your mpg, and could hurt handling as well.

If they are a different overall diameter, they'll affect your speedo's accuracy too.

bB2NER

Not enough difference to really affect either. Only thing it will do is give you better handleing through corners (more grip)
As long as you stay with the same overall height of the tire the only difference you might see is a harsher ride over bumps and you will have to be more carefull about looking for potholes and such.
I weighed my stock steel wheel assm. and it was only a pound lighter than my 17 inch alloys. So 18 and 19 inchers may be a little bit heavier. No biggie

OMAC

Check this link out. It is a calculator that will give you all kinds of good data when comparing 2 different tire and wheel combinations.

Just concern yourself with the top-most block of numbers. Left side is Stock, or what you have now, and right side is what you are thinking of changing to.

185 60R 15 should be entered as

185
60
15

Everything else is calculated from those three numbers. Enjoy!

http://www.csgnetwork.com/tireinfo4calc.html

Shannon

a larger OD will effect everything. i have 225/35/19's and they accelerate slower, more effort to stop, heavier steering at slow speeds and if the road is uneven they follow grooves or irregularities. and yes worse mileage. But... they look good.
shannon

yesti

http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~tcroy...ineinertia.htm

xBino

ouch... my head hurts

bBTOY

NOW Ive got some Inertia going on in My Head !

yesti

LMAO, bottom line: add weight to the wheels = handle/look better. but remember EVERYTHING is a tradeoff.

Texodore

I switched from stock steelies to 15" Rota Slipstreams (12 lbs per wheel) and the difference was VASTLY noticable. It accelerates and responds much quicker, RPM is 5-10% lower (3000 RPM at 70, I think it was at 3000RPM at a lower speed before the switch). I can say from experience it does affect performance.

bBTOY

On my Stocks I can do 80MPH @ 3000RPM

yesti

rule of thumb i heard was for every 1 lb taken off the wheels it is "equivalent" to taking ~15 lbs off the vehicle. so yeah, it is a vast improvement. it also allows your suspension to work a lot better too, probably the reason for your perceived increase in response?

Origin_X

How does it affect the MPH when you have the larger rims? My XB went 60 miles in an hour and we were going at 70MPH, does that make sense?

UnFocused

In know my 18" TRD wheels and Falken tire combo is lighter (if no the same weight) of my stock steelies.

Key word STEEL!

TRD 18"s are aluminum!

yesti

the tC rims are aluminum too, but since they are cast versus milled they are quite heavy.

squareone

Im rockin 16" rota slipstreams and love the improvement over my previous 17" wheels. Rotas are kick ___ wheels, Im glad I made the switch.

TheScionicMan

Where do you get the handle better with heavier wheels? This is what I got:

bB2NER

The larger wheel will have nothing to do with your speedo reading unless the overall height of your new tires do not match what came on it from the factory. For example my 205/40/17's have the same overall height as the stock 185/60/15's even though the rim is 2 inches larger diameter.

SciFly

because the odometer/speedo is electronic these days, can't the wheel size be punched into the car's computer to allow people to run off-standard height tires to retain speedo accuracy?

Even a ten buck cycle speedo allows this setting-up.

yesti

well okay, maybe the cornering limit is raised by the wider, stickier, more stiff sidewalled tire. but it may not be worth the tradeoff. braking same thing. stickier tires, better braking, added weight, maybe offsets it. too much generalizing sorry.