Actual car advice requested. Yes, I know it's unusual.

"The Lurktastic Opponaught" (oppolurker)
08/10/2016 at 21:08 • Filed to: Hakka r2

I want to buy a set of 15" or 16" steels for winter use. I’m currently on 215/45 17s. Aside from getting the bolt pattern and offset right, are there any rules of thumb to follow when buying downsize wheels and tires?

DISCUSSION (14)

Urambo Tauro > The Lurktastic Opponaught
08/10/2016 at 21:12

Make sure that you can clear your brakes!

OPPOsaurus WRX > The Lurktastic Opponaught
08/10/2016 at 21:13

make sure the wheel will fit over the disc/caliper/drum. Model specific forums probably have a section on what fits and what doesn’t.

The Lurktastic Opponaught > OPPOsaurus WRX
08/10/2016 at 21:15

Thanks.

The Lurktastic Opponaught > Urambo Tauro
08/10/2016 at 21:15

I found a website with numbers and acronyms I don’t understand. I’m pretty sure that’s it.

dogisbadob > The Lurktastic Opponaught
08/10/2016 at 21:21

Someome from the tire rack would know :)

Life and Times of Magoo: The People's Champ > The Lurktastic Opponaught
08/10/2016 at 21:21

Go taller like a 55 60 or even 65, its like free suspension travel when things are cold and hard....if u can find a forum for your car they’ll have winter setup threads

The Lurktastic Opponaught > Life and Times of Magoo: The People's Champ
08/10/2016 at 21:26

Thanks. Good point about the suspension travel. The roads around here are brutal, especially in winter. It’s pothole slalom.

Life and Times of Magoo: The People's Champ > The Lurktastic Opponaught
08/10/2016 at 21:56

Yes sir. Tall sidewalls eat bumps for you....and when its dry u can murder turns and pee yourself the first u learn what smooshing ur sidewall feels like

Boxer_4 > The Lurktastic Opponaught
08/10/2016 at 21:57

You want to try to get the circumference and overall diameter as close as possible to keep your odometer and speedometer accurate (if that’s important to you). This usually means bumping the sidewall profile up from your stock tire size, but the tire width plays a role, too (tire profile is identified as a percentage of the section width of the tire, and is not an actual measurement)

The Tacoma World Tire Calculator is a great resource for comparing tire sizes, however, you can probably also find downsizing information on your car model’s specific forum.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/tirecalc

Danger > The Lurktastic Opponaught
08/10/2016 at 22:00

Keep the overall diameter in the same ballpark. I prefer tall+skinny for winter tires, but don’t over do it. The closer you are to your stock diameter the fewer issues you’ll have with rubbing and speedometer correction.

TA4K > The Lurktastic Opponaught
08/10/2016 at 22:02

A few people are saying taller sidewall, also remember to get something that works out to be a close diameter to stock. So if your stock wheel/tyre combo is 625mm for a 215/45/R17, you would need something like a 215/55/R15 or 205/65/R15 to be close enough on overall diameter. A good rule of thumb is a variation in diameter of 5% or more is too much (and actually illegal in NZ). A wheel/tyre combo that is too big will make your speedo read less than normal, and one that is too small will make your speedo read more than normal.

The Lurktastic Opponaught > Danger
08/10/2016 at 22:04

I wasn’t going to go any narrower. I’d like to improve winter pothole handling with a higher sidewall. Our roads aren’t terrible at the stock width with decent snow tires.

daender > The Lurktastic Opponaught
08/10/2016 at 22:06

Use a tire calculator (easy to find, just Google search) and make sure your wheel/tire combo diameter doesn’t vary that much from your current (or factory) setup. That said, you can also take advantage of it and increase your overall tire diameter to offset a purposely-fast speedometer (Mazda did it to the Miata make you feel like you’re going faster and it somewhat prevented speeding...before people started using speed-trap signs as calibration tools).

Boxer_4 > The Lurktastic Opponaught
08/10/2016 at 22:09

15" wheels often will not clear the brakes on cars originally equipped with 17" wheels. There are certain 15" wheel designs that can work in such cases, such as Team Dynamics PRO RALLY wheels, but they are pricey.