I've been browsing the forum for a couple of months but this is my first post (since i got my black 1998 Maxima SE 5 spd last week)

BTW the site is really nice... lots of useful things in FAQs and the forum is great!

I love the car so much.. i thought i might regret selling the BMW but now im so happy with the Maxima!

I would like to know before i try it... i have some 225/50 ZR16 tires.. will they fit the stock 16" 5 spokes wheels?

Thank you

 

yes

 

I have always used 215/55/16 on the stock 16's. Recently I put on some 225/50/16 tires. Here what I found:

I also was wondering about this, and had seen some post here and there about the different sizes you could put on the stock SE 16. I ordered some 225/50/16 tires and had them mounted and balanced on the rims.

Not sure what to expect. I got in the car and drove off. I understand now that new tires have a break in period and while I am now past that point. The results, handling, performance and the whole nine yards are still the same today.

In my opinion I made the wrong tire selection and will try to explain. The most noticable difference is a complete loss of handling(pitiful). A quick turn to the left or right while driving down the highway will get you to swerving and swaying .. I quickly felt like crap for spending my hard earned cash on something that decreased the performance of the max. So, I continued to test the maxima, flying on and off ramps, and roads with turns only to find poor/feeble handling. My rating on the handling is: It sucks ! Did I forget to mention the tires are Toyo Proxes T1-S ?

It didnt take me long to realize I had made a mistake and wished like heck I had not bought this size. With the 215/55/16 size I was able to fly around like a lunatic, cut into curves like a madman, and basically take the car to the limits.

Now not being a mechanically minded person. I thought," What on earth went wrong?" Well I have asked around, and in my poor description this is what is wrong.

The tire is to wide and there is bulge or tire that is just left. Even though its a wider tire, the contact patch seems to be no larger because of the fitment on the rim. Then when you put the weight of the vehicle on this tire and rim combo ... and start flying around there is just sway or sad handling. Instead of sticking like glue and pressing the pedal down harder, you feel like you are driving to hard and the car is loose and laggy.

I know, what a poor attempt. But I can say. I seriously regret putting them on.

So, what am I doing about it. I ordered new rims. I was going to anyways but with the new rim size I hope that this will be corrected. The new rim size is 16 x 7.5, my old rim size is of course 16 x 6.5.

Im praying that the wider rim, will pull the tire ,and stretch it out completely with no buldge. From what I understand it should flatten the tire on the sides with the rim. With my present setup the are bulged over.

Does it look bad ? No not really. the tires look beefy but not bad and my car is lowered so the difference in wheel gap was minimal. On a stock car one could expect more wheel gap but im not sure how much. My tires (old vs new) were very close in size.

Anyways, this was my experience. I have read were it worked out for other people and I took a chance and absolutely HATE IT !

Tread with Caution

 

I made this change on a 97 SE I used to own - from stock to 225/50/16. My car was not lowered. It looked really good, I thought, and I really couldn't notice much difference in handling. This was in daily, highway and city driving; pretty tame. There was some noticable additional drag in the rain, however.