I plan on getting Michelin Pilot Alpins as my winter tire and some cheap FRD 5 rims. There are no 225/50R17's available so I'm going to get 225/55R17. Some guy (a supposed expert) said that since the 55's are more than 3% bigger I could confuse the computer and have my brakes fail on me randomly. This doesn't sound good. Can there be any truth to this? I was going to get these tires to decrease my odds of dying, not increase them.

 

Anybody?

The Nissan service guys were umming and ahhing and came to the conclusion that "it should be okay"......

Can I trust them?

 

Never heard such a silly thing. Nissan would not leave them open to the huge lawsuits like that. Some of the guys on the org have gone bigger than 3%
I am probably going to go artic alpins too.
But I am going to go with 16,s for snows (better selection and cheaper), and alum rims.

 

I am by no means an expert, but I don't believe that 225/55R17 will give you any problems other than speedo error. I can remember at least one other member of this board (JJS) saying he was running 225/55R17 on his 2K2 with no troubles whatsoever.

Question for you though, why don't you purchase a set of 16" steelies for winter? Just a thought, but for the money you'd save by purchasing 16" tires instead of 17" tires, the rims would basically be free. A 215/55R16 is very close to the same size overall diameter as the stock 225/50-17 size. I actually have a set of 16" steelies with 205/60R16 Nokian WR's that I am using on my 2K2 for the winter. I put them on last weekend.

 

Answer: The Chief Financial Officer of my household (wife) allotted $2000.00 for my winter tires so I made damn sure I spent it all.

Thanks for the replies Mick Max and Bigfly.

 

When your speedometer reads 100KPH you are actually traveling at 103.4KPH.

 

In case anyone was wondering, the new tires are very good. I haven't fully tested them yet, but the experimentation I have done so far has made me very happy. The difference was immediately noticeable even on the dry pavement. The car felt more solid. Performance does not seem to be affected. Noise is not even noticeable until 100kph+ and even then not too bad. I did get a little bit of a swaying motion (not sure if it was due to the tires) at 125kph during a lane change.

Also, in case anyone ever wondered and/or didn't know: the weight of the OEM wheel and tire was 45 pounds according to my bathroom scale. I will weigh my new ones for comparison when I take them off later.