i have an 02 SE, the tires on there now are 215. i was wondering if there is a point to putting a 225 tire on there? is it good and will have advantages or if it is bad? I was debating this with one of my friends who is a Mustang guy and I honestly dont know.

B

 

good
-tires look more aggressive
-MAYBE you will get a bit more grip due to a larger (wider) contact patch with the road

bad
-throws off your speedometer by around 1%-1.5% (you will be travelling faster than your speedo indicates)
-if you were going wider than 225 (i.e. 245 or 255) you would risk tire instability due to stretching...


IMHO go with the 225s...any negative effects are negligible.

 

thanks thats all i wanted to hear. 225 is the top I would unless i got bigger wheels

B

 

another question...i have 215 on my car now...tire rack says OE is 225...im lost? is tire rack wrong? thats what im guessing

B

 

225/50/17 Is the OEM size. Flip open the center console and there should be a sticker on the botom side of it with the recomended sizes and presures.

 

Well crap than I don't even have the right tires on this car. Whatever I'll ride them till I need new ones.

B

 

i have a 245 on the stock 02 se rims. theyre track tires though, I would say going to a 235 would be plenty safe

 

I've had my car on 235/45 17s Proxes4 with no problems after four years. They do need to be replaced though.

 

go with 235 45 17 since that is really the step up from stock.

 

sounds good

B

 

Weird. In my center console it says the stock size is 215/55/17, did they differ from year to year? But when I bought the car the had 225/55/17 on it and I never had any issues at all, they're about 1/2 inch larger in diameter.

This link might help:http://www.onlineconversion.com/tire...conversion.htm

 

someone ran a 245/45/ on the stock 17s, thats a little wide imo. i ran the 235/45s with no problems..

 

IIRC, the SE came with 225/50/17, and the GLE came with 215/55/17.

The larger diameter wont hurt anything besides throw the speedometer and odometer off a little.

 

215/55/17 is stock tire size that came on my 2002 SE when I bought it new.
I changed to a 225/60/16 (popular pony car tire size) as they are much cheaper and the package is much lighter for better handling & ride on the street. I kept the stock 17's for autox tires.

 

wider = better

dont stretch them like some homos

 

225/50 17 is the OEM size for 17" OEM SE wheels. i have also been considering going wider, and reducing the aspect ratio to 45.

 

I couldn't agree more!

 

I'm having to do this because my 225/50/17 Yoko YK520's are shot and I'm going to Continental ExtremeContact DWS which are on back order everywhere until late April. Discount Tire has the 235/45/17 coming in (should be installed on Saturday) I wanted to stay on stock 225/50/17's on the 2000 SE 17x7 wheels. Have you noticed anything strange about the 235/45/17's as far as handling goes? I'm not that concerned about the .4" smaller diameter look or my speedo being off by a little since the YK520's are down to the wear indicators and so have lost about 1/2" tread diameter anyhow. (10/32" when new... now 2/32" (or less) tread = 1/2" smaller diameter) and the profile still looks good from the side