I was wondering if someone has had any luck with Kumho tires on there 02-03 Maxima, as I am in the market for new tires and these have a good price..but the 225/45ZR-17 is a better price and would look better on the car, how does the Max run with 45 profile tires as the stock are 50 bumpy rough ride?

Any help on this would be much apreciated, thanks in advance...

 

If you're going to go with 45 series, many run 235/45/17, but check here for more info.

 

Can someone please give more info on this?..

 

I've been ridding my max on 235-40-17 for the last 2 years and it is pretty stiff, I think 225/235-45-17 would give a smoother ride.

 

I was running 225/45/17, but if your gonna go that route you have to be lowered cause the wheel gap is huge with a smaller profile.

As far as ride quality, I didn't think it was that bad.

 

Stock is 225/50/17.

225/45/17 is the same width as stock, and it has a slightly lower profile than stock. The tire size calculator says that this will change your speedometer readings by 3.4%.

235/45/17 is a little wider, and it has a slightly lower profile than stock. According to the tire size calculator, this only makes your speedometer wrong by 2%, which I can handle.

245/45/17 only makes the speedometer wrong by 0.7%. I'm not obsessed with keeping my speedometer readings stock, but I would like to keep them close if I can. Does anybody know if 245/45/17 is too wide? I don't want the tires to rub when I turn. If they are a little too wide, would some sort of spacers work?

Thanks in advance for any input you guys can offer.

 

I run larger Kumhos 235-55-17 and they are the best tires i've had. I needed a more smoother ride so i went against lower profiles. I havent been happier. Cornering in wet/dry weather are incredible and the larger tire fills the wheel well very nicely - no gap. Happy tire shopping!!

 

Thanks for the input! It's encouraging to know that the Maxima's HUGE fender wells don't have a problem accomodating a big tire like the 235/55/17. If a 235/55 fits, then I'm going to guess that a 245/45 ought to fit as well.

235/55/17 (your size) is almost 5% greater in diameter than the stock tires and almost half an inch greater in width.

245/45/17 (the size I want) is only 0.66% greater in diameter than the stock tires, but it's a little over three quarters of an inch wider.

Of course, I'm going to lower my Maxima mildly (probably with Maxspeeds unless I get the money for H&Rs), so that adds another variable to the mix. I guess I'll just have to try it and see what happens unless somebody else around here already knows the answer.

 

Is that tire with using the stock rim?

 

I would not mount 245s on a 7" wide wheels

 

That's true... I didn't think about that. Thanks for the input. Since cost is a factor for me, I probably don't want to go with a set of wider rims until I can afford to get some that aren't super heavy. I'll probably end up stepping back to 235/45/17 or the stock size 225/50/17 for now.

 

I am currently running 235/50 17 kumhos and I plan to buy the same size and brand again.

 

Sounds like you like the 235/50 size. I'm currently on 235/45 17's and am thinking of going to a 50 series to decrease the gap a bit. Have any photos? Also, how many miles do you expect out of the Kumhos?

 

I don't know about the Kumhos specifically, but the ride/confort quality will depend on the tires' sidewall stiffness (all suspension mods aside of course) more so than just the series themselves if you compare different tire lines/brands. Sharper handling tires (say Pilot PS2s, B'stone S-03s) will give you a much rougher ride than sporty all season and touring tires of the same size/series. So a sporty 40 series all season tire may ride more confortably than a 45 series ultra high performance summer tire.

I hated so much the numb feel the set of very soft sidewalled Falken 512s in the OEM size in my max, that I took them off after only 3300 miles and replaced them with snow tires (225/55R16) that don't feel any worse than the 512s in 50 series. I guarantee if you put a 45 series 512 it will ride confortably (if that's what you want), but you may end up getting a lot of bubbles, blown tires and/or bent rims.

 

I would like to thank you all for the input on this, has any one had a problem with noise with the Kuhmo's? as this was a big prob with the stock tyres

thanks again for all your input