New Tire Size Help and Opinion needed!

[taylor5]

Hey Everyone,

As you all know through the news, the East Coast got pounded last week with some bad weather. Here in Carolina, it was major ice and a little snow...Over a million customers without power!..Anyway the roads were crap with either lots of ice, snow or just water and wet. My Silver 5 has about 10k on it now and these Dunlops have been hydroplaning on even just a little bit of rain for a few months now(yes I have been rotating and keeping correct pressure, although that is not helping their wear....Dunlops just dont like me)....I have never had luck with Dunlops "only"......Plus I just dont care for how "skinny" they look when looking at the car from the front or back......

So I remember a forum a while back about upgrading to 205/50-16's.... What I need are opinions on this size...How do you like em'?...How are they riding/driving?....Any rubbing on the inside?....What kind did you get?.....Howz' the Traction in bad stuff?......

I have also heard that this size actually makes the speedometer read more accurate?....ALSO,,,, has anyone upgraded to the "TireRack" recommended 205/45-16? and if so ,,,my same questions apply......

I really only need to here from those who are running "all-season" tires because of the weather situations down here!....

Thanks for any help or opinion on this....really need/want to get rid of these tires soon......

taylor5 in Carolina

 

[GXL]

Well, I'm in Cary, NC. Bad weather indeed, but thank God it's all over now I was really hoping for more snow, but the Ice Storn was a new experience for me. I just moved to NC from the Sunshine state! I figured I had enough of Hurricanes and Heat, plus had a good job offer and went for it

I'm not complaning, I really enjoy the 4 seasons and the Mountains.

Anyway, I really think you should go with 205/45/16, because sooner of later you going to drop your car and the 50 series tires are going to look like balloons.

I like these two:

 

[GXL]

I feel like getting a set of these!

That will be the ultimate driving machine

 

[JimmyRay05]

I'm stupid when it comes to tire sizes for our cars.

will pretty much anything that fits on a 16 inch rim work for us?

what sizes are you guys running on the stock rims?

 

[Sir Nuke]

what you need to do is stick with a tire that is as close to the stock tire DIAMETER as posible...this will do a few things for you...ONE it will make your speedo as close as posible...and TWO it will ensure you don't RUB when you lower your car...if you plan to.

IF you plan on going up in width to a 205....you don't have much to pick from....as if you stick with a 50 series tire the speedo will be off by 1.7% reading HIGH...and if you go with a 45 series tire the speedo will be off by 1.7% reading LOW.....for 16's....its just an oddball size. Where as if you went up to 17's....and wanted to run a 205 you could run a 40 series tire and it would only be .9% error making your speedo read LOW....or if you steped up to a 215 and in a 40 series tire the error is now only .4% which makes your speedo only ready .2 mph high at 60 mph....I would be willing to bet the stock speedo isn't even that accurate! lol

if you want to play around with tire sizes and compare one to another ....go to THE TIRE CALCULATOR and see what you come up with.

 

[JimmyRay05]

I'm stupid when it comes to tire sizes for our cars.

will pretty much anything that fits on a 16 inch rim work for us?

what sizes are you guys running on the stock rims?

 

[Humvee]

Actually our stock speedo is pretty good. When testing against my GPS, when speedo was at ~119km/hour, the GPS showed 118km/h. In my pop-in-law's Acura 3.5RL, the Speedo at 120 was really 114 on the GPS.

fyi - Wider tires (with similar tread pattern) will only make you hydroplane more (less weight per square inch of tire)

 

[Don]

Well, if you're going to change wheel sizes, I can tell you from experience that 205/55-15's are almost the exact correct diameter/circumference, and they're wider, cheaper, and you have ten times the selection of tires to pick from.

If you mount them on some 15 by 6.5 inch wheels with a 40mm offset, they'll look a lot wider than the OEM combo as well, (flush with the outer fenderline) and still not rub a thing.

These are Bridgestone RE-910's and cost just $78 each - The wheels are '88 to '91 Mazda RX-7 convertible units made by BBS.

Don

 

[GXL]

Don:

We have 16" wheels!

 

[taylor5]

No Drop

Hey,

appreciate the responses so far,,,but is anyone actually using the 205/50-16 or 205/45-16 on their car right now?????....If so,,,what do you think of them???. And what type are they ....need brand names.......and if possible.....what you paid.

...I understand about the speedo offsets now...thanks man!!!

And Im not buying new wheels 17's or 15's....money is tight...
I like the 16-inch wheels the car came with....

Oh, by the way, there is no way I am dropping my car,,,,I need this thing to perform in snow(various inches) and get to my favorite ski resorts and will be driving on light gravel roads to reach my secret camping spots,,,,so that is out of the question for this particular car. So I guess I dont have to worry about the 50's rubbing huh?..

Thanks for the replies so far and future!!!!

Taylor in Carolina

 

[AlaskaP5]

Yeah, I'm running some 205/55/R16 Glacier Grips right now on my P5 in AK. Just got about 5 inches of snow last night and the roads were covered in ice this morning but the tires ripped right through it like a dream. As for the price, I do not know since I bargained those in when I bought the car from the dealer.

 

[Don]

Don:

We have 16" wheels!

Yes, I KNOW that - That's why going to 15 inch would be "a change in wheel sizes."

MY 16's (with near new OEM tires) are hanging in the garage, likely never to be installed on the car again

Don

 

[DBR]

i put b f goodrich T/A 205x50x16 all season tires on our p5 last week. they're S rated. i like them cause they're a bit softer/more comfortable than the stock tires, which i think are V rated.

i used to have a taurus SHO and got a bit disillusioned with the short lifespan of V rated tires, and found that S rated were a better price/performance combo for me. but opinions will differ.

i researched the new tires using the tirerack website which has survey info on most of their tires, and i picked the bf goodrich tires cause of their relatively high customer satisfaction score
(www.tirerack.com).

hope this helps.

 

[GXL]

S rated tires on a Pro 5 ???

No way man!

 

[GXL]

Don: What year is you P5? 2002, 2002.5, or 2003 ?