225/45/18 vs 225/40/18?

I have been looking through this section looking for a definitive answer on which is the better tire size for the MS6 on stock wheels and suspension. On paper the 225/45/18 size is closer to stock diameter than the 225/40/18.

225/45/18 = 26.0in .... sidewall = 4.0in
225/40/18 = 25.1in .... sidewall = 3.5in
215/45 = 25.6 (stock) .... sidewall = 3.8in

Tire Rack says that the 225/45 may rub, and they do not even recommend the 225/40 option because of the rear wheel clearance.

Discount Tire offers 225/45 and 225/40 as a plus zero option. They did not mention anything about the rubbing.

I have a set of 225/40/18 Falken ZE-912 sitting in the garage waiting to go on, but I am wondering if the 225/45/18 would be the better option. The 225/45s would fill the wheels well more and have more sidewall for the pothole ravaged midwest roads. My question is do they fit properly or does anyone have any rubbing due to the width of the 225/45s?

Thanks.

There is no rubbing of 225/45's on stock wheels. You could prob even lower it, and still not experience rubbing.

I dont see why 225/40's wouldnt fit.

Thanks for the info (Igve2shtz). What tires are you running?

I am sure the 225/40s will fit, I feel the better size for my needs is the 225/45/18.

I will most likely send the 225/40/18s back and get the 225/45/18s. I like the added sidewall height and the extra 3/4in. of overall diameter.

i am running 225/45/18 on my speed6 right now stock wheels and suspension. no rubbing at all. i will be putting on wider wheels and lowering it with rpm street springs this spring so we will see if it rubs then.

It is good to know that the 225/45s actually fit. I am sending the 225/40s back. I like the taller sidewall for the road conditions around here. It isn't a big difference, but I will feel more comfortable.

Can you guys let me know what tires in the 225/45/18 size you are running?

i have 235/40/18 no rubbing, seriuos grip!, only complaint is the steering doesn't feel quit as light as before

225/45's for me

I managed to find a nail with one of my stock tires at around 20k miles. The hole was unpatchable and they were all worn down just enough that I got to replace the whole set because of the All Wheel Drive, yay...

Out of all of the local tire places, I could only find two with anything of compatible size in stock. (I was heading out on a mini roadtrip the next day, and logging 300+ miles on the donut spare didn't sound fun, so getting a set that day was a necessity)
Les Schwab had some 225/45-18 Toyo T1-R's that they would have been happy to sell to me for $300 per tire but that doesn't exactly fit the budget when I have to replace them at least twice per year (I drive ~40k miles per year)
My only other option was Discount Tire, who had a set of Kumho Ecsta SPT's in 225/40-18 for $90 each. (Now that was more like it! Actually it was even cheaper than I thought I was going to be able to get away with)

I chose the SPT's in 225/40-18 from Discount and went on my merry way.
I had them on for 7k miles, or roughly 2 months, and ever since the day I had them put on the way they looked on my car really bugged me. They physically fit on the stock wheel just fine, but they look like rubber bands once they're installed on the car, and it left just enough wheel gap on my stock ride height car that it looked rather odd)
Finally after I couldn't handle it anymore I took the car back to Discount and traded up to a new set of Kumho Ecsta SPT's, just in 225/45-18 this time (same tire, better size) They gave me $60 for each of the old ones that I was trading in since they weren't worn out at all, so the exercise really didn't end up costing too much.
(2thumbs)
To make a long story short, I'm 100x happier with the 225/45's than I was with the 225/40's! There's no rubbing with either size, but that 3/4 inch or so sidewall difference makes such a huge improvement aesthetically. Plus when you're traveling at a speed you'd gotten used to with the smaller tires (for example, the ~76mph that most of my commute consists of) the taller sidewall seems to soak up the little bumps and cracks in the road a bit better, it lets slightly less road noise in, and even the engine spins a tad slower, so just the change in tire size has made the whole car more comfortable. And, as far as I can tell, handling hasn't been affected one bit.

At first I thought some of the feeling could have been a bit of a Placebo Effect (since I had to justify spending a couple hundred dollars replacing tires that were still new, somehow) but over the last few weeks since I made the switch, my roommate, parents and a couple of co-workers who have ridden with me have asked what I'd done to quiet down and smooth out the ride (and they had zero knowledge that I'd recently changed tires).

Good luck. I vote 225/45-18 for anyone.
And the Kumho Ecsta SPT's certainly aren't the best tires in the world, but they're certainly not bad at all, and in the sizes we're forced to look at for the Speed6/Speed3, their value is pretty hard to argue with, at least for me.

Awesome RunningJon! That is exactly what I suspected when I received my tires (225/40). I felt they looked too small for the wheel well and the wheel. I knew it would bug me that I could have .7 in. more of a tire both visually and ride wise. You have given me great relief as I just ordered the 225/45s and will be shipping back the 225/40s.

i am also running the kumho ecsta spt 225/45/18. so far have had no complaints with this tire. i have roughly 10k on them

I've got 225/45/18 Pireli Snowsports on my car right now and I'm glad I got the 45's on cause the potholes in Wisconsin right now are really bad. I couldn't imagine running any smaller of a sidewall right now.

your running 245/45 on a stock ms3 rim?

i just purchased my ms6 yesterday and yesterday night i hit a hidden pothole and dented the rim and hurt the sidewall of the OEM 215/45/18 bridgestone potenza tire. yeah. thats right. first night and already messed something up... my luck, right? anyways, i can get away with driving on it for now, untill i can find a new rim. but i was wondering if it was possible to only change out two tires? they only have 10k on them and the tread isn't bad. is there any bad that would come from this?

thanks

Rich

b00stnSIX said:

i just purchased my ms6 yesterday and yesterday night i hit a hidden pothole and dented the rim and hurt the sidewall of the OEM 215/45/18 bridgestone potenza tire. yeah. thats right. first night and already messed something up... my luck, right? anyways, i can get away with driving on it for now, untill i can find a new rim. but i was wondering if it was possible to only change out two tires? they only have 10k on them and the tread isn't bad. is there any bad that would come from this?

thanks

Rich

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Absolutely. You'd probably want to rotate the older tires to the opposite set of wheels (i.e. front-to-back or back-to-front), unless you recently had them rotated. But with only 10k on the tires you should be just fine getting a couple of new ones. Then just get 2 new tires. You can mix and match brands, but with an AWD car it's best to have 4 identical tires.

b00stnSIX said:

i just purchased my ms6 yesterday and yesterday night i hit a hidden pothole and dented the rim and hurt the sidewall of the OEM 215/45/18 bridgestone potenza tire. yeah. thats right. first night and already messed something up... my luck, right? anyways, i can get away with driving on it for now, untill i can find a new rim. but i was wondering if it was possible to only change out two tires? they only have 10k on them and the tread isn't bad. is there any bad that would come from this?

thanks

Rich

Click to expand...

If the tread depth is good, then replacing two tires is okay. Judging from reported stock tire life of other members though, you only have about 5k to 10k left on them. The picture in your sig shows a decent amount of snow. I would just replace the stockers with a set of good all-seasons or a set of dedicated winters instead of replacing the 2 stock tires.

Powerslave said:

your running 245/45 on a stock ms3 rim?

Click to expand...

i put the wrong size sorry. 225/45

Igve2shtz said:

There is no rubbing of 225/45's on stock wheels. You could prob even lower it, and still not experience rubbing.

I dont see why 225/40's wouldnt fit.

Click to expand...

I'm running 225/45-18 Dunlop M3's on my OEM wheels for the winter with a 3/4" drop. No rubbing at all. I'm surprised the car didn't come with 225/45's. This size just looks right. Once my OEM summer tires wear out, I plan replace them with 225/45's.

Anyone got 225/45/18's with a 2" drop? Wanna wider tire but dont want to rub.

I just put on a set of GY F1 all season, 225/40/18 on the stock wheels, no problems.....