Staggered set up on AWD models an issue?

Anyone running staggered having issues with AWD? Not sure if simply having an aggressive tire/wheel setup would wreak havoc on tranny/diff. I was actually dissuaded by a tire shop from going staggered because they said "it could ruin your transmission." Huh?

Anyone with previous AWD staggered experience, please speak up. TIA.

I thought it was pretty common knowledge that any kind of tire mismatch on an AWD was a bad idea. Staggered seems like outright silliness.

I agree. Just a foolish idea and I am being nice here. Ed

Not sure about the validity of these statements, there are plenty of AWD nissan/infiniti with staggered wheel set ups. Some trims of them actually come with staggered wheels standard (the tire size). searching g37 forum threads might give you better insight. Maybe the mazda speed 6 forum here too, but with the infiniti you can staggered from the factory so there might be more insight there. There is a right way to do it, just search it up. Not to knock the posters in this thread but there are a lot of posters here who will give you a "no" answer too quickly so don't get discouraged and do you (just do it smart lol).

@chris: that's what I thought. I've got many friends (G37, 335iX) with staggered fitments. They've said to make sure circumferences match to <1% They're running high-end (read: low weight) wheels. I'll keep doin my homework.

Peace,
elD

Chris_Top_Her said:

Not to knock the posters in this thread but there are a lot of posters here who will give you a "no" answer too quickly so don't get discouraged and do you (just do it smart lol).

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Well not to knock a certain poster, but some people will give a "yes" just because it looks fully sik bro!

To my mind, different grip characteristics on each wheel are just as important as diameter. If your front wheels are constantly slipping differently to the back wheels, the AWD system is not going to be particularly happy with you. This is a light, part-time AWD system, not a high performance always-on unit. So unless it is specifically designed for this sort of thing, don't. Honestly, what do you hope to achieve by specifically making the back wheels wider? Just do a full set of four and reduce the risk.

If you LOOOOVVVEEE understeer, go with staggered wider rear tires with a CX-5 (with or without AWD).

I loooove understeer ;-) . I have a staggered setup on my 2.2D AWD 175hp, honestly, there's not a huge difference in terms of understeering. I'm lowered with H&R springs and also have AutoExes tierod ends for correction, strut bar and stabilizers mounted, maybe that helps. Rims are 19" 8,5 front and 9,5 rear. Tires are a staggered "package" from Kuhmo, with the exact same rolling circumference. This set is made for SUV (Infinity and BMW X5 etc.) Named Kuhmo Ecsta X3 Kl17 255/50ZR19 + 285/45ZR19. And yes, it looks "sick"!

Beefy said:

Well not to knock a certain poster, but some people will give a "yes" just because it looks fully sik bro!

To my mind, different grip characteristics on each wheel are just as important as diameter. If your front wheels are constantly slipping differently to the back wheels, the AWD system is not going to be particularly happy with you. This is a light, part-time AWD system, not a high performance always-on unit. So unless it is specifically designed for this sort of thing, don't. Honestly, what do you hope to achieve by specifically making the back wheels wider? Just do a full set of four and reduce the risk.

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Lol. Actually, like I said as long as things are done smartly (correctly).. it's not about whether it looks cool or not because that is subjective. His question was about staggered wheels and the effects on AWD (obviously he is concerned with the health of his drivetrain over simple looks). Not "will my car look cool like this". You obviously missed the point of my comment which was spot on about the "no" attitude, which also went well the condescending tone of your post. I guess Nissan/BMW/Audi etc don't have common knowledge about putting staggered wheels on AWD vehicles.. gotta love blanket statements..

Mazdasweed said:

I loooove understeer ;-) . I have a staggered setup on my 2.2D AWD 175hp, honestly, there's not a huge difference in terms of understeering. I'm lowered with H&R springs and also have AutoExes tierod ends for correction, strut bar and stabilizers mounted, maybe that helps. Rims are 19" 8,5 front and 9,5 rear. Tires are a staggered "package" from Kuhmo, with the exact same rolling circumference. This set is made for SUV (Infinity and BMW X5 etc.) Named Kuhmo Ecsta X3 Kl17 255/50ZR19 + 285/45ZR19. And yes, it looks "sick"!

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Nice. I bet it handles well. I don't have tie rods (not worth the price to me, which is mainly shipping at the moment), but I do heave a stiffer rear stabilizer which greatly reduced under steer especially at high speed/rpm. I am waiting for JBR to release that camber arm though.

I'm thinking about going staggered too. Purely for the aesthetics. Seems like I could fit some 10s or 10.5s in the back, which would look great from behind. I've been thinking as long as the overall diameters are the same, the computer will read the front/rear speeds the same, and I won't have any AWD problems.

Beefy said:

To my mind, different grip characteristics on each wheel are just as important as diameter. If your front wheels are constantly slipping differently to the back wheels, the AWD system is not going to be particularly happy with you.

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Are you sure though that they will be constantly slipping differently? In my amateur understanding, a tire with twice as much grip can withstand twice as much shear force in it's contact patch before it starts to lose traction. I thought below the traction limit (transition zone) the slip in both tires would be negligible.

Thinking about straight line driving, under acceleration or braking, in dry or slippery conditions, I don't yet see the downside of increased rear grip.

SayNoToPistons said:

If you LOOOOVVVEEE understeer, go with staggered wider rear tires with a CX-5 (with or without AWD).

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I'm trying to understand if this would be an issue for me. I enjoy spirited driving, but I don't really push my car to the limit through turns. Increasing rear grip will exacerbate, but won't cause, front grip issues, right? Like, if I'm going through a turn and my front wheels are starting to lose traction, it can be better if my rear wheels are also starting to lose traction, making turning more neutral. But, if I don't track my car, and am not planning to approach the traction limit of my front tires, would it matter if my rear tires had infinite grip? And in wet conditions, where I do risk losing traction, couldn't a wider rear tire reduce oversteer?

I appreciate any insights more experienced folks have to improve my understanding of the handling and reliability issues I could expect running 9s in the front, 10s in back. I do see a couple other issues giving me pause:
1) no more rotating wheels. So I won't be replacing all 4 tires at the same time. No 4-tire discounts, and double the trips to the tire shop.
2) I still have 3 years of powertrain warranty. Detrimental or not, this would probably void that on a lot of those components.

with FWD or Front biased AWD, for performance, the stagger should be wider front and narrower rear. the Audi RS3 is setup like this...

It just seems odd to put wider tires in the back on an AWD vehicle. Having all four look the same with AWD would look sick. If it was rear wheel drive having wider rears would look great and actually be functional. The CX-5 AWD is mostly a front wheel drive car.

The OP is doing the stagger only for the look, functionality is not in play. I see no reason it would cause problems as long as the offsets were adequate to prevent interference. That said, Mazda’s AWD system is tightly controlled with over 25 sensors measuring wheel spin, lateral acceleration, etc. and that could cause unexpected handling results. The expected understeer may not happen with all the nannies at work. This isn’t your grand pa’s Mazda.

As long as the tire O.D.s are the same, it will not hurt the clutch in the rear differential. The tranny will never know the difference.

I would not tolerate the look of it.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked the same basic question as the OP in the Show Me Your Wheels thread and got no reply. I like the look of the widest trie setup without poke. There are some posters on that thread running 9.5 or 10s on the rear.
Like the OP, I don’t drive this vehicle close to its handling limits, so my question was about handling in emergency situations. Will the stagger really make any difference in a daily driver/grocery getter.
And yes, to each his own, but I think the skinny stock tire setup is not befitting the great body design of the cx5. It’s hard to think that the engineers would not have made some allowances for those who want to move away from the clearly production cost/mileage mandated 225 tires.