Winter Wheels - 16s on a 3s
- Thread starter DetroitSP23
- Start date
MightyMouse
Member
goldwing2000 said:
Actually, it is not too bad to go a little higher on the speedo. Factory speedo's are allowed to read high by as much as 11%. Your tires will never be off by that much. But I do agree with having the tires as close as possible.
MightyMouse said:
its not only the speedo that becomes an issue though, becuase it can cause irregularities in your computer systems which could cause them to reset to a "safety" mode which could serious impact your performance...at least thats how it was explained to me...
goldwing2000
Turd in the punch bowl
- :
- 2004 Mazda3s Hatch; 269,000 miles
waltmcgee said:
Somehow I doubt that. I think whoever told you that was either yanking your chain or completely clueless. Your computer doesn't care what size tires you have. It reads everything at the hubs or the transmission, so the distance between the axle and the road is irrelevant, as far as it is concerned. For any tire to have any kind of serious impact on performance, it would have to be radically different in size. Like multiple inches difference.
goldwing2000
Turd in the punch bowl
- :
- 2004 Mazda3s Hatch; 269,000 miles
waltmcgee said:
Definitely. Speedo out of whack=Odo out of whack.
And larger tires take more power to get them rolling because it decreases the effectivness of your axle ratio.
lelola said:
If you're in Edmonton, try Weber Motors, they have 16" steel rims and X-Ice for $1025CAD, everything included. There are no other options for the tire however. I would have preffered Alpine or Blizzak but they don't have them. Any opinions on how good X-Ice are? Is it worth the upgrade to Blizzak or Alpine?
MightyMouse
Member
mtheoro said:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/bs_blizzak_revo1.jsp
I am taking off my 205/6016 Blizzak WS-50's and putting on 205/55/16 Blizzak REVO1's.
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MightyMouse said:
Thanks for the link. I was wondering if the Q rating is going to be a problem for these tires on dry roads. For example, how would they behave if you drive 130km/h on a dry highway, will they wear pretty fast? Is it worth to upgrade to a H or V rated winter tires? And conversly, do the H and V rated tires come at the expense of a poorer ice/snow performance? My main concern at the moment is to decide between the Q ratinga and a H or V rating.
Another question: I am downsizing form 17" to 16" rims for the winter. I assume the rims that come form the dealer are fine, after all they know what rims fit on the car. What if I go to Kalotire or Tire Warehouse or a shop like that. Will they know the proper 16" rims for a Mazda3? I am asking these because I looked on tirerack.com and I couldn't find 16" rims with the EXACT specifications (offset, etc...) as the stock rims (posted somewhere on this website). I honestly don't know much about these specifications, I guess it is important to be close to the recommendations, but what is an acceptable margin of error?
To make a long story short: will a good tire shop know the right rims for my car?
Thanks a lot for your help and sorry for (eventual) bad english.
mtheoro said:
I got them from Kramer Mazda in Calgary. I live in Lethbridge and I called every tire place around here (including my dealer) but Kramer seemed to have the best deal. I paid $986 + some change including all taxes ($899 without) for the tires & rims. But I think the price went up by $100 as of Nov. 1....
Well, screw it. I just went out and got Blizzaks at a local tire shop (~$700 after mounting and taxes 
) to fit the stock alloys and will just get nice 18" rims/tires come tax time. I figure about $1500 complete will get me some decent tires and rims - if not, maybe I'll go down to 17" rims again.
) to fit the stock alloys and will just get nice 18" rims/tires come tax time. I figure about $1500 complete will get me some decent tires and rims - if not, maybe I'll go down to 17" rims again.Now that we have our rims and tires could someone tell me where the post was about the proper fit of the rim to the hub. The hub measures about 67.16 mm and the hole in my rims measures about 73 mm. That leave a clearance of almost 1/10" between the rim centre hole and the hub. The studs are carrying the load ! And actually the stud threads may be overloaded. Are there rim to hub spacers available at the aftermarket shops? The rims I have are those that were listed for the M3 but that clearance seem a bit excessive to me. Thanks...
ZoomVT said:
I wish I had 16's as stock rim size! The difference in price between 16 and 17 inch Blizzaks is about $30 per tire ($107 for 16" rims, $135 for 17" rims according to tirerack.com). It would have saved me around $120. That's why I was trying to find some cheap 16" steel rims.
