Done a lot of searching but there is still questions that plague me. I've decided to go with 16's and was looking at tire sizes and here at the forum the recommended size is 16x7 wheels - 205/45-16 (2.24% larger than stock), but at almost all of the online stores where I am looking at wheel tire bundles they recommend 205/50R16. They even say they don't garuntee fitment if you get anything other than that. To top it off, the tire size calculators say that a perfect fit would be 215/50R16 with 0% speedometer diff which seems the best to me. So does it just come down to preference or what? Thanks in advance.
P.S anyone got Enkei WDM's and have an opinion?

 

215/50R16 is what u would really need. u could use a 205/50R16 if u wanted, just wont have as much tire contacting the ground, might look like the tire is a bit stetched on the wheel..

 

huh? I have 17x7" rims and I have 205/40R17, and even with the treadwidth only being 205mm they don't look like they are stretched at all.
I guess that might be related to the smaller sidewall and larger diameter rim?

EDIT: I'm probably wrong in asking this by the way, i'm sure that civicexracer knows way more than me about tires. lol

I do agree though, more treadwidth is definitely nice.

 

Looks like I forgot to mention that my stock size is 185/65R15 if that helps

 

185/65/15s = 24.47 inches diameter

205/45/16s = 23.26 inches diameter

215/50/16s = 24.46 inches diameter


It looks like the last one is the winner if you want 16s.

 

THIS IS A HIJACK......
if you do go with the larger tire wouldnt that help your MPG any? i want better milage myself, not to concerned about speedo being alittle slow. and my dx will not geting lowered just yet.

 

That depends upon your driving. Here's why:
If you mostly cruise the highways, a larger tire/wheel (we're not talking "plus-sizing", since that retains the same overall diameter of the tire/wheel combination) allows your car to cruise at a lower engine speed (provided that you know that the now-inaccurate speedometer is showing you a speed that is lower than it actually is). For an example, if your speedometer shows 70 and you're actually going 75, you'd have to slow down to about 65 (indicated speed) to really be going 70.
So, for highway speeds, you will gain gas mileage if you compensate for the inaccurate speedometer.

For mostly city driving or a combination of city/highway, you will be losing gas mileage with larger tires/wheels because the larger circumference and higher weight forces your engine to push harder to get the car up to speed. The other bad thing about larger diamater tires/wheels is that your brakes will have a harder time stopping your car because of the higher peripheral mass of the tires/wheels. Ride quality will also suffer if weight is increased.

The bottom line? Stick with the stock overall diameter. You can upsize with smaller aspect ratio tires and larger wheels - that's not a problem unless the tires are too wide.

Dave

 

I got 17 inch g-games, and the wheels tend to pull to the sides

 

you need an alignment probably

 

dito....if your car pulls then your alignment is off... it was probably already off but with your new lower profile tires you feel it pull alot more.....