Mr Krinkov,

If I have any smarts at all when it comes to cars, it certainly isn't in the arena of tires.

I took your quote from a thread below because I didn't want to hijack, but would like to hear your (or anyone's) opinion about tire wideness.

I have an '02 WRX wagon with 17" rims and Tein Flex coilovers.

For trackdays and autocross, I'm trying to research and decide which tires I'd like to purchase, although they may subsequently be my everyday tires as well.

When I had the stock rims on, I had 225/50's on with pretty much no problem. When I lowered the car, I soon saw a potential drawback to lowering come true. The plastic fender inserts up front are eaten up pretty badly.

I've since raised the car up, more to my liking, and have the 17's. The tires are 215/45, so I obviously haven't had that same problem anymore.

Based on adjusting the ride heighth and having larger diameter rims (I haven't rolled in the fenders, but I haven't ruled that out, neither)...what width and sidewall height do you think would be the max I could get away with, without causing further damage to my car and possibly to the tires?

Thanks for reading.

 

b-b-b-bump

 

whoa! 225/50s dont sound like they would be too off, but they are a FULL INCH taller than 225/45s or 245/40s, 26" diameter versus 25" diameter

yes this will create alot of problems with rubbing indeed. I dont know what you plan to roll since it sounds like your problem is it hitting the plastic inner fender liner because these tires are too tall, where as people usually rub by being to wide on the edge of the fender. you will be totaly fine height-wise with 225/45s 235/40s or 245/40s, though you might get some rubbing with the 245s on the fender lip depending on your offset.

But I cant stress enough how counter productive going to a larger diameter tire is, avoid it at all costs. Besides the height related rubbing, you change gearing for the worsre, put off your speedo readings, add rotational mass, add ride height, that even though you can take out with the FLEX, you cant lower as much as you would be able to with the right diameter tires, I'll stop there, hope that helps

 

I think he means 225/50/16, after all they are on his stock wheels, so they are still 25in tall, give or take a few tenths.

 

Yeah I'm very sorry for not being clearer...the 225/50's were on my stock rims.

And although I don't like being forced to do something I wouldn't normally do (16's were fine by me), I had to go with the 17's when I decided to buy the Stoptech BBK.

Anyhow, thanks very much for your response. It was helpful.

 

many wagons have rubbing issues with 225's even if not lowered .... I would also like some pictures of a 245 that does not rub on a sedan ... I have seen a good many people running 245's and have yet too see one that does not rub

 

Luke,

I don't have any delusions about making my station wagon handle like it's on a rail or even as good as most any autox-setup sedan, but do you have any techniques that would allow me to have 225's on a 17" rim on my wagon?

 

if you want to run 225's with no issues get a set of the Eagle F1 GS-D3 tires ... they are narrower than most other 225's because of the rounded area where the sidewall transitions into the tread

 

Nice.

Thanks very much. I like those tires a lot.

I may be making a roadtrip from Bloomington.