tire question

[Severity]

i just bought a 4dr 93 civic LX and it has these huge custom wheels, they are a 205/50/15. they stick oout of the wheel well about an inch. the tires feel really big and i can really feel the road with them. my question is could they be screwing up my suspension, if so could i make any changes to my suspension to handle them? if not what would be the widest tire i could use? sorry 'bout all the questions

[esp]

for one thing i believe that those are the wrong size wheels and your speedometer is probably way off. im sure the wheels arent "custom" just the wrong size for the little civic, and having them stick out isnt gonna fly on here, cause we dont want our civics looking like lowrider impalas

[Severity]

yeah, they came with the car, so i should probably sell them or something and get smaller tires? and how does it affect my speedometer, i.e., faster or slower than it reads?

[CivicSiRacer]

That's almost the right size but the wheels sticking out is not. What size are the wheels and offset? Look on the back of the wheel for numbers. The 205/50x15" is what most people use on Civics/INtegras cause it only throws off the speedo my 1-2mph. Which is not noticeable and you get extra lateral grip.

[Miataracer]

yeah but he said 15" not 17"

I have a feeling what is going on here is he has the little reverse dish wheel where the offset makes it stick way out of the wheel well... match that up with a set of short sidewall tires on 15" wheels and you have some crappy handling suspension beating "bling bling" right there...

[Severity]

i was looking at my tires this morning and when i stand right in front of one and look straight down the tire only sticks out maybe a 1/4 of an inch, just barely. i might have exaggerated how big the tires actually are, cause they are bigger than my 94 2dr civic ex had. i haven't had a chance to look at the back to look at any numbers, i might have time thursday. i can try and take pictures today and post them.

[chimchim]

Another possibility is that the previous owner may have also put wheel extenders on it.

Take off a wheel and see if there's what looks like another metal disk plate between your wheel hub. If an extender is there, you'll have to remove it and replace the bolts with the original size.

But most likely, the previous owner just bought some ugly bling bling rims that have too big an offset.

[Severity]

it doesn't look like there is an extender, i have taken pictures of the wheel but i don't know how to post an attachment, i read in the FAQ there is supposed to be a browse button but i do not see one for me to click on, does an admin need to turn it on?

[Severity]

ok, i have removed my wheel and have discovered that they are 15X7s, so with a 15X7 rim and a 205/50/15 tire, will my suspension be damaged/screwed/etc.? if so can i upgrade my suspension to counteract this? thanks.

[Miataracer]

no that should be ok... you say it only sticks out maybe 1/4 inch? that is no where near as bad as I expected. it would be bad if you had wheels that stick out like 2 inches or soemthing (the ghetto bling bling wheels for example)

the tires are a little wider than recommended for your car but not bad... according to the tire rack you should have 195-50-15's 205 is close, just slighty wider. this will also lead to a slight increase in height because you are squeezing a wider tire on the same size wheel

either way, it shouldn't hurt your suspension too much if at all