Protege Tire Size Question re substitutions

[FlyingGreg]

Hey all--I'm new to this forum and have a question about Protege tire sizes. I have a 2002 ES with 195/50-16 tires. I need to replace and would like to substitute with a less expensive size. The car is driving by a school teacher and does not require hight performance tires. Can I use a different size?

Thanks in advance.

Greg

[growe58]

Originally Posted by FlyingGreg

The car is driving by a school teacher and does not require hight performance tires.
Greg

I hope that you're not teaching English!

The simple answer is that as long as it fits on the wheel, you can put any size tire you want on there. And to fit the wheel, all the tire needs to be is 16 inch size and not too wide or too narrow to seat the bead. However the reality of the situation is that if you go with a size other than stock, you are running into some MAJOR problems:

First of all, the tire shop probably will refuse to fit a size smaller than stock for safety and liability reasons (and possibly local laws)
Secondly, if they do fit it, you may not be able to pass safety inspections
Finally, if the overall radius of the tire changes, the speedometer will be inaccurate.

In case you don’t know how to read tire sizes 195-50-16 means that the tread is 195mm wide, the sidewall (distance from the tread to the wheel) is 50% of that or 97.5 mm and the hole in the middle of the tire (wheel size) is 16 inches. So the diameter of the tire is twice 97.5mm plus 16 inches which is around 23.6 inches.

You may be able to find someone with a base model Protégé and smaller wheels that would be willing to swap wheels with you. Since you’re still using Mazda stock parts, you would probably be able to get away with it. If you do this, make sure that the tire diameter is still around 23.6 inches (I see that 195-55-15 and 185-65-14 are stock for the DX and LX which are both 23.4 inches). Be aware, though, if your car’s suspension is specially tuned for the 195-50-16, you might notice a significant deterioration in performance.

Your best bet is probably just to bite the bullet and get some decent tires of the right size. Since the four small contact patches are your only connection to the road, this may not be the best place to economize. You can make sure, however, that you get something that is designed for good wear characteristics rather than ultimate grip so you don’t have to go through this again for a while.

Good luck!

[copter steve]

Flying Greg,

I just read your post, I think if you go to a 60 series tire it will save you some money, I have a 2002 Protege LX, on the door is sez to put 195/55/15, I bought the car used and it had brand new 195/60/15 Goodyear Eagles, $65.00 apiece instead of $100.00 since then I have replace the Eagles with a new set of Eagles, car handles great, yeah the speedometer is a little off, safety issues, I've never had the state of Oregon check my tire size when I have re-registered my car. Buy a good tire, not chinese made, and your school teacher will be fine.

Copter Steve

[FlyingGreg]

Thanks for the replies growe58 and Steve. Even on-line listings show most of these tires at around a hundred bucks. The other problem is they don't last very long. I guess you give up tread life for performance. My old next door neigbor at an Acura NSX that he would be lucky to get 10,000 miles out of a set of tires.

Growe--fortunately I don't teach school, or typing. I are a salesman--LOL.

Greg

[copter steve]

greg.

really? coparing a NSX to a protege, I would expect to smoke a set of tires of a NSX, but a good set of tires better get three times what your neighbor gets.

Copter Steve

[Flash75]

195/50/16 is a hard size to find. Going to a different size will usually decrease acceleration and fuel mileage. If you have lots of rain or some snow it's safer to buy an all season rated tire. For my Protege 5 I purchased Kumho Ecsta ASX but they were around $100 locally. They perform well, they have been on the car 21k miles, look like they will last around 40k miles for mostly hi-way driving. The original Dunlops lasted 40k miles.

Clifton

[Doug Tatham]

I bought a lifetime alignment for my protege and have the tires rotated, balanced, and aligned (no charge) by firestone every 10K miles. I've been getting 70 to 90K miles on each set. I've been getting the Potenza tires, but had to switch to the Torenza (?) tires. I don't know that the tires are all that great, I think it's the frequent balancing and alignment that makes the difference. I only let Firestone do my tires, after some bad experiences I've instructed them not to open the hood under any circumstances.