Tire Clearance

[rcottle]

Originally Posted by FestYboy
go to your local pepboys and ask for proline wheel #1092 for a 92 accord (4x114.3) in 14". you have a choice of black or silver and can be painted of course. then go find some 165/60/14 tires from federal on the 'bay.

The Question is will a 175/65/14 tire work without any rubbing issues? Thought I would post this to see if anyone would know.

I am still trying to find a cheap way to switch to a 14" tire/wheel. What I mean by cheap is $300 to $400 and I have not had any luck with salvage yards around here in trying to get help.

Last resort here - might just end up putting the Festiva up for sale out of frustration.!

[lanemeyer14]

Originally Posted by FestYboy
go to your local pepboys and ask for proline wheel #1092 for a 92 accord (4x114.3) in 14". you have a choice of black or silver and can be painted of course. then go find some 165/60/14 tires from federal on the 'bay.

The Question is will a 175/65/14 tire work without any rubbing issues? Thought I would post this to see if anyone would know.

I am still trying to find a cheap way to switch to a 14" tire/wheel. What I mean by cheap is $300 to $400 and I have not had any luck with salvage yards around here in trying to get help.

Last resort here - might just end up putting the Festiva up for sale out of frustration.!

I picked up my latest set of wheels for $100 locally, 165/60/14 federal tires for $187 shipped (ebay), and $40 to mount and balance them. $327 total! Just gotta look for good deals online/locally. I just checked last night and I can't find the 165/60/14 federal tires on ebay as of now....maybe more will be posted soon?

[roycehof]

1010tires.com has a tire size calculator.
Note: this is based on you having 155-80R12 on your car now.
A 155-80R12 tire is 21.76 inch in diameter and a 175-65R14 is 22.95. So 22.95 minus 21.76 is 1.19 divide by 2 (for the radius) and the tire is 0.60 bigger. Look and see if there is about 5/8 (.625) inch of clearance between the strut spring perch and the tire - if so you got room. As far as the width - this will really depend on the width and offset of the wheel you get. If they are the same - the 12 inch tire width is 6.1 and the 14 inch tire width is 6.88 so you will need a gap of about 1/2 inch to make sure you don't rub (6.88 - 6.1 = 0.78 divided by 2 = 0.39 (a 1/2 will leave a tenth of an inch clearance))
Before you go to the site and do the math, I think you need to know what the rim specifications are for width and offset, but that is all you need to do to make sure you'll have clearance. (You may want to leave a little more clearance that what I proposed in the example).

[FestYboy]

just for example, 175/70/13 rub under load, as do 185/60/14, SO the 175/65/14 will also rub. get the 165/60 OR 185/55 tires

[Safety Guy]

You can't find any JY Metro wheels? Lots of Metros in Columbus area junkyards, and it's only a matter of time before you'd get a set of reasonably matching rims with 155/80s or 175/70s on them. I'm running four used 175/70-13s on Aqua now; two of which I bought at a 'yard for $14 apiece. These are two matched pairs all less than three years old with great tread.

I'll probably have a set of Metro steelies up for sale soon. Nothing wrong with them (two were fine coming home on the car, while two are untested) that I can tell, but I don't like the style as much as other Metro wheels I've seen. So to make room I'll get rid of them and slowly collect a neater set of 13" Metros for the future.

As for 14s, they'll be a bit more challenging to find and fit, but if you buy new wheels, a set of 165/60s or 185/55s should not cost too much. Check out tires-easy.com for those. I'd consider either the Federals or the Marangonis (a set of which I plan to try out soon on my '99+ Miata wheels).

Yes, it's not as easy to get good fitting tires as four or five years ago, but it's not dire. Not yet anyway.

Karl