Mark Bridgett

Hi all,

I am a little confused over the rear tyre choice for the 16" rims. The FAQ says that for the "standard" but increasingly difficult to find Bridgestone, the size is 225/50/R16 but for other tyres, should be 245/45/R16. However on the recent tyre survey a number of people seem to have used non-Bridgestone size 225/50 and very few had 245/45.

As there is a difference between 225 and 245 I don't want to end up with the wrong tyres. Unfortunately the Bridgestones seem very hard to get, my Honda garage can't get any in at the moment and unfortunately I currently have an illegal rear that needs replacing urgently.

Would using (say) the Falken 452 with the 225 size (as the 245 size doesn't seem to exist) be compromising anything?

Thanks
Mark

Mark Bridgett

I should have said, I currently have:
2x Bridgestone 205/55 on front
1x Bridgestone RE050A 225/50 on rear
1x Bridgestone ER30 225/50 (yes, unmatched tyres I know) on rear.

thanks
Mark

JLUDE

I'm using 225/50's on the rear and 205/55's up front and have not noticed a difference when pushing the car over the 245/45's I had on the rear before. Unless you are pushing the lateral traction limits of this car you will be fine with the 225/50 on the rear.

225/50's are a lot cheaper and having good tread left on your 225's will have much better grip than worn out 245/45's.

Mark Bridgett

Thanks - I was looking mostly on the UK forum but did then find a very long thread on the US forum that made for very "interesting" reading. It does seem the 225/50 is fine to use, which is really what I need to know!
thanks
Mark

Conedodger

I have been running non-OEM 225s on the rear for years with no problem. They are cheaper and easier to find than 245s. That said, I don't push the car hard on these tires. I have a set of 4 245/45 R-compounds for autocross.

Elistan

Used to be when they first came out, the OEM S02s in 225/50/16 size were much wider than any other 225. They were as wide as contemporary 245s.

These days, there really aren't any 245/45/16 tires anymore - TireRack lists only the Fuzion ZRi. And it seems like today's 225/50/16 tires are the same size as the original S02s.

Wildncrazy

Mark I still haven't found ANY 225 as wide as the original S02 225.

Lots of Tire Rack and Discount Tire employees like to say they are, but when you find the tire width from the manufacturers you find there's quite wide variety of widths marketed under the size 225.

A narrower tire than stock will either give you quite a bit more oversteer or require things like a stiffer front sway bar. In any case if you change the ratio of front to rear rubber then you'll change the handling.

I've had 255s that were narrower than the stock 225.

woodburn

This might sound dumb but dont you spell it like TIRE not tyre?


ok your from UK sorry for the noobness

Elistan

Well, the Yokohama ADVAN Neova AD08 comes close. But that illustrates the other aspect of the "get 245/45/16 for the rear" advice - not only are the OEM S02 rears wider than normal, the OEM S02 fronts are narrower than normal.

front tread widths, per TireRack:
AD08 - 7.7"
S02 - 7.1"
S02 - 7.2" (Porsche spec)
RE-11 - 7.6"
RE050 - 7.3"

rear tread widths:
AD08 - 8.5"
S02 - 8.5"
S02 - 8.1" (Porsche spec)
RE-11 - 8.3"
RE050 - 8.0"
(The other popular extreme perf summer tire, the Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec - that's a mouthful - doesn't have tread widths listed.)

So it's a double whammy, front and rear - going from a 7.1/8.5 setup to, say, 7.6/8.3. That's a significant bias change. You can even see the difference between S2000 spec S02 and Porsche spec S02. My very first set of replacement tires was Porsche spec S02s, since I didn't know any better. They felt like crap on my car.

Unfortunately, nobody's making a decent 245/45/16 tire these days. The ONLY one outside of R-compounds TireRack shows is the Fuzion ZRi, and sure enough its tread width is only 8.6", just 0.1" more than the OEM S02. So we're SOL for the 16s, and just have to make do with what we have. (Best bet is to buy Volks and run 225/45/17 front and 255/40/17 rear. ) I thought I had seen things had been rectified, but looking at it again just now seems we have the same sort of situation for us AP1 owner.s

Wildncrazy

I'm running the Star Specs, but I've got 18s now. I was running a bastard mix of special purpose S02s (Porsche & BMW spec) to get the wide widths and keep my front to rear ratios slightly more rear tire weighted than stock.

I bought the Star Specs because of all the recommendations of autocross guys and was pleasantly surprised to find they were wider than the S02s, at least in the sizes I now run.

They probably would be a good choice. I know they are sticky.

Because of the road quality near my new house I've considered going back to my 16s. I will either go with the Star Specs of Toyo RA1s. They Toyos have remarkable street life and are the stickiest thing out there, that you really can run on the street and get a decent life out of.