[dho]

What are the widest tires/wheels that can be put on the B13 all around? I've got 195/50/15's right now and I've seen others with 205/50/15's. Also, for the street, are Kumho 712's about the best tires for the price, handling, mileage, and everything else? Does it matter which rating it is? I've seen some in H, V, and W.

 

[Adam]

Don't take my word for it, but I believe 7-7.5 inches is the widest wheel that would fit, but you probably wouldn't want much more than that. That's if you don't use spacers or anything of course.

 

[dho]

I've got 15x6.5" Enkei RS6's and I can't find any wider tires than the 205/50/15's. I keep seeing these racing 15x7 or 15x7.5 and 14x7's but what about the tires? Also, does it really matter how wide or is it the type of tire that you put on the wheels?

I've got the kumho 712's but they seem to loose grip in the front when doing turns. Are those goodrich S3-pole or those type of tires as good as they claim to be?

Thanks.

 

[sentrapower93]

I have 15x6.5 Rage 5.0 wheels with some 195/50/15 Falken ZE-502 tires and my car handles sweet. I can take turns at pretty high speeds with no problem, my se-r rear sway bar with ES bushings helps alot also. I'm very pleased with the way my car handles. Your tire/wheel set up is very close to mine, and your Kumhos are better than my Falkens as far as grip is concerned. Not sure why your car slides to much on turns, you may wanna check your air pressure. I run 32psi in front and 30psi rear and my sentra feels very balanced when taking hard turns, shit sometimes i get a bit of oversteer which is fun. 205/50/15's will give you a bit more grip but they are heavier and your speedo will be off by a few mph, and since a 205 is a bit taller it will slow you down cause it will give you a higher gear ratio. Bottom line stick with the 195's....

 

[dho]

I have 15x6.5 Rage 5.0 wheels with some 195/50/15 Falken ZE-502 tires and my car handles sweet. I can take turns at pretty high speeds with no problem, my se-r rear sway bar with ES bushings helps alot also. I'm very pleased with the way my car handles. Your tire/wheel set up is very close to mine, and your Kumhos are better than my Falkens as far as grip is concerned. Not sure why your car slides to much on turns, you may wanna check your air pressure. I run 32psi in front and 30psi rear and my sentra feels very balanced when taking hard turns, shit sometimes i get a bit of oversteer which is fun. 205/50/15's will give you a bit more grip but they are heavier and your speedo will be off by a few mph, and since a 205 is a bit taller it will slow you down cause it will give you a higher gear ratio. Bottom line stick with the 195's....

That's cool, I just drive my car hard Maybe I need more defensive driving courses... Oh well, I'll check my tire pressure on all the tires soon. I've got Suspension Techniques front and rear anti-sway bars, front and rear strut tower braces, eibach sportline springs, and kyb gr-2 struts. I guess the spinning tires through the turns in the front could be fixed with a Phantom Grip LSD, right? Also, with the rear strut tower brace that was just installed not too long ago and the 100lb stereo, the car feels like it's over steering... Thanks,

 

[Skinny G]

Not that this matters to you:

I autocross with 13x7" mini stock wheels with 5" backspacing and 205/60R13 R tires (38psi all around). The front tires rub the plastic inner fender shields, and the rear fender edges needed to be rolled for clearance.

I am running Tokico springs and "blues," and ST bars. I have -2.3° camber front and -1.3° camber rear, and 0° toe. I have a hand-fabricated front STB. I have been fighting oversteer all season.

I run 15x6.5" 38mm rims with 195 Kumho 712s on the street (35psi all around) and have no complaints. Check your alignment if you are understeering excessively.

I am looking at going to 13x9's and 235/45R13 V700's in a few years, but have to check for clearance first. I will run 215's next season.

Greg

www.geocities.com/g_wellwood/automotive/sentra.html

 

[dho]

Not that this matters to you:

I autocross with 13x7" mini stock wheels with 5" backspacing and 205/60R13 R tires (38psi all around). The front tires rub the plastic inner fender shields, and the rear fender edges needed to be rolled for clearance.

I am running Tokico springs and "blues," and ST bars. I have -2.3° camber front and -1.3° camber rear, and 0° toe. I have a hand-fabricated front STB. I have been fighting oversteer all season.

I run 15x6.5" 38mm rims with 195 Kumho 712s on the street (35psi all around) and have no complaints. Check your alignment if you are understeering excessively.

I am looking at going to 13x9's and 235/45R13 V700's in a few years, but have to check for clearance first. I will run 215's next season.

Greg

www.geocities.com/g_wellwood/automotive/sentra.html

How do the 205/60R13 R tires feel on the track compared to the 195/50/15's? Do you know if the Potenza S-03 Pole Position 205/50/15's are good tires? Also, to let you know my experience with tires, I ran the Kumho 712 205/50/15's on my 15x6.5" rims and they rubbed in the wheel well in the rear. I had the fender cut and tucked but it didn't touch there, it touched kinda where the top of the wheel well is. That's the main reason why I'm asking about the tire widths. Could it just be that my car's lowered with the Eibach Sportline Springs or is it the KYB GR-2 struts not being stiff enough?

Do Z rated tires give better traction/handling than V rated tires?

I don't know how to describe the steering... if feels neutral some days, other times it kinda feels like oversteering, and the other times it feels like understeering. Could it depend on the tire temperature? I also have an upgraded rack & pinion with a 2.7 lock-to-lock ratio vs the factory 3.2.

Thanks for all your help,

 

[Skinny G]

How do the 205/60R13 R tires feel on the track compared to the 195/50/15's?

The 13's are Toyo Proxes RA1's. The sidewalls are a bit soft, so with 38psi in them they are about as responsive. The grip is hands down easily WAY higher than the 712's. If you've never run R tires before, you really don't know just how massively fun they are.

Also posted by dho
I had the fender cut and tucked but it didn't touch there, it touched kinda where the top of the wheel well is.

Sounds like your rear springs are too soft, or the tires are too wide/tall. What is the offset of your rims? OEM is 40mm. I run 38mm and I have no rubbing problems at all with 195's.

The stiffness of the struts should not affect the rubbing, once you are into a steady-state corner, and all the weight transfers to the outside, the strut will comopress with the spring until everything stops moving - if there is no movement, the struts aren't doing anything. I think it's a spring issue (or offset issue).

Do Z rated tires give better traction/handling than V rated tires?

Generally speaking, increased speed ratings are merely the construction of the tire being able to withstand higher speed/centrifugal force. Most higher speed rated tires come with softer tread compounds, which would improve traction too. To throw a wrench into the "Z tire is better" theory, my race tires, clearly stamped "Recommended for competition events only" on the sidewall, has no speed rating whatsoever.

I don't know how to describe the steering... if feels neutral some days, other times it kinda feels like oversteering, and the other times it feels like understeering.

Could be your driving. Try taking a freeway on/off ramp at a steady speed and see what it feels like. There are many lists of suspension/handling tuning tips on the net and in books - try to find out where/when it consistantly understeers and oversteers. If its inconsistant - it's you, not the car.

 

[SERprise In WV]

Lose the ST front sway bar (go back to the stocker), and you'll notice that your car rotates MUCH better. Putting the thicker front bar on just brings back the understeer that you dialed out with the ST rear sway bar. Pushing or plowing through turns is understeer.

205 or 195 tires are the same diameter, despite what was said above. As long as the aspect ratio (50 in this case) is the same, those two widths won't be any shorter/taller than the other.

You can fit a 205 with 40mm backspacing, on a Classic. Any wider on the rear and you will hit the strut.

 

[sentrapower93]

Greg are you saying that a 195-50-15 & a 205-50-15 have the same diameter, sorry man but you are wrong. Most 195-50-15's are about 22.75 in. overall dia. and most 205-50-15's are 23.15 in. overall dia., so therefore a 205 is taller than a 195 they don't have the same overall diameter...

 

[Skinny G]

Even tires in the same P-metric size can vary in actual width and offset between manufacturers. You may be surprised to find a 195 in one tire that is wider than a 205 of another!

Sentrapower93 is correct. The sidewall height of a 205/50 is 50% of 205 = 102.5mm. The sidewall height of a 195/50 is 50% of 195 = 97.5mm. That's a 5mm difference in sidewall height, 10mm difference in diameter. That's over 3/8"!

If the aspect ratio value alone determined diameter, then a 175/50R13 Euro T/A (low rider tire) should be the same height as a 215/50R13. Trust me, it ain't In fact, a 215/50R13 V700 is slightly smaller in diameter than a 185/60R13 RA1, but about the same height as a 175/60R13 A032R. Ain't math wonderful?

G

 

[dho]

Yea, I saw some Goodrich T/A's on a sentra with 195/50/15's and they were way wider than my 195/50/15 Kumho 712's.

So what should we (consumers) do to verify the width? At tirerack.com they show the section width then they tell you all these other things that are factors in the sizes such as how wide the wheel is, the series of the tire, the manufacturer, the width of the tire, the blah blah blah... Lets just say on the 15" rims, which brand would be best, I've done the tire rack comparison and the S3-pole came up 1st in handling all the times except for the drag tires and then kumho came in second, is this true? Kumho 712's
BF Goodrich S3-Pole
Falken
Goodrich T/A
Pirelli
Summito

Would it be better to have the 195/50/15 best tires vs. 205/50/15 not so best tires?

 

[SERprise In WV]

Question: Will you *really* notice the 5mm of sidewall height? On our cars?
Only at the ragged edge. And even then, it will be minimal. JMHO.

 

[bahearn]

I ran TSW Blades size 16x7.5 at 34 mm offset, first with 205/45-16 Yokohama AVS-Intermediates then 215/40-16 Goodrich Euro-T/A Radials. The BFGs were too soft and I bent two rims on a tar strip (yes, The Tar Strip From Hell, see my Web site). The rear tires only rubbed with passengers in the rear seat, regardless of the springs.

Since I couldn't find another Blade, I bought SSR Competitions size 15x7 at 42 mm offset shod with Bridgestone Potenza S-03 Pole Position tires. The rear wheels needed 1/4" spacers while the front s fit just fine even with NX brakes.

I found the Potenza S-03 to be the best tire I've ever used and that includes the Yoko AVS-I and Goodyear Eagle VR-50 Gatorback (showing my age).

 

[dho]

So you are using 205/50/15 S-03 Poles?

 

[bahearn]

Well, that's what's on the car but it sits in the garage unregistered and uninsured. I've retired it from street duty to convert it into an SCCA ITS car. I bought the wheels and tires in October 2001 and parked the car last month.

 

[dho]

Are you going to keep your 205/50/15's? I could use them in the future if you were just going to get rid of them. (If there's any tread on them, lol)

What does all the offset stuff mean? I'm wondering what my 15x6.5" enkei RS6's are. When I had 205/50/15 Kumho 712's it rubbed in the wheel well even with the fenders cut and tucked.

 

[bahearn]

Tire Rack has a very good explanation of offset (known as back-spacing to the Detroit crowd). You want something in the 30 mm to 38 mm range. I can easily assist you indetermining your current offset if you have a rim with no tire on it. A rim with a tire poses a slightly messier procedure.

As for the Potenzas, I have no use for them other than something on which to roll the car around. They have about 2,000 miles on them, so lots of tread remain. I could be persuaded to sell them and could bring them the next time I'm in D/FW area. I'd want about $400 for 'em, though.

 

[dho]

The 16x7" version has 42mm offset and their 17x7" version has 38mm offset. I can't find the offset for the 15" though. Do you think it's a 44mm offset? The online discount tire place says, "15X6.5 4-100/114 38S"

Man, I wish I could afford them things. I've got $300 going to the Hypercoils for the B13 (300/200). I need a job

Thanks for your help!

 

[dho]

Anyone know if 215's or 225's will fit in the rear? What offset, backspacing, wheel size, and with a 1" lowering with the hyperco's will allow them to fit or not fit? When going from factory 13" wheels with those 175/65 or whatever to 205/50/15's does that affect the turning radius a great amount? What things really matter for the street?

Maybe I should just be happy with what I have!

Thanks everyone!