WRX tires

whoa - that tires around 2" taller than the stock 205/55/16 - what are you trying to do, just go with a wider contact patch? 225/50/16 will work (are almost the same diameter as the stockers) - check out

for playing with tire sizes. Now, to specifically answer your question - yes, they will fit on WRX rims.

Hmmm. Thanks. Now more specifically, aside from the bad speedo readings, do you think it would work O.K. with the WRX? Let's just pretend that my tires selection is very limited.

Your speedo will read low by 8.5 percent. Your overall gearing will be higher by the same amount. That will make 5th gear pretty much useless, IMHO. On the other hand, 4th gear will be plenty tall for the open road.

Handling will suffer due to higher center of gravity, smaller contact patch, and taller, more flexible sidewalls. Steering geometry will be affected, but I don't know what it will feel like.

The biggest question is whether the top of the tires will hit the inside of the fender wells when the suspension is fully compressed. Having the top of the tire skidding on the bodywork could be dangerous. Be careful.

Steve Hansen

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I would be very very hesitant to try - you need to find out how much travel the stock suspension has (should be information readily available - do a google search or look on the subaru website - I don't know off the top of my head) and see where that puts the wheel relative to the body throughout the wheel well - I am going to bet that it's going to rub - maybe not going straight, but hit bumps while turning or try to do some emergency turning and bad things could happen.

The tire sidewall is around 25% taller with the new tires - they are going to be much more prone to roll over/flex, which ought to be interesting if you do any sort of spirited driving (you will notice a considerable difference in even routine handling). I imagine stopping distances will be adversely impacted as well. I would highly recommend against doing this, but it is, afterall, your car...

(I would rather get cheaper tires that are the right size, than something as far off as this... - most people who go with plus-zero sizing on the WRX get

225/50r16 which is actually probably as wide a tire as you can get away with on the stock WRX rims.)

The tires are probably the most important safety related item on your car - if you have performance oriented vehicle, you really need to get tires designed with that sort of vehicle in mind. Tires are definitely not a good place to skimp!

Just wanted to emphasize what a bad idea this is. Everything 'David & Caroline' wrote below is true and the advice given is good.

I might have sounded like I was just discussing a routine performance trade-off in my previous post. I didn't mean to leave the impression that you should actually try this. I probably should have been more emphatic.

I would NEVER put tires like that on my WRX, nor would I allow them to be put on a WRX that belonged to a customer, friend or family member.

This is worth reading again:

"I would rather get cheaper tires that are the right size, than something as far off as this..."

USED tires of the correct size would be a far better choice than

215/65-16's.

Best Regards, Steve

that Everyth>

Hi, Just like spending all money on super duper Hi-Fi stereo and getting El Cheapo speakers. And complain the stereo does not sound good. If one can afford WRX, surely s/he can afford proper tires to go with the car. Tony

2 Stroke wrote:

I don't think it will clear the bottom spring perch of your struts. Even if they do, I can almost guarantee that they will hit the lip of the wheel well every time you hit a bump, or take a corner aggressively. I run a tire that is only about an inch taller than stock on mine (205-65-15 Michelin Alpin Pilot), and had to pull off the trim piece from the edge of the wheel well to get it to work. Even so, they rub now and then.

ByeBye! S.

Steve Jernigan KG0MB Laboratory Manager Microelectronics Research University of Colorado (719) 262-3101

You forgot, this is America. What we do here is buy somthing not intended for the car (wrong size tires/cheap tires) and then sue the tire manufacture when the tire fails us (claiming that there should be a warning sticker telling us that this tire is not intended to be used on blah blah blah...) ;-)

I say, go ahead and use the oversize tires. I'm sure you will be able to win a few thousands dollars before lawyer fees when you have an accident (assuming you don't get killed). But hey! then your family will benefit from your death.

Sorry, do I sound bitter? 8^)

And to toss in something else to think about, under hard cornering you will probably rub the inside of the rear tires on the shocks due to the taller, more flexible sidewalls, I've done that autocrossing on the stock tires in my wagon!

Thanks to everyone who posted constructive input. That is, of course, the reason I posted the question in the first place. I'll go ahead and wait to get the correct sized tires since the ones the store has right now is the one in question. But I'll have to wait till the end of the month to have them special order it (don't ask.) Hopefully it won't snow until then. These are, of course, snow tires that I'm looking at. I'm going to get 17 inch rims and Yoko AVS100's for the summer.

Thanks again.

I'm running the AVS100's on 17" Rota Actions right now, they don't look too bad after 8000 miles and they definitely grip better than stock. Definitely not for winter, though they are supposed to be good in the wet (it's been a pretty dry summer).