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Question about Plus sizing your wheels/tires

Greetings from Montreal,

I have a 1998 Nissan Altima GXE (black).

I am the original owner of the car and have taken extremely good care of it over the past 7 years.

In an attempt to jazz up the car a bit from the base model I want to Plus size the wheels/tires.

I currently have the stock 15 inch wheels with 195-65/15 tires.

I am debating whether to plus size to 215-55/16 or 225-45/17 tires.

Question: Anyone driving in Montreal knows we are the pothole capital of the world. Although I wish to get the slicker look of the 17 inch wheel, would I not be safer going to the 16 inch wheel and avoid risking damage to the wheel? I think it would be shame to pay good money for a 17 inch wheel and ding it shortly thereafter in a pothole. How much greater risk of damage does a 17 inch hold compare to a 16 inch wheel.

Any comments on looks versus practicality in a pothole ridden world would be appreciated.

Thanks

Theo

Reply to
Theo
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I lived in Montreal for most of my life and I do know all about pot holes. Looking at most of the cars that are coming out now, size is not a issue. Most of them now have 16",

17" and even 20" rims. So, I don't think you will see any difference in size. The only thing that does change is your ABS brakes. Most shops will not put tires on you car if they are not the manufacturer's suggested size. They will put them on rims for you and then you get to put them on yourself. I have tried doing this in the past and some garages will do it (example:Costco) and some will not (example:Nissan Dealer)

Good luck with that

Jeremy

Theo wrote:

Reply to
Jeremy Grant

I believe the rule is no more than 10mm change in any direction. There are websites that give this information, I don't know of any offhand, so do some searching, and good luck.

Reply to
Skid

Depends a lot on the rim design. I've seen rims that one pothole would kill em. Of course as you get larger with the wheel and shorter with the sidewall the ride quality/damage potential is exponential. Plus if you do allow the outside diameter of the tire to increase, you'll kill the performance. Basic thing to look for on wheels is how shallow the rim itself is and how large a gap of unsupported rim there is i.e. distance between the spokes.

An example, something like this

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5715&InfoID811&ShowLarge=True is much more likely to get flat spotted between the spokes than something like this.

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5724&InfoID811&ShowLarge=True I think you can you get the idea looking at these..

Reply to
Steve T

Quite a bit greater from what I've seen. It's not "everyday" pothole that bends something but once every couple years when you hit that pothole or "road repair in progress" and you think to yourself "wow, that wasn't good" - you _will_ bend a wheel.

I'd go 16", despite the current fashion craze.

Reply to
-Bob-

A good rule of thumb is to not go more than 1 size larger rim: from a 15 to a 16, to keep the ratio in check. Also, be careful of a problem with wheel rub on sharp turns on any larger size wheels.

Reply to
BC Clifton

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