New here hello... Tire question

[xanztrik]

Hello, I am a new 06 SE R owner (as of last Tuesday) and I found you guys. I have already used the forum to reset the airbag light because of my fiddling with an iPod/FM Modulator issue... Anyways, my car came with aftermarket 17" rims. That is the thing I dislike most about my purchase... and I do not understand why someone removed the beautiful 18" SE R rims and put on some cheapy 17"s... but whatever. I am looking to buy some tires for the 17s and I want the wheel wells to look a little fuller. Right now it is running some 235/40/17s (i believe) and I am wondering what would look good. Option two is to go with a whole new set of 18s with 245/45/18 on them. Any suggestions? Thanks for reading, and I am glad there is a huge group of helpful people out there for the Altimas.

[audtatious]

Welcome to NICO

The 2006 SE-R came stock with 16-inch alloy wheels and 195/55HR16 tires. The Spec-V came with 17-inch alloy wheels and 215/45ZR17 tires. So, no 18's from the factory.

[CPS]

audtatious, he has an SER Altima, not a Sentra, so it did come with 18's.

xanztrik, you have quite an issue on your hands. First of all, you current tires are WAY too small, as your speedometer is off by 5mph right now. Your speedo, for example, reads 60MPH, when in reality you are going 55. The problem is that without knowing the actual rim width, it is going to be difficult to figure out what's going to fit the width of the rim (most important) that way you can determine what sidewall heighth to go with.

Assuming 235 is the widest you can go on the 17, you would need 235/50/17 tires to get within a 1mph difference at 60. There is no 235 tire that will get you dead on. A 225/55/17 tire would get you very close.

If it were my car, I would go back with the original wheels or an equivalent that is the width of the factory wheel. You are leaving a lot of performance on the table by having tires that are 10-20mm narrower than what it originally came with. Whoever had it probably needed tires at some point and realized how expensive the factory ones are, or had a set of 17's they liked and had them put on to begin with.

[xanztrik]

Thanks for the great info. That answers my question and I will be waiting for my next paycheck and getting the correct 18/8 rims with the correct 225/40/18 tires on them. I have read somewhere (don't remember where) that the 245/45/18 tires will fit and fill the wheel well a little better. I am guessing the speedo will be off in the other direction because of the height of the tire is essentially (40x0.45) mm or 17.6mm taller overall. Is that right?

Thanks a ton for the information on the 17s because when winter hits, I will be probably getting the 225/55/17 sized winter tires for that set of rims so the speedo is not off.

[audtatious]

audtatious, he has an SER Altima, not a Sentra, so it did come with 18's.

Oooops......Nevermind

[audtatious]

Here's a good tire calculator to help you pick sizes to see what they will do to your speedo...

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

[xanztrik]

Ok, that site is AWESOME!