My stock tires have worn down and I'm buying a new set. I've been reading around and there's been quite a bit of talk of some people buying unstaggered tires (same size on the rear as on the fronts).

I was looking at the Continental ExtremeContact DWSs, with 245's on the rear and 225's on the front. What would be the advantages/disadvantages of putting 245's all the way around?

I get that that would let me rotate my tires, which would mean some extended life, but what else and what are the reasons not to?

 

A square setup is having 4 wheels(tires) of equal widths. Your rear wheel is still gonna be wider than the front. your not gonna be able to rotate the tires plus the aspect ratios would have to be different also to compensate for the width differences.

 

If you have unstaggered wheels like 18x8 all around, you can run 245s all around and rotate if you want to.

I am not sure why duro is talking about aspect ratios... The aspect ratio should be the same. You can absolutely run the same size tire all around if you want to.

if you were running really fat tires in the front, the steering would feel heavy. 245s are not fat though. If you were running smaller tires in the rear, you might notice increased oversteer... such a small difference (going from a 225 to a 245 in the front) will make no difference at all.

 

This is true if the OP was running a true staggered wheel setup. He's just running stocks, which are 18x8 all around.

 

Agreed. Not much you can do with an 18x8 wheel. Also, don't forget about VDC issues due to same/not correct overall tire diameters.

Crazy tire question

HELP!!! removed TPMS and now this

 

for great handling and not messing up VDC, TCS and ABS run 245/40 front and 245/45 raers.

 

I was under the impression he was trying to put 245 on two different width wheels. i stand corrected

 

staggered seems to be better for the car

 

Ok, please explain.

 

Is there any particular basis for your statement?

I’ve run 245/40-18” F with 245/45-18” R (the setup that terrasmak mentions). The handling is just great if you like a neutral-steer.

The only downside I see with this setup is that with rear-wheel drive, rear tires wear more quickly than the fronts. This may result in over-steer, but that only happens when you get close to worn-out rears combined with fairly new fronts.

Is that what you meant?

--Spike

 

So why do most people run 225's on the front and 245's on the rear? If there's no noticeable difference, why not just run 245's all the way around and have the advantage of being able to rotate the tires?

 

Many people run 225 F and 245 R simply because that’s the OEM sizing on their Z.

You can run 245’s front and rear in either a same width with staggered height front-to-rear, or an all-square setup (same width and profile front and rear).

Same width with staggered height front-to-rear typically has 245/40-18” front and 245/45-18” rear. These sizes match the OEM height and are 100% reliable with ABS and VDC/TCS. Of course you cannot rotate tires with different heights front to rear.

All-square tire setups have the same width and height tires on both front and rear (typically 245’s with either a 40 or 45 profile on all corners). You can rotate your tires when using this setup since the front and rear tires are sized identically. Some users report problems with VDC when running an all-square setup. I’ve had the best results using 245 with a 45 profile when running all-square. I did experience some unwanted interference with VDC when running 245/40-18” all-square.

NOTE: I've kept my points to 245 width tires for simplification. The tire width could be anything, but the points remain the same.

--Spike

 

^^^^
SO what you're saying - running 2 size wider and .5 profile higher in the rear is the ideal setup?

like 265/35/18 and 285/40/18?

 

I've run 245/45/18 all around and didnt have an issue with VDC. I can't say that anyone else won't though.

If your running OEM wheels. The wheels are staggered stock. So I wouldnt recommend rotating them even if you were running the same size tire all around. (unless your talking about unmounting the tire from the wheel entirely and rotating them. thats okay.)

 

We don't know what wheels the OP has since he neglected to tell us. Based on his mentioning the 225F and 245R tire sizes, he could have the Touring v.1, Track v.1, or Touring v.2 wheels.

The Touring v.1 wheels are square, 18x8 E30mm front and rear. If you put 245/45-18 tires on those wheels, rotating front to back would be easy provided you removed the bolt on the front hubs.

 

Nope, 265/40 front and 285/40 rear would be what you kinda want. but that combo is a bit tall for the front and rear. 255/40 and 275/40 is actually most optimal.

 

Sorry, it's a 2007 Enthusiast with stock wheels.

 

Personally, I would always do staggered, the car will just look much better period. Not much you can do with the 18x8.

 

245/40 front or stock size front and 245/45 or 255/40 rears. your really limited with that size wheel.

 

So you have v2 Touring wheels that are different widths and offsets. No easy rotating=buy staggered sizes.