Tire Wear - Considering Smaller Wheels

[larry chester]

My last Lexus, a SC300, had 15 inch wheels with V rated tires on it. I wore out my first set at 15,000 miles. Spending that much on tires every year was appalling to me. So I changed my tires to T rated tires. It gave me a bit softer ride, didn't change the handling much, and the tires were going 60,000 miles, to say nothing of being cheaper.

With car manufacturers going to these premium wheels (17", 18" etc) and low profile tires, they have added another regular cost to the maintenance cost of these vehicles. Not only do people now require replacing tires at 15k - 20k, but they also lose the flexibility provided by all season tires, and need to get second sets of wheels and tires.

I really enjoy my car (a 2006 IS250 that I just bought - one week ago), but was wondering about the possibility of going to a 16" wheel, a higher profile tire with more of a highway rating, rather than a track rating, (let's say a T rated tire) and avoiding the need for Blizzaks in the winter and a second set of wheels for winter as well.

I know that it won't look as "cool," but the burning through money on tires annually will just anger me annually. Any thoughts??

larry

[terry993]

Welcome to the world of higher performance handling. On top of what you mentioned, they will also tell you that the fronts and rears are different sizes, therefore cannot be rotated. Or maybe yours are the same. But you did get an extra 0.1g of lateral handling.

[lambobaby1218]

My last Lexus, a SC300, had 15 inch wheels with V rated tires on it. I wore out my first set at 15,000 miles. Spending that much on tires every year was appalling to me. So I changed my tires to T rated tires. It gave me a bit softer ride, didn't change the handling much, and the tires were going 60,000 miles, to say nothing of being cheaper.

With car manufacturers going to these premium wheels (17", 18" etc) and low profile tires, they have added another regular cost to the maintenance cost of these vehicles. Not only do people now require replacing tires at 15k - 20k, but they also lose the flexibility provided by all season tires, and need to get second sets of wheels and tires.

I really enjoy my car (a 2006 IS250 that I just bought - one week ago), but was wondering about the possibility of going to a 16" wheel, a higher profile tire with more of a highway rating, rather than a track rating, (let's say a T rated tire) and avoiding the need for Blizzaks in the winter and a second set of wheels for winter as well.

I know that it won't look as "cool," but the burning through money on tires annually will just anger me annually. Any thoughts??

larry

I've got 27,500 miles on my 250, and I haven't changed the tires yet.........or haven't needed to, let me say.......

[rockne]

Don't do it. IF your tires wear out in 20k miles it's worth replacing them in order to keep your original wheels. If you get 16 inch wheels your car simply won't look good, you spent too much money on your car to make it look bad. If your not an agressive driver you should get decent wear from your tires.

[SKperformance]

Get a good summer and winter set . I have toyo t1r ultra high performance tires. So far i have about 20 000km and only 10% wear.

A set of dunlop graspics are unbelievably cheap in 17 under $100 each and well worth the price.

[SW03ES]

I REALLY would advise against that. The handling dynamics of the car are designed around low profile tires. Going to a higher profile and a smaller wheel is going to dramatically change the handling characteristics of the car, and IMHO would probably make it dangerous in emergency maneuvers. Your SC was MUCH more softly sprung and more of a tourer than your IS.

[larry chester]

OK, you're right. But for winter, I have to do something. Tire Rack recommends the use of 16" wheels with winter studless ice and snow tires. I think that this is what I will have to do. Probably the Blizzaks. The price tag? $95 for each wheel, and another $120 per tire, rounding out to a bit over $900 all said and done. But, it's a one time expenditure, and I can change the tires myself. I happen to have a floor jack in my garage, but it's another chunk of change right now.

Now for another piece of news. They recommend the addition of $425 worth of Tire Pressure Sensors to keep the car working as it is with the summer tires. OK, I really don't care if I have tire pressure sensors on my winter tires.

But if I don't install the tire pressure sensors, do I do anything to the system to cause it to be damaged for the summer drive season? I can always turn off the sensor, I was just concerned that I'd damage something if it wasn't used.

Anyone know?

larry

[bartkat]

There won't be any damage to the system. If you know how to turn off the warning, you should be good.