Civic tire/ suspension issues: Grassroots Motorsports forum: Grassroots Motorsports Magazine

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June 24, 2008 10:43 a.m. neon4891 HalfDork

This is for my girl friend. She just baught a '97 civic and it has an up sized wheel tire combo and possibly lowered suspension. Rolling stock is 15"alloys with sumito HTR H4's(?) in 205/60/15, what is stock, and how huch larger is this diameter(for speedometer correction)? Also, there is only about 1-2" of space from the top of the tire and the wheel well lip. If some one over, say,150 Lbs. is riding in back, the tire starts to rub the lip. This makes me think that it has been lowered some. I dont think I will do anything about the suspension, but we want to buy some stock steel wheels and basic snow tires for it in the fall. Any help would be great.

Brian
June 24, 2008 11:29 a.m. ProDarwin Dork

That is a huge tire for a civic. I think 2" taller than stock.

Stock rolling dia should be ~ the same as a 205/50-15.
June 24, 2008 12:32 p.m. Type Q Reader

That tire is really large for a civic. The wheel offset might be wrong also. IIRC the offest on the stock wheel is 38 mm. I know from personal experience that a 205/50-15 Azeni on a 15x6.5 rim will clear. If the offest is less or the wheel is wider, you are running the risk of rubbing the fender lips.
June 24, 2008 9:25 p.m. neon4891 HalfDork

I went on tire rack and they listed stock size as 185/65R14, funny, same as my neon.

If the current tires are that much taller, then I'm thinking that it still has stock ride hight.
June 24, 2008 11:27 p.m. gamby SuperDork

neon4891 wrote: I went on tire rack and they listed stock size as 185/65R14, funny, same as my neon.

If the current tires are that much taller, then I'm thinking that it still has stock ride hight.

195/55-15 and 205/50-15 are both proper +1 sizes for a 185/65-14 (correct size for a 6th gen Civic). No speedo issues w/ either.

205/60-15 must look like mudders on that thing.
June 25, 2008 10:24 a.m. CivicSiRacer New Reader

As people mentioned 185/65x14" is the stock size, so next size would be 195/55x15" or most people use 205/50x15" which is a little shorter than stock (like 1/4"), but that size tire is more available than the 195/55x15".

Her gearing and acceleration would suck alot from the taller tire. I would also guess her speedo and odometer would be off too.