Wheel / tire size and Gas Mileage / speedometer

[Wizrd23]

Just a quick question Ladies and Gents,

I have an 07 Camry LE I4, with the stock 16 wheels and tires. I am going to get new wheels and tires, and was wondering how big I should go, and how much it effects gas mileage and the effect has on the accuracy of the speedometer?

I realize as the wheels get larger, you get fewer rpms, so it is going o effect the ride and speedometer a little.

And I know you can get wheels as large as 20" on the Camry, but I don't want to go that big if its going to kill the gas mileage and mess up the ride.

I'm also considering the Springtech lowering springs for the car, to drop it about 1.5" to get rid of wheel gap. This is a daily driver and I baby it everywhere I go.

thanks!

[southpawz]

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

You put in your current tire/wheel size and then you can play with the new tire/wheel size until you find something that gets everything back to where it needs to be.....it also will show how much your speeometer will be off with different sizes.

HTH

[Wizrd23]

Thanks southpawz! That helped alot. I was using bigwheels.net to look at possible wheels (one of the few sites that lists the 2007 Camry and has a huge selection). anyway, amazingly you can get all the way up to 20" wheels with 225/35/YR20 tires and it makes next to no difference!

now the question is, do I want to go with 20" wheels and lo-profile tires, or 18" wheels and tires and then drop it 1.5"? Or can I drop the car on 20"? I don't want rub obviously, but I also want to be able to go to the grocery store and go over a speed bump without bottoming out. Thoughts?

[Blackhawk3D]

Please get the 18s, you will have a huge drop in performance with 20s. That is a ton of extra weight. Plus, if you lower it, it will look better anyway. With 20s your lowering options are very limited.

[rusty9]

^^ yeah, you will appreciate actually having sidewalls with the 18's instead of a rubberband 35 series tire on 20 inch rimzzzz...

[skewe]

Originally Posted by southpawz

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

You put in your current tire/wheel size and then you can play with the new tire/wheel size until you find something that gets everything back to where it needs to be.....it also will show how much your speeometer will be off with different sizes.

HTH

Good one SouthPawz!

Newbie knows a lot. Miata.net is the place to go. They used to have 2 versions, one old and one new.

This is how the old one looks like

[RICO8458]

I think 17" or 18" are best for the Camry, unless you are pimping large, the the chosen few go with the 19" and 20"s...

[St. Dogmael]

Hey Wizrd,

I was wondering if you put in the 18"s, and if so, how they affected your ride? I'm getting a CE (only trim level I could find in manual tranny) and am thinkng about going to 17" or even 18".

Thanks,

Dogmael

[Streaker]

Potholes must be killers if you have 19 or 20" wheels. I have 17" rims now and worry about my wheels being dented or damaging a tire in the City

[Digger1]

Originally Posted by Streaker

Potholes must be killers if you have 19 or 20" wheels. I have 17" rims now and worry about my wheels being dented or damaging a tire in the City

I would think that potholes would be less of a problem with large diameter wheels.

What am I missing here?

[trickyazn]

with bigger rims the tire profile will be smaller which means when you go over the pothole, the rim will take some of the impact depending on how fast you go over it. bigger the rim, smaller the profile, rim > tire in terms of impact.

[Digger1]

Trick,

Got it, wasn't considering the low profile tires.

Thnx!