18 inch tires for avalon touring

[avytouring]

I was thinking whether installing 18 inch tires is a good idea or not for a avalon touring 07 will the ride be affected ?

will the fuel economy drop?

will manouvering be affected with the tires rubbing against the fenders?

anyone who has already done the upgrade what is your feedback on this
thanks
Avy

[Tom in Tacoma]

Originally Posted by avytouring

I was thinking whether installing 18 inch tires is a good idea or not for a avalon touring 07 will the ride be affected ?

will the fuel economy drop?

will manouvering be affected with the tires rubbing against the fenders?

anyone who has already done the upgrade what is your feedback on this
thanks
Avy

A few comments on your questions:
- there's really not a great difference between the stock 17" and your proposed 18" rim/tires. Any effect on the ride quality will come as a result of the choice of tire brand and size (low aspect ratio - as an example)
- simply going to an 18" rim/tire combo shouldn't have a negative effect on economy as long as you're not getting a tire that has a circumference close to the stock tire size. Also, a wider tire will have a higher rolling resistance and therefore might see a reduction in fuel economy
- if there's ANY tire rub - you have a problem that needs to be addressed.

What is it you're trying to accomplish by going to 18" rims and tires? Looks? Improvement in handling?

[avytouring]

Tom
thanks for the reply.
Im going for enhanced look to answer your question
i dont want low profile tires im just interested in getting slightly bigger tires im happy with the performance of the michelins its just that i feel the car needs bigger tires.

my cousin has the fully loaded chrysler 300M black limited and what a difference it made to his car when he got his tires changed . I guess he got bigger tires than 18" as thats the size that usually comes standard on that model.

my only apprehension is that will the bigger tires fit in avalon without any rubbing etc or will it require further mods if thats the case then id rather upgrade to alevel which wont require any tampering with the fenders

[Tom in Tacoma]

I need to make something clear here (forgive me if you already know it - but I don't see that in what you've written).

You say you want bigger tires and you said that you wanted to go to 18" tires. Keeping that in mind - you can put bigger tires on your 17" rims and you can go with 18" rims yet stay with the same size tire (albeit one with an 18" hole in it).

I'm gathering that you want the good looks of a larger aftermarket rim. I'd recommend you not exceed the height of the stock tire. One thing you could do is this:
Stock Size New Size
255/55/17 275/45/18
Sidewall: 5.5" Sidewall: 4.9"
Radius: 14.0" Radius: 13.9"
Diameter: 28.0" Diameter: 22.7"
Circumference: 88.1" Circumference: 87.2"
Revs/Mile: 719 Revs/Mile: 727

There's a bit of a difference between the two sizes but it's really only 1.1%. At a true 60mph, you speedo will read 59.4mph. This bump in tire/rim size is known as a "Plus-1" size. It's a sure way to avoid tire rub, trans shifting issues from a too-tall or too-small a tire size and it shouldn't really have any effect on fuel economy.

Hope that helps...

[avytouring]

Tom thats a awful lot of info you provided many thanks
well all i meant in my earlier post is that i sure would like bigger tires on my avalon if it doesnt interefere with driving or manouvering.

I didnt know that with the existing rims (17inch) i can go for a bigger 18 inch tire.

ideally i would like the rims and tires the same size. so as per you 18 inch tires/rims wont dramatically alter the look of the vehicle so would you suggest 19 inch rims and tires ?

what would be the aprox cost of going for this? will the exisiting TPMS still work with the bigger tires or would i need to buy a diff set of pressure sensors

thanks
Avy

[jimhuey]

This site has an excellent tire/wheel size calculator.
http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

[avytouring]

Thank you Jim that tire calculator does make it very clear . im interested to know which config would achieve best results in terms of good looks , handling and keeping the price manageable

what config do most people usually go for looking at the above parameters?

[Tom in Tacoma]

Originally Posted by avytouring

Tom thats a awful lot of info you provided many thanks
well all i meant in my earlier post is that i sure would like bigger tires on my avalon if it doesnt interefere with driving or manouvering.

I didnt know that with the existing rims (17inch) i can go for a bigger 18 inch tire.

ideally i would like the rims and tires the same size. so as per you 18 inch tires/rims wont dramatically alter the look of the vehicle so would you suggest 19 inch rims and tires ?

what would be the aprox cost of going for this? will the exisiting TPMS still work with the bigger tires or would i need to buy a diff set of pressure sensors

thanks
Avy

STOP!!!!!!

Go back and reread what I said. I never said you can put an 18" tire on a 17" rim - that's impossible.

I'm not trying to dis ya here but it sounds like you might best be served by going to a tire shop and having a discussion with one of the staff. That way you can have a back-and-forth Q&A.

[avytouring]

quoting from your previous message


You say you want bigger tires and you said that you wanted to go to 18" tires. Keeping that in mind - you can put bigger tires on your 17" rims and you can go with 18" rims yet stay with the same size tire (albeit one with an 18" hole in it).

in any case i wasnt going to do a mismatch of tires and rims as evident in my reply to your message.

Ill take your suggestion and talk to a tire guy
thanks

[Tom in Tacoma]

Correct. You can put wider or taller tires on your current rims. But you can't put an 18" tire on a 17" rim.

If you felt that by my saying you can put a larger tire on your current rims I meant you can put an 18" tire on them - it's for that very reason that I refer you to a tire shop to work out your needs. Again, I'm not trying to dis ya here, but I don't think you know enough about tires/tire sizing/rims/etc. to get the information you need through an online forum.

[avytouring]

Got it! since my entire focus is on getting bigger tires i assumed by u sayin bigger tires u were meaning bigger than 17 inch tires.

thanks
Avy