Tires

[redwog]

Any Suggestions on new tires? I have to pick up a 2005 in Flordia in a couple of weeks and might have the dealer I bought it from put new tires on - got well over 1000 road trip to get er home!
I typically would buy Michelin But open to suggestions!
Thanks
Ted

[My Raven]

Re: Tires

Factory standard were Michelin's which is what I replaced on Suzy.

As FoMoCo selected the tire at the time of build I selected the same for replacement.

JMHO.

[redwog]

Re: Tires

<P>Thanks Raven</P>
<P>I thought that might be the case for most - Im like you if FoMoCo used&nbsp; them why change - Quality is Quality </P>
<P>Thanks </P>
<P>TG</P>
<P></P>

[justjon]

Re: Tires

Would FOMOCO choose the best tire suited to the car or would they choose a compromise of price, availability, or other "company" factors that I can only guess at?

I really would like to buy the BEST tires suited for this car, not having the benifit of FOMOCO for assistance We have an even better source ... US. I would like the opinions from those maybe few of us (not me, by the way) with the knowledge to really make an unbiased and educated choice of which tires provide the very best in ride and performance. I would also like to know what is the best size to buy them in. Thanks for your consideration to this dilema

[joe166]

Re: Tires

Would FOMOCO choose the best tire suited to the car or would they choose a compromise of price, availability, or other "company" factors that I can only guess at?

I really would like to buy the BEST tires suited for this car, not having the benifit of FOMOCO for assistance We have an even better source ... US. I would like the opinions from those maybe few of us (not me, by the way) with the knowledge to really make an unbiased and educated choice of which tires provide the very best in ride and performance. I would also like to know what is the best size to buy them in. Thanks for your consideration to this dilema

I don't think that many (if any) of the posters on this site have the technical capabilities to do what you say you want. I think I can answer your last question, though. You should buy the size they came with or a near equivalent. There is a small margin for larger tires than the stock ones and I do not think I want to find out in the middle of a corner that I guessed wrong. There are various sites on the internet that will give you a conversion of different sizes. Here is one of them: http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html You can post our stock size and get what difference there is with another size (or vice versa). If you change the size very much, even if it fits, the speedometer and odometer will not be accurate. That is an annoyance. If you change the size a lot, you have a very real chance of interference in the tire well.

I had a Lincoln LS before this TBird and it used the same running gear with Firestone 235-50 x 17 tires. They wore like iron and were just fine but when the explorers started having supposed tire problems (most of which seem to have been caused by underinflation rather than any inherent flaw), and Fomoco got sued, they switched and they chose Michelin as the tire of choice. They work fine, but so do some Goodyear and other tires. I have had Firestones, Michelins, Goodyear F-1's and now a different size Michelin. They all worked just fine. There are lots of comments already on the forums about peoples favorite tires, but they are all just that...personal opinions. One rides better, one handles better, one makes more noise, one gives better mileage, etc etc. No one has done a scientific analysis. I would say that Michelin has a very good reputation, even if they are French, and Goodyear makes a good premium tire. Bridgestone makes good tires (and some very average ones), Pirelli has some good lines. You will probably be more restricted by the somewhat unusual size than by any brand preference. Go to TireRack.com and look up all the tires that are available in our size. The list is not huge.

[Leroy]

Re: Tires

I think when it comes time for me to buy tires for my car, I'm going to consider the whitewall tires. I think they really set off the classic style of these cars. Leroy

[04birdman]

Re: Tires

I too think i will go with white wall type tires when it come time to replace the orig....that in its self limits your choices to just a few makes and sizes

[justjon]

Re: Tires

My 235:50's only had about 20,000 miles on them but I gave them to the Tire store in return for mounting and balancing the new skins and aligning the front end.

I am very happy with the new tires and now my speedometer actually matches up with my GPS in tracking the miles per hour. It read about 3 miles slow with the shorter sidewall on the 50's.

I copied the above text from the "whitewall" discussion ..

[justjon]

Re: Tires

whoops .. the owner new tire are 55's "that look better in the wheell wells...' and correct the odometer/speedometer

That's what I'm asking about .. is this the correct tire size for these Birds?

[MikeB]

Re: Tires

whoops .. the owner new tire are 55's "that look better in the wheell wells...' and correct the odometer/speedometer

That's what I'm asking about .. is this the correct tire size for these Birds?

Jon,

I don't know if the 55's are the right size but they're a little wider (1/2 inch, I think) and fill the wheel wells a little better. Just bought four Michelins that were 55's instead of 50's and had white walls put on them as well.

[ShadowDragon]

Re: Tires

Jon,

I don't know if the 55's are the right size but they're a little wider (1/2 inch, I think) and fill the wheel wells a little better. Just bought four Michelins that were 55's instead of 50's and had white walls put on them as well.

235's are 9.25inches wide. The second number stands for what percentage of the width the sidewall is. So 235 50's are 4.625 inches and 235 55's are 5.0875 inches, which is just about half an inch so you are correct! :)

[joe166]

Re: Tires

235's are 9.25inches wide. The second number stands for what percentage of the width the sidewall is. So 235 50's are 4.625 inches and 235 55's are 5.0875 inches, which is just about half an inch so you are correct! :)

That is right but the width only matters on whether there is possible interference in the wheel well. What matters is circumference of the tire. If it is too different from the stock tires the speedometer will not read true. That is what those sites can compute for you. Put in the size you are considering and compare them to our stock tires which are 235x50x17 and look at the difference. If it is 10% different that will be the error on the speedo. 2 to 3 % is negligible. I have that now. That is a couple of miles an hour at highway speeds. No big deal to me.

[ShadowDragon]

Re: Tires

To get circumference just add the result of the math of the second number (twice) to the third number which is what those sites do. I'm thinking about getting 55's when I get tires to make up for the 2-3% which mine is off with the stock 50's.

[justjon]

Re: Tires

SOOOOO . You are saying that we all should be buying 55's becaus,that is the size that the speedometr / odometer is actualy calibrated to? So FOMOCO chose a wrong size and maybe type of tire due to ..???? whatever ?? Firestone... price.... ???

[ShadowDragon]

Re: Tires

I've read on here that people have found the 55's making the speedometer/odometer correct and I've noticed my speedometer is off by about 2-3% according to my GPS which would confirm their findings.