Replacing the stock tires soon, what should I get?

[Raza Waqif]

Greetings y'all! I am a complete noob when it comes to knowledge about tires. I'm currently running on the stock set of Firestones that the 2015 S+ comes with and am coming up on 40k miles, 5k mine and 35k the previous owners. I have begun to notice why people on this forum give the stock tires title of "Craptastic"... My uncle's 98 IS300 rides smoother, and he hasn't replaced those tires in years!

Anywho, I'm looking around for a tire that fits what I need: I live in Houston so it needs to do well in hot weather and rain. 80% of the roads here do not match, so they need to hold up if they come into contact with bumps and variations in the road at 40+mph. I am a fan of the low-profile look of the current tires, so nothing too big (but I am open minded about this). I don't need extreme smoothness (I do prefer some amount of feedback to the steering wheel) but I do want to cut down on how much noise transfers to the cabin because, at the moment, playing music at a volume level of 30 only drowns out like 60% of the total noise!

My research is leaning towards either Toyo Proxes or Continental PureContact; but I don't have much info to go on so I'd love some input from y'all since a lot of you seem to know what you're talking about! I would really appreciate it!

 

[Chris Denton]

Are you just upgrading the tires, no rims?
I'm at least going +2 from the stock 16" LE rims. Looking at Enkei Kojin 18x8 or the Strada Calore 18x8 and I'll probably stick with Goodyear or something that Costco has lol.

 

[Chris Denton]

Might even go with the TRD 18x8's, but I'm leaning towards the Strada's!

 

[Chris Denton]

 

[TheDrainnoodle]

For tires get BFGoodrich GeForce Comp 2 All Seasons. They are incredible! A HUGE improvement over whatever comes with the car from the factory.

 

[Michael Korologos]

Im probably going with Enkei Rajin (TSW nurburgring, sparco pro corsa) (all look pretty close to the HRE FF01 from the Sema rolla in 15. and probably michelin pilot sport. Here is my post from TN about this topic. http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/3...4-scion-im-2016/1405970-let-s-talk-tires.html

 

[Chris Denton]

So the real question is, black or silver?
My Corolla is slate metallic so I think I'm going to go with silver. Dark car light wheels.

 

[rk97]

I drive a lot. On the highway. In a straight line.

I bought the cheapest no-name tires I could find. I swear it was less than $250 installed for all 4... They've been great. What tire you need really depends on how you drive, and what you expect.

I need round black all-season tires that have a decent tread life (which is highly impacted by how you drive). If you're planning to autocross your car, then you have a real decision. otherwise, round. Black. all-season.

 

[ToyBoy]

Yes rk97 , I agree, round and black. They work 100 times better than the square ones.

 

[Raza Waqif]

I drive a lot. On the highway. In a straight line.

I bought the cheapest no-name tires I could find. I swear it was less than $250 installed for all 4... They've been great. What tire you need really depends on how you drive, and what you expect.

I need round black all-season tires that have a decent tread life (which is highly impacted by how you drive). If you're planning to autocross your car, then you have a real decision. otherwise, round. Black. all-season.

I do about a 50/50 combination of straight highway and turn-based city. Spirited (but smart) driving.

 

[Raza Waqif]

View attachment 1983

Depends on how much I have by 40-45k miles -- ideally, I'd like to replace wheels and rims as well. These Strada's look incredible, but can our cars go up to 18? My rolla has the stock 17inch steel alloy rims on it right now. What kind of issues would arise from going up to 18inch?

 

[Raza Waqif]

For tires get BFGoodrich GeForce Comp 2 All Seasons. They are incredible! A HUGE improvement over whatever comes with the car from the factory.

Wow, the reviews on these seem to really agree with what you're saying. I'll definitely be considering these, thanks!

 

[Raza Waqif]

So the real question is, black or silver?
My Corolla is slate metallic so I think I'm going to go with silver. Dark car light wheels.

I have slate metallic as well, it's a great color until you realize that it doesn't seem to match well with most others! I'm torn between silver or plastidip bronze.

 

[Chris Denton]

Depends on how much I have by 40-45k miles -- ideally, I'd like to replace wheels and rims as well. These Strada's look incredible, but can our cars go up to 18? My rolla has the stock 17inch steel alloy rims on it right now. What kind of issues would arise from going up to 18inch?

You can go +2 and keep the same wheel diameter. I want 18's cause the tires are easier to find. (at Costco lol)

 

[Chris Denton]

I know, looks very stock.

 

[Raza Waqif]

You can go +2 and keep the same wheel diameter. I want 18's cause the tires are easier to find. (at Costco lol)

Wait, wait, lemmie get this straight:

You can put 17inch diameter tires on an 18inch set of rims?? Wouldn't that cause some stretching? Or are there specific rims that can do that? Just want to confirm because I really, seriously don't know a thing about this when it comes to wheels. Lets say, hypothetically speaking, I picked up those Strada's you posted earlier and the set of BFGoodrich GeForce Comp 2 All Seasons that Drainnoodle recommended. That would work without any tweaking beyond balancing and rotation??

 

[Chris Denton]

No. You need 18" diameter tires for an 18" rim. What I'm saying is that due to the sidewall height, you can get the same overal wheel diameter. This will prevent the speedometer from being off. Example, my car has 16" rims and the tires are 205/55/16 so the overall wheel diameter is let's say 20".
If I buy 18" rims and install 245/45/18 tires, the overall wheel diameter would be roughly the same 20".
So I went plus 2" up on the rim and minus 2 on the sidewall. The middle number in the tire measurement is the sidewall height, measured in metric.
Hope this makes some sense.

 

[Raza Waqif]

No. You need 18" diameter tires for an 18" rim. What I'm saying is that due to the sidewall height, you can get the same overal wheel diameter. This will prevent the speedometer from being off. Example, my car has 16" rims and the tires are 205/55/16 so the overall wheel diameter is let's say 20".
If I buy 18" rims and install 245/45/18 tires, the overall wheel diameter would be roughly the same 20".
So I went plus 2" up on the rim and minus 2 on the sidewall. The middle number in the tire measurement is the sidewall height, measured in metric.
Hope this makes some sense.

Ahh, okay, that makes perfect sense -- the tradeoff to bigger rims is a smaller sidewall. I wasn't aware of what the numbers (205/55/16) meant either until you pointed it out. Thanks, I'll definitely have to figure out the numbers for the tires that I've taken a look at so far and figure out which rims I could get that would work with them and vice-versa. Very Helpful Award of 2016 goes to Chris!

 

[Chris Denton]

Ahh, okay, that makes perfect sense -- the tradeoff to bigger rims is a smaller sidewall. I wasn't aware of what the numbers (205/55/16) meant either until you pointed it out. Thanks, I'll definitely have to figure out the numbers for the tires that I've taken a look at so far and figure out which rims I could get that would work with them and vice-versa. Very Helpful Award of 2016 goes to Chris!

Lol!
With all that in mind, we could both go up to 19" without affecting the speedometer. (mine could be a little off) But I think xx/40/xx tires are really expensive! As the sidewall goes down, the price goes up!!

 

[Raza Waqif]

Lol!
With all that in mind, we could both go up to 19" without affecting the speedometer. (mine could be a little off) But I think xx/40/xx tires are really expensive! As the sidewall goes down, the price goes up!!

Hoh yeah, that's for sure. A cousin of mine had to sell some of his tires and rims that he used for track racing a Porche... the tires were incredibly thin and had were 100% smooth/no traction print... he sold them for a little over 1k tires!!! Of all things!!!