So I know there have been posts about going with 17" tires and the size needed to not mess with the speedo. But what if I want to keep the tires with the same amount of "tire" so to speak as 16s. Basically I don't want to affect my ride comfort or tread depth - I would just re-program the PCM to adjust the speedo.

This being said, what size for 17" in tires would I want to get?

I have 235/55/17 with no rubbing issues at all. My speedo shows 58.7mph when I am going 60 as per an internet calculator, so I am 2% off. If you went with 225/55/17 you would be .4% off so you would show 59.7mph when actually going 60. This is as close as you can come. As for my ride, I could not tell the difference. If you kept the 225/60 and went with 17s, you would gain almost an inch in diameter, and would most likely rub badly. Some say go with 245/50 but your ride would suffer some and those 245 would not navigate WI snow very well.
http://www.1010tires.com/TireSizeCalculator.asp?action=submit

I have dedicated snow tires and now I am buying summer tires. The rims I am thinking of buying only come in 17" so that is why I asked the question. My snow tires are on my stock rims so I never had to look into it before.

235/55/17 sounds like the way to go though, thanks.

EDIT* I just checked on tire rack and the tires I am looking at only come in 235/50/17 . . . could someone break down what each of the numbers means so I actually understand what is changing from size to size?

When I actually clicked on the 17" size for '02 GP GTP on tire rack they recommend 225/55-17 . . will those work?

does this help?

broken link mood man.

okay lanky, i have broken it down before in previous threads, you also would have found the same answers there. anyways, moving on.

tire sizes come in xxx/yy/zz

xxx is the width of the tire in millimeters.
yy is the height of the sidewall in a percentage of the width of the tire. so, for example, if you have an xxx of 225, and your yy is 50, that means your sidewall height is 50% of 225 mm.
zz is the size of rim the tire is designed for, 15", 16", 17" etc.

The yy is what most ppl get confused about. This is what you need to look at most importantly because you need the right aspect ratio to keep your outside diameter of the tire as close to stock as possible, unless you want it bigger for some reason.

now, I might as well explain offset to you as well. Offset (which on 97-03 GP's are between +38 - +45) is how far the mounting face of the rim is infront or behind the centreline of the rim. Now offset is important because of clearance reasons. The higher the offset the closer the rim is to the rotors. Too high an offset and there isn't going to be enough clearance for the rim and tire to roll freely without rubbing anything. Too low an offset and the rim and tire are going to stick out and possibly rub on the fender.

Tirerack is going to recommend stock tire width which is why they recommend 225. For summer tires, you don't want stock, stock is ewwy. You want 235's or 245's (i'd say go with 245, but thats just my opinion). Now i'm still not sure if you want the same sidewall height as stock or not because you settled on 235/55 which has a diff sidewall height. STOCK sidewall height is 135 mm (yy% of xxx, 60% of 225 mm). The sidewall height on the 235/55 is 129 mm. Now yes, it's only 6 mm, but its really 12 mm because you have to add it to the top and bottom, so it is quite substantial. Now if you want the SAME SIDEWALL HEIGHT AS STOCK you have to go with a 245/55/17 tire. These both have 135 mm sidewalls. I'd say go with 245. To sum it up, 245/55/17 will give you same sidewall height but will make the O.D of the tire quite a bit larger so you will need to fix ur speedo accordingly. OR you can go with 245/50/17 and not have to fix anything, it will be the exact size as stock pretty much, 0.1% difference.

never seen that before. thats pretty cool

am I the only one that sees a broken link? n/m, firewall blocks it.

Alrighty, that makes a lot more sense now - thank you for breaking that down for me. (I did do a search and looked through a lot of threads and did not find that info, sorry) At any rate - what would be some good tires to get at one of those sizes without spending a fortune? When I select those sizes on tire rack I barely have any tires to choose from and they are either terrible tires or extremely expensive.

go on ebay and look at Nexen N3000's. I got them, love them, and they're sexxi
245 17's are hard to find. How wide is your rim? If its 8" you could even go 255. Here are 4 Nankangs 255/45/17 for 252$
4 Goodyear Eagle\'s 235/55/17
Never heard of these before but they look alright, Runway Enduros 245/45/17 for 240$
Any my fav\'s, 2 Nexen n3000\'s 245/45/17 for 137$

I think what moodman and R.S. posted is FAQ material!!!

The 4 Nankangs I listed is what I would recommend you go with IF the rims you are looking at are 8" wide.

If 17x6.5" means that they are only 6.5" wide then those would not work for me. Here are the rims I like the best so far:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/17-Pontia...5789QQtcZphot o

And also . . if I understood what you said earlier . . then the smaller the sidewall is the more bumpy the ride would be. So going with those Nexen 3000's a is a big size decrease on the sidewall from stock right? How much of a difference will that make?

How about these?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1-P-Zero-...p3756.m20.l1116

Those are $100 below what they are on every other site and those are a nice size - almost no decrease on sidewall size. I just want to confirm that those will fit fine without rubbing, and my PCM will have to be adjusted then too right?

TWO THINGS:

ONE) basically, you want to keep the same outside diameter of the tire, if you increase rim size and stay with same size tire its going to be 1 inch larger and its goin to look funny. I believe an increase that large would probobly put more stress on half-shafts and cv joints as well because of the angle increase. The sidewall difference isn't going to affect ur ride comfort like night and day. you know what I mean? it's not going to feel like your car is leaving orbit. Just when you hit a pothole, you'll notice it more. BUT at the same time if you increase ur tire OD by an inch, then when u hit a pothole ur going to rub and hear a big clunk when ur tire hits. So you might as well just get the smaller sidewall and not fiddle with ur speedo.

AND TWO) Those are $700 rims that are stock.... besides the chrome aspect. You can buy aftermarket rims that will give your car a unique look for $350. P.S - you don't want 6.5" rims if ur going anything above 225. And are you searching for pontiac rims on ebay? you can use any rim as long as they are the right offset and 5x115 or 5x114.3. Just so you know.

AND THREE) I know i said two things but i thought i'd spice it up a little! Those tires you listed for 175...1) its ugly lol, 2) its just for 1 tire. so thats 175 x 4 + 4 x shipping costs. The nankangs I listed were 252$ for ALL 4 Tires.

Now, its ur car, its ur money, I dont want to persuade you from ur decision but if I were you, i would find some nice aftermarket rims of ur choice, whether they be bullits or whatever style you like in 17x8 with 5x114.3 or 115 with 38-45 offset. AND get those 255/45/17 Nankangs. This will give u a nice wide tire with lots of grip and a very close to stock OD with plenty of sidewall. All together you'll pay about 250 for tires plus roughly 50 shipping, with about 400 in rims and 100 in shipping. A very nice wide custom rim and tire set up SHIPPED for about 800-850 bucks. Can't beat that. I say this because right now, if you got the rims u posted (700+shipping) with the tires u posted (175+shipping x 4 = 700+shipping) you're looking at 1400 not including shipping. Not to mention, the rims ur looking at are only 6.5", 245's won't mount on those, 235's will just barely, prob not too safe though if you took a corner at higher speeds, they could buckle. Thats my 0.02 but DON'T LET ME PERSUADE YOU!! I just don't want you to waste money by buying something that won't be safe or work.

What does everyone think of these rims?

http://www.discountedwheelwarehouse.com/Store_Detail.cfm?ID=148482&InfoID=2505&ShowLarge=True

And these:

http://www.discountedwheelwarehouse.com/Store_Detail.cfm?ID=148994&InfoID=2505&ShowLarge=True

Not a fan of either of them but I think they would both look alright on your ride.

Though if I had to choose, I'd say the second one.

BTW, my dad is no longer letting me use his (read "rented") shop. That means all my crap has to leave there and go to my gf's garage.

Until I can get some dough, I don't have a jack or jackstands to work on our cars.

So the brake job is going to have to wait...

Lanky, I LOVE the deep dish on those first ones but those screw in center caps make it look like something you win from a 25 cent game at a toy store. I would go with the second ones if I had to choose between the two. Im guessing you like the 5 spoke look? Do some ebay searches for ADR rims, they are a good name on ebay, and cheap. I have posted somewhere a few links to some ebay stores, i'll try and find that. Also, what tire size are you looking to go with? 255? 245? 235? Well, 255's will fit on a 7" rim, the rule of the thumb is the tire width should be no larger than 4" wider then the rims width. So, 255 is 10". Those rims are 7" so a 255 would fit but an 8" would be best.

EDIT: Here's some 17" ADR wheels.

Here's some bullits if you are like the rest and like them. I think those would look really nice with the ur colour of paint because they have a sparkly gray tinge to then, I know what colour ur car is, my parents car is that colour.

i have found a set of 18x8 voxx rims for 389.99, im getting them next week, ive also found some decent tires for 70 bucks a peice the rims and nice too, might not be chrome but are very good looking. here is a link

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1-NEW-18x...emZ220177741430


they are making a custom order of 4 for me for 389.99

389 including tires? those are nice rims man, can't beat that.

nope, 389 is a pretty good price, most 18's brand new cost ya around 500-600 or sometimes more, so 389 is like a give away. haha

well i only payed 350 for my gloss black 18's with a chrome lip but they are a 10 bolt Still nice though, what rubbers are you putting on them?

Yokohama AVID W4S pretty good tires from what i hear, tires and moutin and rims is gonna cost me around 600, but not bad for some nice rims and good tires.

wont 17 make your speedo off

no, if u keep ur outside diameter the same it wont.