I was looking for a new set of highway tires the other day. I have a separate set of highway tires that I drive for every day use. The sales person I was talking to said instead of 205 60 R15 90V's I could put 215 55 R15 90V's on the same rim, the stock rims. At least I think I remembered that correctly. The way he explained it, I think, was that the circumference was the same but the tire was wider and the distance from the rim to the road was a little shorter. Is that right?

 

try this site:http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete...conversion.jsp or this one might explain..... http://www.discounttire.com/dtc/broc...lpDeskHome.jsp

that site should clear up alot of questions. just to let you know maybe next time you should do a little searching on the internet. hope this helps. get some great tires!! let us know which ones you got.

 

You're better off with 225/55 15 tires.

The salesman was right except that we usually talk about diameter instead of circumference, but the reason is the same. Your overall diameter needs to stay the same so that your speedo remains accurate. And yes, the distance from the rim to the road will be shorter - it's referred to as sidewall height. The sidewall height will be shorter than stock.

Having said all this, the salesman was slightly wrong. Your 215/55 tires will not be as accurate as 225/55. Your stock tires have a diameter of 24.7 inches. The 225/55 tires have a diameter of 24.7 inches whereas the 215 tires have a sidewall of 24.3 inches. The 215/55 tireswill cause the speedo to be off by 1.5 mph and your odometer will end up registering more miles (over time) than the car has actually traveled.

Hope this helps.

 

Yes, thanks guys, tat helped a lot. For some reason I was having trouble visualizing exactly how that worked. I've got it now.

 

The spec for the 2004 A4 1.8T indicates a tire of 215 55R15. Could this be the actual tire that came with your car originally?

 

I'm pretty sure it came with 205 60 R15's. It's been a while since I've seen those, they are in storage on my factory rims rill winter. That actally was my only complaint with my car when I bought it. Lousy rubber from the factory. Well, not that bad, but not nearly the kind of tire I would have expected on that car.

 

I am in the market for a set of tire as well. Have you done your homework? Which tire brand and model will you be buying? I am looking at getting Dunlop A2 because of the price (CDN$100each) but I read so many negative comments on this tire. I may get Yokohama AVS db tire instead. What do you think?