New MR2 owner with tyre/wheel questions

[BRG_MR2]

Hello everybody,

I recently bought a 1995 rev3 MR2. It's fitted with aftermarket wheels (KRS Racing Monoblock 17x7) and the current tyres need replacing - one of the fronts is badly worn and there's quite a lot of vibration at anything over 70. The tyres that are currently fitted are 215/40 on the front and 225/45 on the back. I could do with some advice about which new tyres to get, so I have a few questions if you'll indulge me. I'm a bit of a newb to all this so forgive me if some of this seems pretty basic.

1) Am I right in thinking that the rear tyres are too large and that 225/40 would be a better fit? 225/40 on 17 inch wheels certainly seems to be a closer match to the stock size of 225/50 (I believe) on 15 inch wheels.

2) The rears are only 10mm wider than the fronts. Am I right in thinking that ideally there should be a bigger difference? The wheels are all 7" wide so I don't think I can go wider than 225 on the back, so would getting narrower tyres on the front (205?) be a good idea?

3) Bearing the above questions in mind, can you give me any advice on some good tyres to get? I'm not looking for anything super expensive right now so a good budget tyre would be a good suggestsion. I'm not going to be doing any track days or anything like that, just the occasional bit of motorway driving at the moment. I can upgrade to something a bit better later on so suggestions for some higher quality tyres would be welcome too.

4) I also have the original 15 inch stock wheels. Right now they're basically acting as a "stylish" coffee table, but is it worth putting these to more use? Perhaps having a set of winter tyres fitted to them so I can swap them if required? Or is the choice of tyres for 15 inch wheels pretty limited?

5) Finally, the front left has a slow leak and needs pumping up every few days. Is this likely to be the tyre? Or is it worth getting the wheel looked at at the same time as the tyre change too?

Anyway, despite the rubbish tyres I'm really enjoying the car so far and look forward to driving it every day

[SonicSW20]

1. 235/40 would be ideal on a 17 (is a larger radius than stock though), but as you said, this is a bit too wide for a 7J really. A 225/40 would be fine.

2. I'd always want a 20mm stagger or higher. 205/40 is fine for the front.

3. Do you have a rough budget in mind? There's a lot of decent mid range options, but that depends on what you define as mid range!

4. Unless you're putting winter tyres on them, I wouldn't bother.

5. Probably.

Another thing to bear in mind - what are the offsets of your wheels? As you're running the same width wheel all round, it may be beneficial to run a spacer at the rear as the stock setup is staggered, and aftermarket ones really should be as well.

[BRG_MR2]

Thanks for the reply.

As for budget, I was thinking around £200 - £300, but I don't know how realistic it is to get anything "decent" for that price. But I don't want to splash out too much as I might look to get some new (staggered) wheels next year and new tyres again. Basically I just want something that's "good enough" for the current wheels for now and that will keep me out of trouble.

Having a quick look on Google, it looks like the offset is 42mm, but I don't know anything about these wheels really. The guy I bought it off said there were spacers on there as he'd had the wheels off to fit new brake pads, but I haven't had the wheels off myself and I don't know what size the alleged spacers are.

[SonicSW20]

Just realised - 225/40R17 doesn't actually exist as a tyre size! So that's why you have 224/45R17.

Have a look at the Uniroyal Rainsport 3 - definitely one of the better budget choices, ideal for every day use. Should be within budget

[abovetherim]

I put a set of Uniroyal Rainsport 3 on my saab and loved em. So i just bought some for the front of my mr2 and i thought i'd try rain expert on my panda. For the money i've been most impressed.

I got mine from camskill........ cheap.....check em out they have 225 40 17 and 205 40 17 in Uniroyal.

[TonyleFrog]

I got mine from camskill........ cheap.....check em out they have 225 40 17 and 205 40 17 in Uniroyal.

Not according to this - http://www.camskill.co.uk/m54b2829s0p0/ ... in_Sport_3_-
Only in 45 profile.

[SonicSW20]

Indeed. 225/40R17's don't exist anywhere, with any brand.