OEM 215/40/17 and 255/40/17 sizes using Continental ExtremeContact DW tires?

[Blue Batmobile]

Oh! I have a question. I see 255/40/17s vs 245/40/17s. Will I have any rubbing issues with bilstein shocks and 25mm h&r spacers if I went with a 255 vs a 245?

Bat

 

[nsxtasy]

Oh! I have a question. I see 255/40/17s vs 245/40/17s. Will I have any rubbing issues with bilstein shocks and 25mm h&r spacers if I went with a 255 vs a 245?

Don't you already have the 17"/17" wheels and tires? Don't they have 255/40-17 on the rears already?

 

[Blue Batmobile]

The car was in the shop getting a new 02 sensor put in. There are aftermarket tires on there now. I just realized after reading further the rears come in 255. Thanks though.

Bat

 

[nsxtasy]

:wink:

 

[Cap'n Carl]

Wow, there's a lot of tire knowledge here. But it seems like the more I read, the more choices I have to make; getting a little overwhelmed. I'm buying a '93 with worn out tires. The fronts are 225/45/16 Yokohama A520's. The backs are 275/40/17 Yokohama AVS's. My needs are similar to the op's: I'll never track the car, but probably never drive it in rain (I live in Phoenix). For me, getting a few extra miles and saving a few $ are more important to me than the highest lateral g's. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[nsxtasy]

Wow, there's a lot of tire knowledge here. But it seems like the more I read, the more choices I have to make; getting a little overwhelmed. I'm buying a '93 with worn out tires. The fronts are 225/45/16 Yokohama A520's. The backs are 275/40/17 Yokohama AVS's. My needs are similar to the op's: I'll never track the car, but probably never drive it in rain (I live in Phoenix). For me, getting a few extra miles and saving a few $ are more important to me than the highest lateral g's. Any advice would be appreciated.

Gee whiz, tires that are mismatched AND crappy AND the wrong size too - there's a big red flag on how poorly the previous owner is maintaining the car!

If you buy the car anyway, follow the recommendations for longer-lasting summer tires mentioned in this previous post in this topic:

Sure!

First of all, you don't have to use the exact stock tire sizes on the stock 16"/17" wheels, especially since the front size is an "oddball" size with relatively few choices. Any of these combinations can be mounted on those wheels and will be fine on the NSX, including the proper operation of the TCS:

205/45-16 front and 245/40-17 rear
215/45-16 front and 245/40-17 rear (stock)
215/45-16 front and 255/40-17 rear

Before I continue, I will be deliberately specific with my tire references. So you'll know exactly which Kumho tire I'm talking about, and which of the two Dunlop Direzza tires I'm talking about. I'll also assume that you won't be using these tires in snow or bitter cold, so you can get summer tires rather than all-season tires.

Since you care about tread life and about rain traction, I would suggest avoiding the "extreme performance summer tires", whose treadlife is relatively short and (particularly with the Kumho Ecsta XS) are not the best in rain. And there are NO tires in the category of "maximum performance summer tires" in any of these combinations of sizes. So therefore you will be looking at the "ultra high performance summer tire" category. They won't grip quite as well as your current Bridgestones, but they will last longer and the performance is still reasonably good. (If that's a problem, note that the OEM Bridgestones are still available.)

Here are your 16"/17" choices in ultra high performance summer tires, along with current Tire Rack prices for a set of four tires:

$486 Bridgestone Potenza RE760 Sport 205/45R16 245/40R17
$376 Dunlop Direzza DZ101 205/45ZR16 245/40ZR17
$474 Dunlop Direzza DZ101 215/45ZR16 245/40ZR17
$474 Dunlop Direzza DZ101 215/45ZR16 255/40ZR17
$382 Fuzion ZRi 205/45R16 245/40R17
$360 General Exclaim UHP 205/45R16 245/40ZR17
$660 Michelin Pilot Exalto PE2 205/45ZR16 245/40ZR17
$304 Sumitomo HTR Z II 205/45ZR16 245/40ZR17

The PE2 is the best of this group, but it's obviously considerably more expensive than the others. The RE760 is the second best, and you'll save almost $200 on it. Of the remaining tires, the ZRi is better than the DZ101 or the UHP, and it isn't any more money, so if you don't want to spend for the PE2 or the RE760, then get the ZRi and don't bother looking at the others. I don't recommend the Sumitomo at all.

The Tire Rack has a side-by-side comparison test of the PE2 and the RE760 (click here); the ZRi isn't in that test but overall it's similar to the S.drive which is included there.

HTH - feel free to ask more questions!

 

[Cap'n Carl]

Excellent advice, thank you. I plan to go with a 215 front and a 255 rear, if the rear rims aren't too wide. Maybe 265 if the rim needs it. In the future, I'll probably go to 17/17 or 17/18 rims, too. Much better tire selection. Given a 17" front, which size rear is preferred?

And there are some other signs the car hasn't received the best of care. I'm getting it for pretty cheap, so I'll be spending some major bucks to fix it up.

 

[nsxtasy]

I plan to go with a 215 front and a 255 rear, if the rear rims aren't too wide.

My advice would be to FIRST decide on what tire you want, and THEN see what sizes it comes in. Otherwise (as you can see from the choices I've listed above) you're going to be forcing yourself to get the Dunlop DZ101, which is neither the best performing tire nor the best value. There are better choices, as you can see, even though they involve other size pairs. Remember, tread width is NOT the biggest factor in how well a tire performs; the biggest factor is the make/model of tire as reflected in its design.

Maybe 265 if the rim needs it.

That's too wide for the stock 17" rear wheels.

In the future, I'll probably go to 17/17 or 17/18 rims, too. Much better tire selection.

Actually, there's plenty of tire selection in 16"/17" sizes. I've only listed the longer-lasting summer tires, and as you can see there are six different makes/models of tires. There are also plenty of choices available in extreme performance tires (if you want better traction and you don't mind spending more money for tires that don't last as long as the above), as well as in all-season tires (if you plan to use the tires in snow and/or extreme cold as well as in moderate to warm temperatures). The only tire category in which 16"/17" availability is a problem is R compound tires for the racetrack.

But if you want to go for 17"/17" or 17"/18" wheels and tires, by all means do so. Just don't do it based only on tire availability.

Given a 17" front, which size rear is preferred?

You can go 17" (255/40-17) or 18" (255/35-18 or 265/35-18). I wouldn't say that any one of these is necessarily preferred more than the others.

 

[Blue Batmobile]

I'm gonna order these while my car is in the shop .

Bat

 

[TURBO2GO]

I'll probably go to 17/17 or 17/18 rims, too. Much better tire selection. Given a 17" front, which size rear is preferred?

Your car's fronts are already 17". It's a 2003.

Ken, I know the car he is buying, and it is not a car that was "not taken care of". I know its history. It was an issue where tires had to go on quickly and that is all that was available for the car at the time. Yes not ideal and the owner knew it. It wasn't because the car was not cared for. It was cared for really well actually.

 

[Cap'n Carl]

Your car's fronts are already 17". It's a 2003.

Ken, I know the car he is buying, and it is not a car that was "not taken care of". I know its history. It was an issue where tires had to go on quickly and that is all that was available for the car at the time. Yes not ideal and the owner knew it. It wasn't because the car was not cared for. It was cared for really well actually.

It's a 1993.

 

[TURBO2GO]

My bad then, I apologize. Strange how you and the other have the same tires.

 

[angus]

Wow , just tried these on a 05 TL - very nice ride, quiet and fairly sticky too - can't believe the price is this good on contis.

 

[dansplan]

I currently have ContiSportContact 3's all around. Anyone go from these to the DW's or DWS'? My setup is 18/17 and I just need back tires for now. I remember the CSC3's were a bit noisy at first, but I can't fault the stickiness.

 

[nsxtasy]

I think the Continental ExtremeContact DW is taking over the slot vacated by the now-discontinued Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3: a longer-lasting summer tire that is significantly less expensive than, but similar in performance to, the best "max performance" tires on the market, and available in sizes to fit many of our NSXs. (In Tire Rack testing, the overall scores for the DW were virtually identical to those of the Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 and the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric.)

 

[SaskNSX]

Question for Nsxtasy. Will 205/40/17 and 245/40/17 be a reasonable setup on a 1991-1993 NSX. There are more tire choices in this size.

 

[W]

Question for Nsxtasy. Will 205/40/17 and 245/40/17 be a reasonable setup on a 1991-1993 NSX. There are more tire choices in this size.

I'm not Nxstasy but I don't see an issue with the proposed setup.

 

[nsxtasy]

Question for Nsxtasy. Will 205/40/17 and 245/40/17 be a reasonable setup on a 1991-1993 NSX. There are more tire choices in this size.

I would stick with 215/40-17 and 255/40-17. There are plenty of choices of excellent tires in those sizes, no matter what kind of tires you prefer. If you want the stickiest street tires you can get, the Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec and the Yokohama Advan Neova AD08 are both available in those sizes. If you want tires that will last a little bit longer and will still perform well, although not quite as grippy as the other two, consider the Continental ExtremeContact DW. All three of these tires currently have rebate offers on them ($50 on the Dunlop, $75 on the Yokohama, and a GPS on the Continental). If you want a less expensive tire and you don't mind giving up some significant performance in exchange for the lower price, you can also get the Fuzion ZRi or Yokohama S.drive in these sizes as well. There's no reason to get tires narrower than 215/40-17 and 255/40-17 (which are the stock sizes for the '02-05 NSX).

 

[RJPKRP]

Alright,

Now that I have about 1000 miles on the Continental ExtremeContact DW, I must say that overall I am pleased with them In fact, yesterday I put about 400 miles on them.....



.....and I must say that they are a very quiet tire. I haven't given up anything grip wise from the Potenza RE010 that I took off of the car. They were comfortable and quiet on the road, transmitting very little road noise.

I'm really pleased and impressed with the tire, especially at its price point. As I have only had the RE010 on the NSX and no other tire I can only compare the two. However, I'd highly recommend the Continental EC-DW as a very capable inexpensive replacement street tire with comparable (or better) performance to the RE010.

 

[radtekmr]

I had the 17" OEM setup on my 98T for about a month. I was on 18-19 before. I went with the ECDWs.

I agreed 110% with RJPKRP's description of the ECDWs.