The Complete Lowdown on Car Tire Sizes
Finding out the size of your tires that were installed as original parts of your car is easy enough. You just have to consult your car’s owner manual. The thing is though; systems of tire sizing have changed over the last few decades. If you want to view charts containing a list of tire size codes that were used during the older days and comparable sizes in present time, you may want to try your luck at your local tire shops. The shops probably have those charts on hand.
Whatever it is, you want to make sure you get the correct size tires for your vehicle. Do not just go out and buy tires randomly. Inaccurate sizing may lead to hazardous consequences. A friend of mine bought a set of tires that were too big for his Honda and he experienced problems with his vehicle’s steering handling and suspension. But it’s not a completely bad thing to remove tires that are narrow and substituting them with a set of tires that possess more width. That’s what I did recently and my car’s braking and traction improved quite significantly as a result.
Usually wheels with larger diameter go well with tires that are bigger, so your vehicle might not experience compatibility issue. As long as the functionalities of your car’s suspension as well as steering aren’t affected by the new tire and wheel combo, then you’re all set. The majority of cars have tires with identical width installed in the front and rear. Avoid installing a single or multiple tires of a different size on such cars. Doing so will mess up their handling performance.
Coding Marks
Take a good look at the sidewall of each tire. On this part, you should be able to see embossed coding marks containing some info on the tire along with its performance ratings. Currently, we utilized systems comprising of U.S. standard measurements as well as metric. There’s a good chance that the coding might not be the same with tires that are older. So if your car is equipped with older tires and they need to be replaced, then you should pay a visit to your nearest tire shop – not just to buy a brand new set of tires, but also to ascertain the correct replacement size under the current measurement system. Also note that the tire shop is not the only place to obtain the necessary info, you can also consult a car dealership service department. They should be able to help you out.
Metric Tire Sizing
Right now, I’m looking at a brand new tire which I plan to install on my wife’s car tomorrow. See on the tire right here? There’s a bunch of numbers and a couple of letters: P225/75R-15.
These are the numbers and letters on the tire. What the heck do they mean? Okay, let’s begin with the letter “P” at the beginning. The letter P actually stands for passenger car. You see, if this was a spare tire, the letter T would be at the beginning instead of P, okay? Next to the letter P is a set of three numbers “225”, which indicates the width of the tire, from one sidewall to the next. The measurement is in millimeters, by the way.
Okay, right after the dash, you see the number “75.” That’s basically, the tire’s aspect ratio. Next to the number 75, we see the letter “R.” The letter R here denotes the term radial-ply, which is one of the three basic types of tire structural compositions. The other compositions are bias-ply or “D” and bias-belted or “B”. To learn more about these tire structural compositions, please read this article. Now we have the final number to identify which is “15.” That’s the diameter measured in inches.
Well, there you go! It’s easy to read right? I hope you find this article informative and helpful. I’ll be adding similarly informative articles on this site soon. Thanks for taking the time to read this piece. If you prefer to watch a video concerning this subject, then please view the following:
Okay, right after the dash, you see the number “75.” That’s basically, the tire’s aspect ratio. Next to the number 75, we see the letter “R.” The letter R here denotes the term radial-ply, which is one of the three basic types of tire structural compositions. The other compositions are bias-ply or “D” and bias-belted or “B”. To learn more about these tire structural compositions, please read this article. Now we have the final number to identify which is “15.” That’s the diameter measured in inches.
Well, there you go! It’s easy to read right? I hope you find this article informative and helpful. I’ll be adding similarly informative articles on this site soon. Thanks for taking the time to read this piece. If you prefer to watch a video concerning this subject, then please view the following:
