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Wheel size VS. vehicle speed

828 views 10 replies 7 participants last post by  wvince 
#1 ·
I'm having a dilemma with my 89 accord. It's an auto, and stock wheel/tire size is 195/60R14

When I got it on the road, I switched to the stock 02 civic wheels and tires: 185/65R15

I changed the wheels because the accord's tires were very dry rotted, and I don't have the money to get new ones on the 14's yet.

My dilemma:
I thought the size change would have affected my speed and odometer negatively, because that's a pretty decent increase. I've timed myself between mile markers on the highway and compared the odometer's distance. I've also checked against those digital radars in school zones (I know they're not that accurate). Everything checks out fine with my vehicle speed.

Why would everything show that it's dead on, unless there's a problem with the speed sensor in the transmission, or is the size difference really not that much?
 
#4 ·
yep i have just learned to live with it, my stock hx wheels were 185/65/14 and my speedo was off by 5-10mph depending on speed. with my 195/50/15 it seems to be out by 3-7mph now.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Bone- I want to, but I can't get tires on those wheels right now, and the ones on them I wouldn't trust over 20 mph. They're in bad shape.

Edit: I also didn't have the title or tags prior to that.

This is all very interesting, as my 91 civic had always been right on with the stock size. I guess I just assumed Honda had done better than that...
 
#8 ·
Heh, they did it on purpose. They knew people were going to upgrade, so they just accounted for it. ;)

Still, my 91 has been spot on since the day I got it.
 
#10 ·
Heh, they did it on purpose. They knew people were going to upgrade, so they just accounted for it. ;)
It was their way of fudging the mileage numbers... made it look like the cars were getting better fuel economy than they actually were. All the more reason to check the readings and adjust the tire size to get it right. If you can do it with wheels and tires you like better, then so be it!
 
#11 ·
I just did a similar thing on my wife's cr-v. same rim size but 1 size larger on width and side wall. Diameter is slightly larger and helps correct the speedo to actual speeds. Tires look better than stock and ride a little better also. I like them a lot.
Just go with it.

...and the tire chart link posted earlier is a valuable tool. Also try THIS
 
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