So I went to my local trustworthy (haha) ford/mazda lot and got some new tires. Only got 2 due to budget. Will get the other 2 in a few weeks. I had them install them in the rear. I haven't had time to do alot of research on tires so I went with what they had. Goodyear Eagle F1 supercar. Noticed the tires were a little wider but didn't really think anything about it. Drove home. Then later I had to go out and got to looking at the tires. They are 255/45/ZR18. The front tires are 225/45/R18. I also noticed the driver rear tire sits up higher in the wheel well than the passenger side does. Both new tires are the same. Double checked the size and branding. Could it be something with the suspension? I didn't notice this before they installed the new tires.

 

Your douchebag dealership completely messed up. Morons couldn't tell the difference between 225 and 255. Take it back on Monday and have them fix it.

They don't even make Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercars in 225/45/R18. And what were they charging you?

You didn't even have time to do research on here or TireRack? PT Barnum was certainly right...

 

The "45" is the aspect ratio of 225, so if you have a tyre wider than 225 with the same aspect ratio it will be larger in circumference .A 275-45-18 will be larger than the 255 and so on.

 

They charged me 309 installed.

 

PS. Here in Croatia,the Fuzz can write you up for having anything different than stock,the tyre size is on our registration papers.

 

I hope that was for two tires?

Go to www.tirerack.com and go through their tire wizard and see what's available so you can go back informed and tell them to match the TR price or beat it as they have totally screwed up. Or get something else out of them like a free oil change.

 

Yeah it was for 2 tires.
Since they are the wrong size is that why one tire seems higher in the wheel well than the other?
I'm searching but I guess I don't really know what I'm looking for. Thanks.

 

If the tires are identical on each side (pass and driver), one side should not be higher than the other.

However, front to back, your mis-sized tires have about a 1/2" increase in sidewall height compared to stock size. So the back of the car should be 1/2" higher than it was unless the morons at the dealership tweaked your suspension too.

 

If the tires are indeed exactly the same, then it could be possible that the dealership damaged your suspension when the jacked up the car. Inspect the rear suspension for bent components.

-1.3L

 

Thanks for the input. I tried calling the dealership hoping they would have voicemail or something. No luck. I went to their website and sent them a message stating the issues. I wanted to let them know asap so they couldn't pull any crap saying I should have contacted them sooner.

 

O one thing I noticed when they had the car lifted. They had the car on a platform that raises up to about hip level. Then 2 supports lift up to bring up the car enough to remove the tires. 1 support was directly between the front tires. The other was directly between the rear tires.
Similar to the attached pictures except the portion that lifts the car off the platform was a solid piece not 2 small pieces.

 

original is 225/45/18

225 millimeter width

45% of 225 =101.25

18 = wheel diameter

new tire is 255/45/18

255>225 so yes wider

still 45, and whats 45% of a bigger number? (255) a bigger number than 101.25, 114.75 to be exact.

and those numbers are sidewall heights. so if you lost wheel well gap, its normal.

 

I only lost the gap on the rear driver side. 1.3L suggested they may have damaged my rear suspension when they lifted the car.

 

sounds like thats what they did

 

if its just 1 side, than yup. both sides, than its normal

 

So I feel like a total dumbass now. LOL I didn't even think about this. Driver rear tire was sitting up just a little bit on ice so I guess that explains why it was higher up in the wheel well than the passenger side... it also didn't help that the dealership only put 20psi in the new passenger side tire. My air pressure light came on and to my surprise it was the new tire. WTF? So now that I've figured that out. Is it ok to have 255's? Instead of 225? I've read about some people putting different size tires on their rims. It drives fine and I like the way it looks. But is it safe?

 

yeah, 255's are fine. i had them on my car for a while. i've seen people go even bigger than that. but imo 255 should be the max for an 8 inch rim.

you have a staggered look right now, which won't be good for performance, but looks really good.

with the snap oversteer i had on my rx8, 255's in the back fixed that. and i dont recall under steering at all

 

I'd make them change it out.

 

I agree about TireRack. Check out Tirerack !! They are awesome. Best price tirematched with performance is the Kumho Ectsa ASX. I've purchased these for my Mazda Protege (twice) and now for the 8. I got the all seasons this tme for the 8. They are absolutely great !! Can't beat the price either. Tire rack will also ship to a participating location in your area that you then go to and have them installed. Can't beat em.

 

This size tire (255-45-18) is approved for 8.0 - 9.5 rim width per the Goodyear website.

 

tell them your stability control is acting up, you want your money back

 

the dealership isnt that stupid lol

 

The rear tires are 2% taller than the front tires and the original tires, it is within reasonable assumption that it can create small issues. It's not my car, your choice.

 

The dealership called yesterday morning and admitted they screwed up. So I went and got new new tires. They didn't put my valve stem covers back on this time. I didn't notice this until after work last night. Also my tire pressure sensor went off. New tires only had 20psi. So I went to the gas station and filled them up. So tonight after work the sensor went off again. It was the passenger side. Down to about 25psi. Would not having the valve stem covers on be doing this? I went and bought new covers so I'm hoping that helps. If not I'm off to my local trustworthy dealership. AGAIN!

 

Glad you got it fixed. So what tires did they put on this time? Did they offer anything as an apology? Did you get money back/pay more?

I'd go back to the dealer and tell them you are having air leaks in both tires. Sounds like they didn't fit them well to the rim. Those kind of problems are not going to go away and you're going to have to continue putting air in your tires a lot. Unacceptable to me after just getting them put on.

Also tell them you were missing valve covers.