homeskillet

My friend has a set of 185/65-15 winter tires. I have an 00 integra ls with the stock ls mesh wheels. I was thinking of purchasing so i did some research and im very confused. Can someone with knowledge more than mine please tell me if they will work for my car and if there would be any drawbacks seeing as though my recommended size is 185/55-15.

Thanks for the help.

nsxtasy

Your stock tire size is 195/55-15. There are a lot of winter tires available in that size. If you are buying new tires, just get 195/55-15.

I would not buy new winter tires retail in 185/65-15. However, if you are getting a great deal on a set of 185/65-15 winter tires from your friend, then yes you could use them. They can be mounted on your stock wheels and I don't think they will rub in your wheel wells, unless your car is significantly lowered. That tire size is 4.4 percent (one inch) larger in diameter than your stock tires, so your car will then be going that percentage faster than your speedometer tells you with stock sized tires. It's not a huge difference, but don't let the extra 3 mph at normal highway speeds be the difference between getting a speeding ticket and not.

Here are two other things you should be aware of in making your decision. If your LS stock wheels are your only wheels, you can make life a lot easier on yourself by getting an extra set of wheels for your winter tires, so you don't have to have your tires mounted and balanced twice a year when switching between winter tires and summer tires. You can find used 15" Integra wheels from LS and GS-R's for pretty cheap, and you can also find some 15" stock steel wheels from 2001-05 Civics that wil fit. You can also get a set of cheap 14" steelies from Tire Rack and put 185/65-14 winter tires on them.

And be careful about tread depth when buying used winter tires. People make claims about X percent tread depth remaining and they are almost always wrong, so ask for a measurement when considering used tires. Most winter tires come with at least 12/32" of tread depth. Winter tires are a whole lot more effective with full tread depth in snow (which is why you're buying them), and when they're down to about 6/32" of tread depth, they're not going to grip as well in snow, which is why Tire Rack recommends replacing them when they get down to 6/32". If someone is selling winter tires with 6/32" of tread depth, they'll claim that they still have 50 percent of usable tread depth, but they don't.

homeskillet

alright, thanks for the good info! theyre almost brand new. my car is lowered a little, but not very much. seems like i should be ok then. thanks

p nut

Yeah, I used 195/60/15's on my ITR and they were fine. I actually preferred the taller tires in the winter for the extra bit of ground clearance. (Still used the front lip as a snow plow at times, though :p).