Looking to get a set of 15" wheels for our '99 EX sedan, 5-speed want to reduce the engine noise at 65+ will 185/60R15's or 205/55R15 do it better on this car?

 

Use this and select a tire with a larger overall diameter. Keep in mind that you'll be altering your effective gearing, as well as your speedometer and odometer readings. If you go too large, you could also run into rubbing/clearance issues. If you want to reduce noise, I'd suggest some sound deadening or insulation, rather than changing tire size.

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html


Modified by Padawan at 2:46 PM 11/7/2006

 

Sounds good , what kind of sound deading can put up with under hood temps and heat? Any WHERE should I place it?

 

Among others, Dynamat offers some products that should work well for your application.

http://www.dynamat.com/

 

try dynamat and line the inside of the drive compartment. Pull the carpet and seats cover the entire floor then reinstall the carpet and seats. Adding sound deadening to the car will increase its weight

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by instructor74 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">try dynamat and line the inside of the drive compartment. Pull the carpet and seats cover the entire floor then reinstall the carpet and seats. Adding sound deadening to the car will increase its weight</TD></TR></TABLE>

Not to mention its spendy to do a nice and thurough job

 

Will the 195/55R15's give us a harsher ride? I know it will help handling a lot!

 

Picking up a quality tire can help A LOT in reducing tire noise.

What size wheels and what tires are you currently running?

 

If you're looking for a decent tire with low noise on a 15" wheel, I reccomend the Sumitomo HTR-Z in 195/50/15. My girlfriend has it on her car, and the ride is soft and quiet. Pretty good in the rain too.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/...HTR+Z

Not the best tire ever, but for the price we paid, it was well worth it.

 

Running the Mastercraft all-seasons stock 185/65R14's on the steelies. Going to mount snows on the steelies and upgrade the summer package!