I have 205 40 17 tires on my 1995 honda Civic LX, i was wondering if this slowed my car down?

 

well since the weight of the 17' are heavy i would assume yur car would accelrate slower, you'll be traveling faster than what the speedo shows

 

well these wheels are alot lighter then the steel's that were on it before. for example if i eas to put 20's not saying im going to, i would never, but that would make my car slower because it takes more to spin the wheel, now will the seventeens make slower? or stress the engine?

 

Heavier wheels will slow your car's acceleration.

 

they definately slow down. had 17's on mine, put on steelies and noticed a dramatic difference

 

I recommend picking up a copy of "Civic Duty" by Alan Paradise. Pretty decent overall book-actually, in Chapter 3 it specifically details the differences between stock P185/65/r14 tires on a 14x5 rim versus a p205/40/r17 in regards to both 0-60 acceleration, 1/4 mile, braking 60-0, skid pad "g" force, even slalom course speed and sound decibels @ 60mph! Pretty eye-opening results-

O.E vs. Plus 3 (20540r17)
0-60 9.3 seconds 9.3 seconds
1/4 mile 17.1 seconds 17.2 seconds
MPH 82 82
braking 60-0 146' 118'
Skid pad "g" .72 .87
Slalom course speed 62.1mph 67.1mph

Hate to say it, but numbers don't lie. And, just in case, it says the tests were conducted with a 1997 Civic EX Coupe-Toyo tires on TSW wheels. Not exactly a torque monster....Hope this helps!!!!

 

Why do you have 17's??

:facepalm:

 

Does it matter? The op asked for information, and instead of offering just opinion, I decided to try and help and find some information to help. Thanks for asking though.

 

yes, it slows you down! well, with a bigger wheel, the engine works harder to turn the wheels over. forget the weight difference, its the amount of torque lost to just turning those big wheels. haha in a civic lx smaller wheels would probably be a HUGE difference in stop and go traffic and in town. hopefully that helps?

 

Weight should not even be the issue. Since your wheels are bigger then the normal size your speedometer will be inaccurate. Since the wheels diameter is much larger it takes more distance to make a full rotation then the size your car originally had. And on top of that, yes it slightly slowed your car down.

 

I would say yes. Back when I had my D16Z6 under the hood with 15"(not 17s)Rota Circuit 8s with 205/50-15 tires strapped around them I could tell it accelerated slower, it was slower on the lowend of the RPMs but didn't seem as bad on the topend, might have been due to the lack of torque a D16Z6 provides the operator. And the Rotas were light.

BTW sorry to thread jack but since we are on the subject does anyone think the tires below will slow me down any?

 

If you do it right, you will have a smaller sidewall on the tire to compensate for the larger wheel size. That's why bigger wheels usually have lower profile tires on them. There should be a negligable difference in overall diameter.

 

^^ exactly.

I don't understand how people could think having bigger wheels will mess with your speedo.

With regards to overall diameter:
Bigger wheels + low profile tires = smaller wheels + higher profile tires.

 

They shouldn't really slow you down with the above size at all. Hard to compare objective numbers against opinion. Does anyone else have any numbers to support the slower statement? Again, as the op asked, 20540r17 wheels and tires should not slow the car down from stock. If it did, it would be barely noticeable. I've had several sets of rims on my cars over the years and cannot honestly say they were any slower with decent low-profile 17" wheels.

Update: just measured the wheels with both since I happen to have them and both the stock18560r14 and the 20540r17 are almost identical. Nearly 23.5 inches. Larger slowing you down? Nope. Same size.

 

I am definatley going to pick up this book. Thanks

Well i was thinking on going 15's or sixteens... but i do feel i loose quite a bit of low end power. at high RPM i dont think it is really hurting my power. Stopping has proven a problem though, When i drive my girlfriends car 1996 Ex, it has steelies i feel i stop a lot quicker.

So after all i am getting rid of the 17's and going for 15's with a 205 tire. what do you guys think?

 

I say go for the 15s, that's my favorite wheel size for a Civic. 16s are ok but I wouldn't own them and 17s IMO are just ugly, I have however seen a few and far in between Civics that looked ok with 17s.

I loved my Rota Circuit 8s with 205/50-15 tires.

 

agreed

and to get technical the 205/40/17 is only 2% larger in diameter than the stock tire size (175/65/14). maybe 1 mph difference in the speedo. weight will be the bigger factor in acceleration in this case.

but i do agree with others that a 17" wheel is too big for a 95 civic

 

Well there's your problem, TSW's ARE light... The PO never specified what kind of wheels he has, but if they're cheap and heavy, the results will not be the same. I have 17's on my EJ6 (they came with the car, not my fault) and I have noticed that 1) My speedo is 2mph over what my GPS says, and 2) I'm only getting like 24mpg driving mostly on the highway.