Does increasing the size of my rims and tires on my 02 Xtype run a risk of damaging the awd? Just something I've heard and wanted to verify... DAMAGE?

 

Eric, as long as all 4 tires are the same size, you will not have issues with the AWD system. Where people get into trouble is running say a 1" wider tire in the rear than the front (for looks reasons normally) and this causes the front and rear driveshafts to spin at different speeds. This leads to some sort of issue (broken drive shafts/axles, very short tire life, trashed transfer case, etc). Stick to the same size and you are fine.

Along those lines, replace all 4 tires at the same time. Even something as minor as having worn tires on one end of the car and new tires elsewhere can lead to issues. Not as likely, but the transfer cases in our cars are weak to begin with, so, why add any more stress than what is already there.

If you have questions about what size tires/rims will fit on the car, look through the forums as there are tons of posts about this. From personal experience, it seems that 235/45R17's or tires of that diameter/width are as big as you can go. Going any bigger will lead to rubbing issues unless you do other body work to clear the tires/rims. If in doubt, ask. I'm sure someone will answer your question.

 

Thermo, would a wider tire make a difference or would it be a bigger diameter that would cause issues with the awd if the fronts and backs be different (or both)? Running different widths front and back wouldn't cause the driveshafts turn at different rates, would it? Wouldn't it be the different overall diamater of the wheel/tire combination that woould cause the problem? Not that I am looking to do anything like that, just curious. Happy with the stock 225/40/18 wheels/tire setup on the sport model.

 

Alfadude, you are correct in that you can have different size tires (in the way of width) on the car as long as the diameter of the tires are the same. The trick is finding different size tires that have the same diameter. This becomes difficult especially considering the limited options of tires available for our cars. Hence why I say to simply stay with the same size tire on all 4 corners.

As for what will fit on the car and what won't, anything over a width of 235mm is going to run into a rubbing issue. As for the aspect ratio (ratio of sidewall height to tread width), with 17" rims, don't go over a 45 aspect. With 18" tires, don't go over 40. Going bigger will lead to tire/body damage and fixing this is not cheap ($1000+ in the way of body work to make room).

Keep the questions coming.

 

Thanks, Thermo. Good advice as always. As an old lazy white guy I always first determine the pain in the *** factor of what a project will take and doing modifications like that to get another 10mm of width on our cars just doesn't seem worth it, not only from a time standpoint, but from a benefit standpoint. The extra bit of "aggressivenes" added to the look/performance of the car to me would be minimal at best and certainly wouldn't help if you would drive in the snow. But to each his own. As long as a person is happy with their car is all that matters.