185/60 or 165/70 tires?

02 Apr 2016

Hi guys! I need an advice. I’m going to buy new summer tires. My car has 165/70 R14 tires from factory but 185/60 R14 are allowed too. So, I’m thinking of buying the 185 tires in order to improve handling. What do you think: Would it really affect it significantly? And wouldn’t it increase my fuel consumption too much?

I also have some problems with my electric power steering (it sometimes stop working when I’m pulling out from a parking spot). Could wider tires harm it?

My questions might look a bit stupid, but I just want to choose the best option for my Italian and my wallet. :-)

Comments

How wide are your wheels?

I think they are “5.5 J” steel wheels…According to my car’s manual they are compatible with both of the tire sizes.

Tires are the most important part in a car’s handling it’s the only thing between you and the road. It makes a huge difference

Yeah, that’s why I’m considering buying the wider ones…otherwise I’d stick to the cheap and economic 165 tires. :-)

Get new rims :D

I’m a poor student. :D

Get the 185/60 tyres. Better handling and overall performance.

The size doesn’t really matter, what matters is the quality of the tyre. Buy tyres from well-known manufacturers like Pirelli, Michelin, Vredestein, … It’ll cost you a bit more but in those sizes the price difference won’t be huge and it’s worth its money. And get the 185/60 ones, they won’t noticeably improve the handling but they will improve grip so they will be safer. It won’t affect fuel consumption, fuel consumption depends on the composition and the tread patern.

I was thinking about Barum tires (cheap but not bad), but I’ll probably get Vredestein, Continental or something like that.

How can you fit 185 and 165 tires at same rims? As I know 185 stands for width of tire in millimeters so you have one tire 2 cm wider, is that going to fit the rim? I am using 205 / 55 R 16 on my car and from what I have noticed you get better MPG with bigger tire radius, but it depends on a car and an engine.

Well I guess you can actually fit various sizes of tire on the same rims. In my registration certificate, there are written these two sizes for my rims.

I’d go with the 185. It’ll give you better handling, but the gas mileage shouldn’t drop enough to really notice. Plus it’ll make your car look better!

185/60 or 165/70 tires?

The 185 will have better traction because it’s wider but the ride quality will be more sharp and bumpy. So if this is a track car, you’ll get better road feel and traction. But as a daily, those speed bumps will hurt more.

165/70’s are smaller so the traction is going down because the touch surface is smaller. But in the same time the rubber is bigger so the car will feel softer going down the road.

I’d go for 175/70’s as the middle option. It won’t have as good as traction as the 185’s but the ride quality will still be good and soft. Just don’t corner very sharply at very high speeds.

I want to corner sharply at high speed so…I have ordered the 185/60 Vredestein tires. :D 175 would be maybe a good compromise (my car is not very ‘soft’ even with 165/60 R14) but they are not allowed by manufacturer.

Just get the 185/60, they will be fine with no noticeable downsides
the problem you are describing with the powersteering has nothing to do with the tyres, there is something wrong with the actual steering rack/system
but to fully answer your question, lets say you go for a 215 or wider (and your car is rwd) you will notice that the car will try to remain in course more. so the steering wheel and wheels wouldn’t go completely back to center if you let the steering wheel go. However that should not be an issue in this case, also it is not at all annoying and something you can’t help if you own a lowered rwd car with at least 215s on the front