Alrighty everyone. You know its time to buy tire when? Not when you are down to the wear bar indicators. Not when the head of Lincoln on a penny could wear a tophat and still have clearance to the tread. Nope, none of these tells you you should buy tires. Rather when you go down the road chasing a storm and you watch your tachometer jump around cause you keep breaking loose on very mild rainfall, THATS when you know to buy tires .
Seriously though. Im looking for some tires, but am running into some confliction info as to what the OEM tire size for the Kona was. I thought it to be 16" but Im running into info that says they should be 15's and **gasp** 14's in a couple of cases.
Currently Im running 205/50/16 tires. So naturally I looked for that size locally and they wanted $130 ea for a tire that to me was 1) not all that great looking and 2)didnt have an aggressive enough tread design for the time I spend in wetness chasing storms.
So, can someone tell me what the OEM size is. Also, what would the difference be between a 205/50/16 tire and a 205/45/16 tire. I believe the 45 would be a lower profile, but I want to be sure.
Here is the tire Im looking at right now, that I think I will go with. Plenty aggressive enough to move water away while chasing storms, but I have seen some more agressive but were like over $100 ea on line.
But I dont want to have to replace tires every year and the Toyo tires are of a soft enough compound I could see that happening. But they have an extremely aggressive wet weather tread which I need. I guess if I had two sets of wheels I'd go ahead and get them for the summer but thats another topic.
Anyway, I need some input, specifically on the tire sizes. Thanks in advance.
____________________ My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
im not too sure about giving you a definate answer on the tire size you would be looking for, but ford 16" tire size for the foci is 205/50/16. the 45 series tire is not quite as tall as the 50 series, for the 2nd number in tire sizing (i.e. 205/50/16) is the percentage of the width (which is your first number). a 205 tire is typically mounted on a 7inch wide wheel, making the ford recommendation of a 50 series tire being 3.5" tall, and the 45 series making your tire approx 3 1/8"tall. in the end, its all relative to finding the right size tire, or else you might encounter speedo problems (with it reading to fast or slow) from having the wrong size tire rotating for what it is programmed for.hope this was some help and makes sense, if anythings unclear, jus get back to me.
and i found this link here, kind of explains the same thing i did in fewer words, and gives more factory tire sizes. good luck http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2278
sveet03 that was a bunch of help. At least I know now I have the right size on there. I guess in the end I dont need to go with a lower profile. I considered it a bit, but I dont want to deal with the speedo being off.
So I guess I'll go with the Yokohama tires. I like the tread design and it will definately move the water out of the way.
The question I have now and should have probably asked in the first series of questions is can anyone tell me what the tread life numbers mean. The Yokohama tires have a treadwear of 280. I know the higher the number the longer the life but does anyone have any info on how that translates in to mileage?
Thanks again for everyones help.
____________________ My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
OK SS, here's the deal on the Kona from the Kona. From Ford the tires are 205/50/16 no iffs, ands, or buts. If you go to a tire website or a store and tell them you have a 2000 focus they'll tell you you need something like a 195/60/15 or even 14 which was standard for that year, but of course the Kona is not standard at all. The biggest problem finding tires is that damn 50 sidewall. 55s are MUCH easier to find and usually a good deal cheaper. Due to how much clearance the focus has already, you can put 55s on there with no problem - assuming you don't have a dropped suspension. If you want to do 45s you could do that too. If you do 55s your speedometer will under estimate your speed (if your speedo says 60 you'll be doing closer to 65 mph) and obviously 45s would over estimate your speed.
Thank you Konaboy. Thats exactly what I was running into. Everyone was telling me I needed the 15" tires and Im like no, thats not what came with them. But I heard it enough I guess it made me doubt if I was right.
My speedo is about 2 - 3 mph off (slow) now so I had thought about doing 205/45/16 but I dont think you can get that size in a 16" wheel. So I will stick with the 50's. Right now my focus is just getting something that will be really good with traction and wet weather but still have some snow ability. I know thats tough to do and if I have to choose I'll take the wet traction over the snow since it doesnt snow all that much here anyway.
All my car ownership life Ive always just taken the car to the tire store and told them to just slap on what should be on there and call it good. The Focus is the first car I have ever shopped for tires with a specific set of criteria in mind so its kinda new to me. For now I think Im going to go with the Yokohoma's and hope a 280 treadwear is good enough for at least 40,000 miles. Any rubber compound harder than that is going to make for difficult navigation in the storms. The Focus is light enough I think I can get away with a slightly softer compound for traction and not loose a lot in overall tire life.
Thanks again for everyone's help. Now that that is all sorted out Im going to have to part with about $400. Too bad I can find some original kona wheels locally I'd just slap some super stickys on there for summer and some good winter tires on the other wheels and call it good.
____________________ My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
Since you have the Kona Edition focus, same rims as my wife's only her's are not the polished ones. The tire size is: 205/50/16. Best tires to go w/ is the Falken Zeix ZE512's. Great for all weather including great for snow traction.
I had looked at a couple of the Falkens but Im not familiar with them at all, in fact, never heard of them. So I kinda shy'd away from them. Anyone have anything to say about them. They seemed to be a bit cheaper than the rest, but my lack of knowledge of them kinda made me not consider them a whole lot.
Input anyone?
____________________ My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
falken ziex are a really nice tire, and so are the yokohama's. i have friends that have had both on their cars, and both loved each set, the only thing that changed was the price, and even that is still comparable (at least from when i was in the business a year or so ago)
Cool. Good info. So far though Im still pretty much set on the Yokohama's mainly due to they look to have a more aggressive wet weather tread. But I havent looked to closely at the Falkens either so Im going to redo my search and see what I can dig up.
____________________ My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
Thank you for that info Drifter. It is good to see a direct comparison of the two tires. It looks like its going to be a tough decision. I keep thinking the Yokohama's, but their tread life leaves something to desire and Im concerned about their snow traction. But I realize to get good wet weather traction Im going to have to give up something.
With the Falkens I like what I read about them, but I keep wondering if the wet weather traction is going to be what I need. Tread life is better on them by a good jump though.
The Yokohama's are rated at 280 on the tread wear whereas the Falkens are rated at 420. Ideally Id like to find something with the aggressive tread of the Yokohama's with a treadwear in the 300's with at least an 'A' rating in the traction. Im still looking, but I'll have to find something soon.
Thanks again Drifter.
____________________ My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
You might want to take a look at tires on the http://www.tirerack.com site. There is a wealth of info here, posted by Tire Rack as well as consumers. You can compare 4-5 tires side by side. You could spend hours there just reading/learning. I replaced my Firehawks with BFG Traction TA's. They are absolutely wonderful in the wet. The reviews say they are also good in the snow, but I haven't experienced that yet. The Falken 512's are also very good tires.
____________________ If you can't read this, you're illiterate.
Don't know if a purchase has been made yet, but I did a review on my new(ish) Kumho ASX all season - I'm so incredibly happy with them I can't even begin.
Excellent gripping, fantastic in the rain (been having some major downpours around here too) and driving hwy speeds - still sticky.
____________________ Get in, Sit down, Shut up and HANG ON!
Nope, havent purchased anything yet. Joe was telling me about your tires today Chelly, and while they dont have the aggressive tread design I wanted, they seem to be the best compromise between wet weather and winter tires, so it looks like now the Yokohamas are out and its a deciscion between the Kumo's and the Falken's. Just have to figure out which one is going to be best.
Thanks for the input.
____________________ My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
I think, (JMO), that folks can make potentially serious errors buying tires based on what the tread pattern looks like. For me, the question becomes, do they work the way I want them to work? I owned tire with very aggressive looking treads that didn't work worth a damn in fowl weather. I've also had tires with straight ribbed tread that were very good. To me, tires are round, hard & black. The only thing else that matters is do they work, and are they the right size?
____________________ If you can't read this, you're illiterate.
You are correct Mr. Versatile. Maybe I should have clarified a little. I equated better wet weather traction with the aggressive directional tread appearance. Meaning, the more directional it was, i.e. arrow tread or 'V' type tread, the better the wet weather traction was going to be. But alas Im finding there is a very sharp trade off when going for more wet weather traction than for the all season tire.
I need the wet weather traction because I tend to be very aggressive when I chase storms and often find myself thinking of the wet road only when I see the tachometer surging or the obvious 'feel' of lost traction. So I wanted a bit of extra protection for those times when my mind is a tad bit more on the storm than on the conditions. Mind you, it doesnt happen often cause I tend to see a lot of reminders along the road of the conditions such as cars off in the ditch or actual traffic accidents. I also spend a great deal of time when chasing storms going from pavement to dirt roads, gravel roads and just pure muddy ones, so I have those conditions to consider. It snows here, but not very much. We tend to have more ice storms than anything and well you're just screwed no matter what tire you got in those conditions.
So my useage of 'aggressive' was more directed to a tire that was obviously designed for wet weather traction. Probably not the best term to use to describe what I was looking for.
I dont know why, but my last car, the Neon never had a problem with wet weather despite the pretty generic tires on it. But even with a 150 hp motor and some aggressive driving I never really had any problems. My car before that was a Grand Prix and it was just plain heavy enough that I really never had any problems with it. I dont know why, but the Focus is the first vehicle Ive had any issues with wet weather driving, even when the tires were in really good shape. That could be because of the tires I have and if so I want to make sure I dont get back into that.
____________________ My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
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