Protege5 Winter Wheels on a 6s

[jzack]

Any good reasons not to use a set of 2003 Protege5 winter wheels on a 2007 6s? The wheel specs are: 16 x 6, 50mm offset and 5x114 bolt pattern.

- Found a nice condition used set with 195/50/16 winter tires already mounted (mainly concerned this size tire will be OK in terms of handling, since 205/60/16 is OEM).

- It's the wife's car, as long as it rolls/runs she's happy (exterior apprearance means little)....

[speedtown]

should fit just fine

[Mz6GreyGhost]

QUOTE (nj-mazda6 @ Nov 6 2009, 05:56 PM)

Any good reasons not to use a set of 2003 Protege5 winter wheels on a 2007 6s? The wheel specs are: 16 x 6, 50mm offset and 5x114 bolt pattern.

- Found a nice condition used set with 195/50/16 winter tires already mounted (mainly concerned this size tire will be OK in terms of handling, since 205/60/16 is OEM).

- It's the wife's car, as long as it rolls/runs she's happy (exterior apprearance means little)....[/b]

Wheels are good, the tires aren't.

Those 195/50s are a full TWO inches smaller in diameter, which is about 8% off, well more than the 2-3% margin of safety that's the benchmark for different tire sizes. In other words, when she's traveling an indicated 60 MPH on the speedometer, the actual speed will be close to 55 MPH.

I'd either get new winter tires that are the correct size, or I wouldn't bother with the wheels at all.

[jzack]

Yep - sort of came to the same conclusion another way. The load rating for those smaller tires is only a small percentage away from the weight of the vehicle (ie., front end). Not enough safety margin to be comfortable.

Thx...