carllangford

Bought a 94 coupe last March. Looks like I need a set of tires. Door Panel indicates 255/45-17 for front and 285/40-17 for rear. Took a look just now on the car and found 285/40-17 all the way around. What gives? What effect on the car would this have with the 285's on the front?

jrzvette

255/45/17 and 285/40/17 was the tire size for the base suspension. The benefit of the same size all around is you can rotate the tires.

carllangford

So the wheels are the same size for front and back? Will most tire shops actually put the non manufacturer recommended size on the front? The back tires are $30/each more so doing this will cost an extra $60, to be able to rotate.

seijack

Do you have 9.5in wide wheels on the front or the standard 8.5in? Since you have 285-40-17 on the front it looks like the previous owner
upgraded the front wheels to the 9.5in or it came from the factory with
them (Z07 pkg.) I am looking to get some 9.5 for the front. I hate the
way the 8.5 are stuck way too far under the fenders. I may give up and try to find some spacers but I can not find what I need.

carllangford

It would appear, from inspection, that the wheels in the rear are wider than those in the front. A visual indicator is the depth of the bottom lip on the wheel (from sawblade to bead). The depth on the rear wheels is wider than the front. There is no ZO7 RPO code listed on the SPI label in the glove box either. So it would appear that someone simply put the 285/40-17's on the (what appear to be) 8.5 front wheels.

seijack

WOW...I would not have thought that a 285-40 would have fit on an 8.5 rim. I would check to be sure it is safe!!

carllangford

Yeah, I know!! Checked RPOs for the car and they indicate 8.5 on front and 9.5 on rear. I'm about to get new tires so I'll just put the factory listed sizes on the car and be done with it. Looking at Khumos.

StealthLT4

Good call on the factory tire sizes! I don't know what the PO was thinking

pologreen1

If you drive it for fun then get bigger all around if just a cruiser then it might handle different with bigger because they follow the travel in the road, but there is more rubber to stick to the road for special occasions!

Mr Mojo

If you have difficulty visually verifying the size difference between front and rear, the sizes are on the back side as well as which is left and right.

carllangford

I had the wheels off the other day checking the brakes and didn't bother to look, because at that time I hadn't noticed that the tire size was wrong . You can look at the rims though and tell that the back is wider than the front.