Need help choosing tire sizes
Thread Starter
Intermediate
Joined: Feb 2015
Posts: 40
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From: Asheboro North Carolina
Need help choosing tire sizes
It's come time for new tires and I want to make sure I get the right size since I inherited it with the stagger completely backward lol. The car currently has 17x9.5 wheels on front and 18x9.5 on the rear. What would be the best sizes to go with to keep the stagger right?
Drifting
Joined: Nov 2016
Posts: 1,660
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From: SF Bay Area
Since you have 9.5" front wheels, you would need approximately 275 mm in width.
275/40/17 front and 275/40/18 rear will give you the correct stagger (1" smaller in front) with a good variety of tire choices.
275/40/17 front and 275/40/18 rear will give you the correct stagger (1" smaller in front) with a good variety of tire choices.
Last edited by Tsumi; Jul 14, 2017 at 08:40 PM.
Drifting
Joined: Nov 2016
Posts: 1,660
Likes: 365
From: SF Bay Area
Which would be all well and good if OP had OEM regular C5 or Z06 C5 wheels, but OP does not have those. 245/45/17 (stock C5 size) will not work on a 17x9.5 in. rim, that is meant for 8.5 in. rim. I believe Z06 had 18x10 or 18x10.5 rear wheels.
Last edited by Tsumi; Jul 14, 2017 at 09:50 PM.
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From: Hickory NC
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The factory standard tire size (245/45x17; 275/40x18) on the base C5 made the rear tire 1” higher than the front, as Tsumi suggested. This actually works out to a ratio of 1.04 (rear tire being this much taller) which allow the ABS and traction control systems to work properly. Other tire sizes maintaining this same 1.04 ratio should not interfere with these systems. The C5 Z06 only had a stagger of 0.7" so I'm not sure if they realigned the programs for ABS and traction control for the Z06 or if all C5s can operate within this tire size ratio.
