Winter tires and wheels (new-be)

[rog_ski]

G-day folks

I realize through my searches that wheels and tires have been well talked about even about what I am looking for with winter tires and wheels but I am looking for some knowledge on the 09 yaris.

My mother in law picked up a new yaris sedan a few months ago and now wants to get winter tires. I had suggested she buy wheels and tires as over the long term she will be saving on swapping tires on and off rims and balancing twice a year.

Her current tire size is 185-60-R15 (4x100 rim I think) however I suggested going with a 14" rim and a comparable tire I think a 175-70R-14 is about the closest. My reason for suggesting the 14 is she can save her self a bit of money (fixed income) on the smaller wheels and tires as well the 175 is a bit narrower so will give her a bit better traction in deeper snow. She is also a thousand miles away so I cant get a good look at stuff.

Is this do-able? Toyota said he would have no problem going with the 14 on an older yaris but the 09 would drop it down to much as the front air damn is too low I believe that toyota only sells a 175-65-14 so this will give her a smaller tire and it would drop it down a bit, I believe her local tire shop sells a 175-70-14 so we would be good on height

My question is can I go with a the 14" steel wheels and winters? is there a reason not to go with them? and

• Will the front disk brakes clear
• Are the wheels 4 bolt by 100mm.
• Which width 5", 5.5", 6"

Guys thanks for going easy on me (new-be) and any suggestions (tire related) are more than welcome


Cheers

[WolfWings]

14" wheels will fit fine.

And correct tires for the 14" wheels will be the same outer diameter as the 15" wheels, so they won't change how much the car drops at all in any case. Whoever told you that doesn't have the first clue about tires and how they actually work.

And yes, 175-width tires are better than 185 or 195 for winter tires. Narrow, high-aspect-ratio tires are what you want, bar none. 175/65-14 will be fine, that's the stock 14" tire size, and available in the best types of winter tires on the market.

Technically, the 14" wheels+tires Toyota sells are 23" outer diameter, while the 15" wheels+tires are 23.8" outer diameter, but if your car only has 0.4" of clearance on things to where the stock 14" size would make things scrape, that's a seriously, deeply lowered ride. We're talking 'keep sheets of metal in the back of the car to pull up your custom sloped driveway' seriously lowered.

[rog_ski]

Wolfwings

Thanks for your feed back.

I kind of thought that the tires would be good for her but wanted to make sure. The tire expert I talked to at Toyota could have been a cleaner who just happened to pick up the phone or someone overstocked in 15" tires

Cheers

[WeeYari]

Fellow Canadian chiming in here.

WolfWings is bang on. 175/65/14 is stock and what I run on my winter steelies. For the record, I am on Goodyear Nordics, which are a fine, readily available and relatively inexpensive winter rubber.

Your Toyota guy was on some serious smack.

[severous01]

here:
http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

this will tell you what sizes will be ok. +-5% and you'll be fine.

[MUSKOKA800]

Good idea to lose the 3 seasons before winter. I drove with the Goodyears in snow once. Never again. Very scary!
Go with the 175/70/14 tires. They stand at 23.7" tall. The same as 185/60/15.
I bought used Echo 14's with 175/65/14 winter tires and they are considerably shorter than my sedans 185/60/15 stockers. I'm actually shopping for new boots to fit on the same 14" wheels. Having my car lowered in combination with a shorter that OEM tire/wheel combo was a definite problem for me last winter. 175/65/14's stand nearly an inch shorter than 185/60/15 so approximately 1/2" less ride height. Not fun in winter.

[thebarber]

i run 175-65-14 and 185-60-14 on steelies for the winter.....one set i bought used off a guy in moncton (when i lived in fredericton)

either size works great on a yaris in the snow...even in the maritimes ;)

[WolfWings]

Oddly, I've had no issues, and I'm dropping significantly more than a half-inch when I swap to the 14" wheels: I run Goodyear TripleTreds on my 15" rims for my 3.5-season tires, 195-60/15's, since when I started using TripleTreds they didn't make anything in the 185-60/15's the car comes with, so I'm going from 24.2" down to 23" but I've never had an issue with ground clearance in winter with how curved the nose is: I just plow through the same either way, but have better grip with the Blizzak's than I did with the TT's.

[MUSKOKA800]

Originally Posted by WolfWings

Oddly, I've had no issues, and I'm dropping significantly more than a half-inch when I swap to the 14" wheels: I run Goodyear TripleTreds on my 15" rims for my 3.5-season tires, 195-60/15's, since when I started using TripleTreds they didn't make anything in the 185-60/15's the car comes with, so I'm going from 24.2" down to 23" but I've never had an issue with ground clearance in winter with how curved the nose is: I just plow through the same either way, but have better grip with the Blizzak's than I did with the TT's.

Perhaps the our sedan rides lower than the LB? It never was equipped with 14's like some LB's were born. Mine is TRD lowered so more drop due to tires isn't good. We had a few major storms here last winter. More than once the front lip was launching snow up and over the car as I drove. And again, snow plow berms are big problem as they block streets and ramps while the clean-up is in progress. They're hard on the lip too.

[WolfWings]

Originally Posted by MUSKOKA800

Perhaps the our sedan rides lower than the LB? It never was equipped with 14's like some LB's were born. Mine is TRD lowered so more drop due to tires isn't good. We had a few major storms here last winter. More than once the front lip was launching snow up and over the car as I drove. And again, snow plow berms are big problem as they block streets and ramps while the clean-up is in progress. They're hard on the lip too.

Well, snow flying over your car isn't a bad thing, but yes, it does definately add a lot of extra load on any kind of trip-lip your car came with. But AFAIK the sedan was available with 14" wheels same as the liftback, it was just rare as hen's teeth. I know they never asked me what model of Yaris I had when I went to buy another steel wheel one time, just asked if I needed the 14" since it'd be a week or so for one to arrive versus the 15" they kept in stock.

[Alypuppy]

Aloha, I am looking for winter tires for my Yaris HB. I would like to replace the stock 175/65R 14s with 155/80 13 winter tires with 13 inch rims. It looks like I would pay $50 more for the smaller tires and rims (against only buying tires for the stock rims), but would save later when changing from winters to 3 seasons.
I looked at the tire size calculators, and the new tires will be a little thinner (Which is apparently better for snow tires in snow) and only a fraction smaller in diameter (says 60mph will read 60.4).

Any advice?

Thank you
Alysen

[thebarber]

13's wont fit....they won't clear the brake caliper...

14's are cheap enough and can be readily found on kijiji.ca

[Alypuppy]

Thank you! =o)