offroadr35

I changed from the stock wheels and tires to 18" OZ Superleggeras with Kumho 712s. The fronts are 225/40 and the rears are 255/35. I just drove around for the first time with them and the car seems to pull to the sides an aweful lot more. Now i bought these used and didn't rebalance them, could that be the problem? Is this normal with lower profile tires and i just need to get used to it? I just want to make sure nothing's wrong. BTW i was on city streets, not the highway so they weren't pefect roads by any means.

-Steve

Tedster

The first thing I would check is the tire pressures. If they are a little low, the S2000 will tramline really badly. (Tramlining is the tendency to follow the ruts in the street).

Ted

Schatten

Note: the 712's have a treadwear rating of 280 AA A - which is relative to the manufaturer, but compared to stock, anything more than 160 will be more like a rock and will tend to slide around a bit more. That is unless you go with something like S03's which will be similar, or expensive tires such as the P-Zeros.

So they are 225/40's on what front end?

Balancing the wheels/tires effects how smooth they will spin, not necessarily if it pulls to one side - although its a good idea to get that done too.

Anytime you change the tires to something like the 18"s you have, which is 2" - quite dramatic - you need to get an alignment. That should resolve how it is pulling to one side or another.

Schatten

ahh yes, and like Ted suggested - tire pressures for how its pulling side to side. good point Ted! I forget that one from time to time.

matrix

I also believe that with a 225 up front the rear should be 265 to keep the correct stagger.

offroadr35

alignments are expensive and i don't see how changing wheels would change the alignment at all The overall diameters are the same within a small fraction of an inch and otherwise they are just a little big wider. The shouldn't change any of the angles at all. The wheels are already balanced, i just didn't get them RE-balanced, i don't see how that would be the culperate either, just thought i'd mention it. I will definitely check tire pressures. What pressures have yeilded good results with these tires? Anything else?

-Steve

Schatten

changing the size of the tire diameter and width also changes the stance of the car, which can change the camber angles.

I'm quite sure its just your pressures.

Not sure what is optimal for those tires, they aren't that soft, so I would start around 32#'s all around and give or take where needed. As Jason Saini once suggested - tune the front tire pressures for steering, and then the rears for balancing the oversteer/understeer characteristics that you can with the tire pressures.

offroadr35

by the way, those are the recommended 18" tire sizes for the S2000 on tirerack

offroadr35

i just checked the pressure of the fronts and it was only 27psi! So i'm pretty sure that was the problem. I'm going to take it up to about 34 and hopefully that will alleviate the tramlining.

-steve

Kekoa

When I changed to 17" 225F and 255R, I didn't need an allignment. I beleive you only need an allignment when you drop the car.

Anyways, my car also pulled to one side or the other on the freeway only.

I would def. rebalance them.