I just replaced my rears at the dealer today and they put 225/50ZR/16 on the rear. The tires are Michelin Pilot and they look quite a bit slimmer than the stock tires I had on. Did they screw something up? For what I paid for the tires I want to make sure they did it right!

 

From what I gathered in the sticky at the top of the page, any tire other than the stock S-O2 tires should be done in a 245/45/16. This is because the stock rear S-O2 have a much wider tread width than a tire of the same size from a different manufacturer.

This can upset the balance of the grip between the front and rear of the S2000, and now you may or will notice more oversteer in the car. The S2000 is quite picky in how much grip the rear has. To rememdy this problem of increased oversteer with non-stock S-O2 tires in the rear, people have either gotten the larger front sway bar, or changed the tires out to a 245/45/16.

-Chris

 

Chris is correct. They may be marked the same as the OEM tire, but you should have 245/45/16 tires for Michelin Pilots. They're nice tires and I hope the dealer changes them for you. You may need to show them this site, have them actually measure the tread widths so they can see it for themselves, and be prepared for resistance. Good luck, and let us know how they resolve this for you.

 

Argued, argued, argued with the dealer. Lost. I'm keeping the tires and swapping out the fronts in a couple of weeks to keep the tread ratio in line from front to rear.

 

Be careful! What fronts are on the car and what tires are you planning to replace them with? If you are keeping the 225 rears, I'd just put the correct sized front on the car and wait until the rears are worn out in 10k miles or so. Just don't get too enthusastic in the turns. You may want to go autocross the car a few times to see what the limits of adhesion really are. It may not be as bad as you think.

 

The fronts are stock S-02's that are close to the end of their life. I'm planning on replacing them with the 225 Pilot A/S to match the back so hopefully the full set of Pilots will work well together. I spent a lot of time on the phone yesterday with the dealer and then my connection at Discount Tire and he (my connection) assured me that once I put the new fronts on I would be fine. He also said the Pilots should last me about 35-40k miles vs the 13k I got on the stock S-02's. We'll see...for what I paid for them they better!

 

Why change the S02's I love them!!!!!
My two cents.....

 

So you'll be running 225 in the front and back?

 

I think this is a big mistake! And, I would question the advice that the tire dealer gives you in the future as he does not understand the driving dynamics of the S2000. Does he know that you have different width rims front to rear? Does he realize that equal width tires on the front and rear will lead to severe oversteer issues in the S2000?

I just checked on the Tire Rack website, and the Pilot Sport A/S is available in the correct size of 205/55/16. If you put the 225/50/16 up front you will make a bad situation worse in terms of handling balance, plus the 225 section width will not fit the front rim as well as the narrower tire.

With a UTQG rating of 400, I would expect much longer tread life from the Michelins than the 140-rated OEM Bridgestones ... at the expense of grip.

 

I'm not going to be putting the 225 on the front; I'll be putting the 205.