IRR0MPIBLE

Ok, I have a 2 finger gap between my tire and fender as of now. I want no gap. Right now, I'm running a 195/50 on the stock 15's. My question is, if I were to run a 55 sidewall instead of a 50, would that be enough additional tire to compensate for the 2 finger gap? or if i were to run a 45 on a 16'' wheel, would that do it?

here is a pic of the wheel gap the day i lowered the car:


it's a very small amount lower now that it's settled for like 4 months.


common sense would say that the additional tire would delete the gap. the reason i ask is because i don't know how big of a jump it is from a 50 to a 55.

EDIT: if the numbers on tires are millimeters, the 5 mm is definitely not going to fill that gap. maybe 10 mm, or maybe even 15 more millimeters.

i'd appreciate any verification on the fact that the numbers on tires are millimeters...

Need 2 B Lower

a 195/60 will give you 3/4 of an inch more sidewall then you have now.

BTW, use a tire calculator like this one and you can play around with sizes and get exaclty what you want...

http://www.dakota-truck.net/TIRECALC/tirecalc.html

Brock Obama

A 5% increase (50 aspect ratio to a 55) isn't going to be much. I think it would still look better if you swapped wheels and went with a 45, but you'd still have some wheel gap. You already lowered your Civic didn't you?

dave22

If you go with a 205/50/15 you'll get more sidewall as well as a little more width. You still wouldn't fill fnders completely but it'd probably be enough to make you happy. You could also try a 205/55/15 and get even more sidewall but you may not be happy with that look.

MA-HALF-E

Lower your car more.

Anything over a 50 series tire looks awful, and it'd look better as it sits now with the gap, rather than with a monster truck profile.

IRR0MPIBLE

thanks for everyone's responses.

lowering the car more is not an option, as it is already lowered and it would be a waste to get rid of the springs that are on there. that's why i'm looking for another way to eliminate just a little bit more of the remaining wheel gap. it is actually A LOT lower than a stock 7th gen civic, if you were to compare my car with one...
either way, i appreciate all the input because i have little to no knowledge on tire sizing. all i know is that the first number is width, the 2nd is sidewall, and the 3rd is rim size.

unfortunately, a bigger wheel will not be an option for a long while, which is what i'd like to do.

Odysseus Prime

The second number (the sidewall height) is also proportional to the width of the tire..
example.
205/50/16 = smaller sidewall
215/50/16 = larger sidewall

IRR0MPIBLE

i did not know this.

i should have gotten a 205/50 instead of a 195/50

Brock Obama

Yup, the second number of a tire size is called the aspect ratio. It's the percentage (in millimeters) of the width of the tire which is also how tall the sidewall is.