Hi there bare with me here as I'm a newbie.. Right now I have 185/65/R15s on my 2003 Honda Civic SI , I want to put winter tires on this year so could I go up to a 195/65/R15 or even a 205/65/R15s . I know that this would affect the speedometer but would it do any other damage to the front end...Thanks

 

Im pretty sure you could bump up to 205 without rubbing anything or affecting your speedo. 185 seems really really small.

 

I don't know much about winter tires cuz I live in texas, but I do know that we need to know the width of your wheel before we can tell you for sure how wide you could go.

 

I love this place for tires, great deals, don't know if they are available local around you or whatever, but it's a good link anyway.


http://www.discounttiredirect.com/di...008002&yr=2003

 

195 would be the absolute widest i'd go for a winter tire on a civic. a skinnier tire will cut thru the snow better. Firestone Winterforce is a great tire and at a very good price.

 

I don't know, with proper tread, 205 increases his footprint to maximize traction. But it's all dependent of tread type. Canada has some fierce winter's though, so no matter what good traction is hard to get. It's nothing like the common black Ice we get around here, but that's mainly a surprise when you hit it regardless of traction. Up there it's constant and relentless traction issue in winter. I'm pretty sure no matter the route you go, some slow moving tire chains are gonna eventually have to be used.

As for cutting through snow, that's all fine and dandy, but it also presents a bigger problem...the ice underneath. Snow itself usually lends itself to better traction when compared to bare ice underneath it. There's also the issue that if you slice through to the bottom, you trench yourself out in a way that makes it immpossible for your car to crawl up the other side. This is especially true if the snow is decently deep. A couple of inches may be fine, but eventually you hit that magic depth where you'd much rather be riding on top. Snowshoes would be a good analogy. The principles behind them span all modes of transportation in snowy area's. Being on top is much better than cutting to the bottom.