Wider tyres on Accord Euro 17 inch wheels?

[Milo]

Hi all,

I was wondering whether anybody has tried fitting wider tyres on standard 17 inch Accord Euro wheels?
As you know, original tyre size is 225/50/17. Wheel width is 7.5 inch.

Would it be possible to fit a wider tyre, for example 235/45/17? Any experiences, please?

Thanks

Milo

[SPQR]

235/45R17 is not a good fit in terms of diameter/gearing/speedo accuracy. The better fit is 245/45R17 but a 7.5 inch wide rim is the absolute minimum width for this tyre. It will look strange on the car. I'd say that the car would also suffer the 'tramlining' effect from wider tyres where imperfections in a road will tend to steer the car away from your chosen direction. An annoying trait and even possibly dangerous.

Tramline is exacerbated by the width of a tyre's contact patch far exceeding the 'length'. This is countered in modern cars by increasing tyre diameter by using larger diameter wheels. The prevalence now of 19"+ wheels and larger diameter tyres is to combat tramlining. A larger diameter tyre increases the length of the contact patch so that the width is reduced as a proportion. You can't retrofit this to a car without damaging the transmission even if the larger diameter tyre fits under the guards and clears suspension.

Tyre contact patch calculator: http://bndtechsource.ucoz.com/index/tire_data_calculator/0-20

Tyre size comparison: http://www.1010tires.com/Tools/Tire-Size-Calculator