[Ken S]

I have GOT to get rid of the Pirelli tires that came with my 2005 Prius. I don't think I could find a nosier tire anywhere.

I got the tires because SE Toyota basically jams them along with the 17 inch wheels down any buyer's throat. I'm not going to replace the wheels...so...

The tire size currently on the car is 215 45 ZR17.

Anyone have any suggestions...for a nice quiet, comfortable riding tire. I live in Florida so snow/ice isn't a consideration. Also most of my driving is local.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[DanMan32]

I don't know what you are going to put on the 17" wheels, still maintain the overall circumference, and get any better ride than if you put stock 15" on it. There are tradeoffs with going +2, as CU reported a few years ago.

 

[mrv]

US 2004-2006 port-added 17" Prius tire:
Pirelli "P Zero Nero"
P215/45ZR17
87W M+S
treadwear 400,
temperature A
traction A
51psi max. cold pressure

http://www.us.pirelli.com/en_US/tyres/c ... tid=US_UHP
shows an outer diameter of 24.6", rim measurement of 7.0", and 844.0 revs/mile.

 

[mike_m]

These are the tires on my car. The best I can figure out, these weigh between 23-24 lbs. per tire. I know DocVijay over at Prius Chat found a 18 lb. tire. Do a search over there with his name, and you can find exactly what he bought. I think a 6 lb. difference on the tire weight will help mileage loss, and he said the ride is OK.

 

[hyperion]

Toyota might help you out on the cost of some OEM wheels and tires if they found out a dealer was forcing customers to change same to get a car. Somewhere out back that dealer has got to have a lot of 15" wheels lying around.

 

[Ken S]

I asked Toyota about this practice and they informed me they have no control over their dealers. This type of stuff is pretty common practice anywhere under the control of SE Toyota.

I'm not really interested in throwing out the wheels...I just want a better set of tires

 

[mrv]

Of the recommended tires, here are the closest that I could find to your current size:

Nokian i3
http://www.nokiantire.com/newsite/tires_popup.cfm?id=64
http://www.nokiani3.com/

Michelin Hydroedge
http://www.michelinman.com/specs/hydroedge/1920.html

Nothing exactly matching your size, but a competent tire dealer should be able to tell you what aspect ratio could fit in its place. As long as you keep or do better than the load/speed rating (OEM Goodyear Integrity is an 86S), you should be fine.

(A search on tirerack.com for your 215/45R17 comes back with 65 results in a S speed or greater. You could go all Classic Prius and get some Bridgestone Potenza RE92 tires, but I doubt that you want the low treadwear/mileage out of those that the Classics had... http://www.tirerack.com/a.jsp?a=EA1&url ... ortValue=0
)

 

[DanMan32]

It may not be the dealer, but the port distributor. SE distributor likes to play games with us. Toyota better get a reign on their distribution and dealers, or it may hurt them real bad soon. You can have the best product on the market, but if all those selling your product mistreat the customer, then your product and your reputation loses.

 

[Ken S]

Dan,

There was good and bad to it. The port also installed nice leather seats. I wouldn't have bought a Prius without them as I hate cloth. On the other hand the wheels, tires, pin striping, door edge guards (which were too big for the gap between the front and rear door and came off), tinting, etc were jammed down our throat at ridiculous prices.

This is the practice...then you have the vast majority of dealers also charging $5K+ over list.

My deal was getting to pay list + the inflated addons. When I asked about getting them removed I was told if I didn't want them I could put my name on the waiting list and in two years I may get a car.

Does this hurt Toyota...yes. This year my wife wanted a minivan. I wouldn't consider even going to any of the Toyota dealers in the area after the treatement I got. Two of the local Honda dealers gave us great prices. Best of all I don't have to argue with my Honda dealer about not overfilling the oil EVERY time I bring it in for service.

Anyway, now that I've done research...the sad part is the Pirelli tires seemed to be very highly rated "sports" tires. I recently had a noise reduction treatment (Second Skin Pro and Damplifier Pro) on the floor and in all the doors) and it's still just way too loud on the highway. I gotta find a quieter tire

 

[DanMan32]

There are some dealers that don't play too many games. Usually the more rural ones. I think the one in Homosassa is OK, but I haven't heard anything specific about them for a Prius. I believe my parents ended up buying a Camry from them after getting the runaround from Stadium in Tampa. That was a number of years ago though.

 

[PriusByrds]

I had a 2005 Pkg 6 from SE Toyota Distributors with the 17" wheels and Pirelli P Zero Nero tires as well, and I, too, hated the tires -- noisey, rough riding, and they took a toll on the mileage. They looked cool, but I hated them. My reference point for comparing them was my wife's 2004 Prius pkg. 9 with the stock wheels and tires. My solution was to trade the car in on a 2006 pkg.8 with the stock tires and wheels and take the tax credit. It was like trading up to a full blown luxury car.

 

[River Rat]

Just a thought. When I shifted from 30" tires to 33" tires on my Jeep, I also had to change out the speedometer gear, which on this model Jeep is located in the transfer case. The new speedo gear compensated for difference in rpms between the two tire sizes and maintained the accuracy of the speedometer and odometer. Is it possible the the loss of mpg in Prii with 17" wheels is caused by bad data and may be corrected by the change out of something as small and simple as a new speedo gear? I realize that on a Prius this is probably an electronic function which may require reprogramming instead of an actual change out of a grear.

 

[mrv]

OEM Goodyear Integrity P185/65R14 tires have an outer diameter of 24.5, while the port-added Pirelli P-Zero Nero M+S P215/45ZR17 tires have an outer diameter of 24.6.

So, when calculating distance by wheel revolutions, the 24.5 dia. tire will require more revolutions than the 24.6 dia. tire to go the same distance.

If my calculations are correct, that would mean that the 24.6 dia. tire's vehicle will show less miles on the odometer. Less miles for the same gallons would mean lowered MPG.

 

[DanMan32]

The vehicle speed is mechanically read using the wheel speed sensors for the ABS. The rest is electronic. From ABS (skid/brake ECU) to the combo meter, from combo meter to whatever else needs it, such as the display for some lockouts, graph inhibit when not moving, energy screen animation, and NAV.

 

[Ct. Ken V]

Hi, Michelle,

It's not so much that you will show "less miles on the odometer" than actually travelled, but more that you will cover more ground (with the bigger non-factory wheels) than the odometer actually indicates (& be going faster than the speedometer says---so watch out for the cops).

The Prius doesn't know how many mile markers or actual miles you pass/travel (unless it gets that info from the GPS in the NAV equipped versions). It only knows how many wheel rotations equal a mile with the standard wheel/tire size. Therefore, your indicated MPG shouldn't change on the screen even though your ACTUAL MPG travelled with the same number of wheel rotations (with the bigger tires) will be more (just not able to be shown).

Is my logic making any sense, or is it flawed? I'm no engineer.

Ken (in Bolton,Ct)

 

[DanMan32]

Flawed, though I thought that way for a moment.

If the car can go 55MPG, and assuming changing the tires doesn't affect the actual miles (same rolling resistance), it will still be 55 actual MPG with the bigger tires.

However, the odometer will show less miles, so you'll think you only got say 52 MPG. This will be true whether you used the screen or calculated it yourself. The only way you could get the true MPG is if you knew based on a map or milemarkers how many miles you actually travelled and used those miles instead of what the odometer told you.

The NAV can adjust to the revolutions per mile because it also gets GPS info, but that stops there. The combination meter, brake system, and MFD don't benefit from the NAV's recalibration.