Disclaimer: I've searched high and low for answers to these questions...the factory service manual, here, Fresh Alloy, Google...and nothing. So I'm going to ask them here.

Very soon I'm going to be installing new tires on the stock 18x8.0 rims on my '03 Coupe.

I want to install wider rubber, but I want to make sure I don't mess up the way the car detects wheel spin. I am assuming the VDC knows the difference (in total wheel diameter) between the front and rear with the stock tires (front is 97.3% of the rear). Under this assumption, I am trying to stay as close to this difference as possible with tire sizes other than stock.

Here are my questions:

1) Does the VDC keep track of the stagger?
2) How sensitive is the VDC to stagger changes?
3) What alternate sizes are people running on the stock 18" Coupe rims?

Doing a little bit of math, here are the sizes that stay the closest to the stock stagger:

235/45R18 Front, 255/45R18 Rear (235/45 is hard to find )
245/40R18 Front, 265/40R18 Rear (265 is too wide for stock rim)
235/40R18 Front, 255/40R18 Rear (My prefered tires don't come in these sizes )
245/40R18 Front, 245/45R18 Rear (This is the one I'm worried about the most )

I've pretty much settled on the Falken FK-452 or the Bridgestone RE050A Pole Position but I need to know what size to buy.

Is anyone succesfully running 245/40s up front with the stock 245/45s in the rear???? I'm hoping this one is ok since I'm *increasing* the difference in diameters over stock (by .9%) and so the VDC/TCS should theoretically be harder to trigger.

If 245/40-245/45 doesn't work, anyone got a tire recommendation that comes in 235/40-255/40 and are similar to the RE050A PP or FK-452?

TIA,
m

 

1) VDC tracks wheel speed (all 4), braking, & steering input.
2) People claim 3%...but I dont know where this came from
3) Just maintain that magical 3% and you should be ok.

 

The stock difference is actually 2.656% (the rear tire spins 2.656% slower).

The size I'm most considering (245/40 front, 245/45 rear) ups that difference to 3.615%

so...

Is the VDC sensitive enough where that will make a negative impact?

and

Has anyone succsfully or unsucessfully run those sizes on the stock 18" rims?