This weekend I spent alot of money on my car. I replaced my tires with bridgetone potenza 050. 225/45/17, a little smaller than stock, but i didnt want it to rub when I lower it and it will stop me from speeding a little bit. I replaced my front brakes with Rotora drilled and slotted rotors and Hawk HPS pads, also did a brake flush. I lowered my car with tein s type lowering springs, which lowered it 2.1 in the front and 1.5 in the rear. I also added a strut tower brace and a rear lower tie bar. I have to say the car handles great now, there is no rubbing at all. when your driving you cant even tell its lowered it rides so smooth. the only problem I have is that I have to watch out when I park that I dont pull forward too far. everything was suprisingly very easy to install.

let me know what you think

DD

 

Ill be in the market for tires soon...how do you like hte potenzas? I have stock 215/50/r17's right now and I wanted to go wider but I didn't know how wide I can go...I wanted to go with 235's... Would that be 235/45/r17? But I like the potenzas let me know what you think!

 

I have only had my tires for a few days now but I like them. the only bad thing is with the tires I got they only average around 18,000 miles. I got them for real cheap through work so I figured I would buy them anyways. If you decide to go with 235/45/17 it will be the same over circumfrance as your stock tires so it wont trow your speedometer off. another good tire brand is michelin, they are expensive but worth it.

 

Not to seem like an *** but how are different tires going to stop you from speeding? And those tires may be a tad shorter but they are wider which essentially puts you right back to where the stock tires were. And 235s wont fit on the stock rims.... 225 is about as wide as you can go. BTW Michilin tires are overpriced and crappy. Just look at the crap that was put on these cars stock. Yep..Also a strut tower brace does nothing for these cars either. If you want a change it handling go buy some new sway bars. Then you will realize what a real difference is.

Note to User: (refrain from using harsh language please)

 

if you know anything about tires 225 is the width of the tire in millimeters and 45 is the aspet ratio between the width of the tire and the sidewall. if you do the math you will find out that a tire that is 225/45/17 has a smaller circumfrance than a tire that is 215/50/17 which will make the speedometer. so the speedometer will say your going faster than you really are. If strut towers dont make a differents why do alot of high end cars come with them. just becuase you cant noticable tell a differents doenst mean it doesnt do anything. I probly helps chasis flex a little bit, but I cant really prove that. Sway bars will be next when I get some more money.

 

Did I mention anything about the speedo? No. So I dont really care about that. lol. And its been proven the strut tower bars do nothing on the mazda 6. Its only for looks. The chassis is already VERY rigid so the strut tower bars do nothing, got to mazda6club. Its been proven time and time again that they dont help anything on the 6.

 

so 225/45/r17's it is! lol...

(im feeling some tension here! Kiss and make up! lol)

 

I traded in the stock Michelins for 225/45-17 Pirelli P Zero Nero M+S and they are great.
The speedometer is off about 2%. It reads 60 mph, but actual speed is only 58.something accoring to calculation. However, most speedometers are not accurate to start with.
235 is too wide for the stock rims.

 

Dude, your alloys look chewed up?

 

yeah 2 of my rims are have a little curb rash they were like that when I bought it. they just happened to be on the front of my car when I was taking pictures of my brakes.