dochawk

I suppose that I should preface this with we should never have bought this thing; it's my wife's midlife crisis, and I violated the first rule of car buying (don't bring your wife!).

Anyway, we've discovered the bypassed heater core (pulling the console to get to it is about $1k to do a $200 job), and when it tore apart a tire, I discovered the locking lugnuts with no key.

After a few weeks poking around, we solved that: at the suggestion of someone in my CLC chapter that had faced that, I went to a mexican tire place, who charged me $5 each to get them off.

Now, getting to the tire hell, this thing came with hideously mismatched tires, 234/35R20, three of which were badly low, and two spare wheels with even further mis-matched tires.

Yes, these *do* rub if you turn them "too far" (a point reached in normal driving).

The adventure began when the front right blew.

So the back now has Goodyear Ultra Plus 255/35ZR20 on the right, and a 255/35ZR20 Extra Super on the left. At least each have the right direction.

Since it was sitting there waiting for an engine, I pulled the left wheels with brand new tires from my 2006 Miata GT. These are Sumitono 205/50R17 (which is a size larger than it came with, but that thing is geared ridiculously low with no overdrive).

All done with the swap,

and with my Miata looking kind of silly with those big tires put on it to hold it up:

So we head off for a drive.

Well, almost.

Leaving the driveway, we heard squeaking. A quick investigation shows that it was the *front*, rather than rear, tires

I've looked, but can't find the source, and don't want to risk things. I'm assuming that the Miata wheel is simply incompatible (it's a 17", and it seems that stock were 15" and 16").

The intermediate term plan is to go to a pic-a-part and get stock wheels, but it sure would be nice if that $500 of rubber didn't go to waste (This is las vegas; the heat and UV make tire life about 3 years whether you drive or not; tread wear isn't somethign we worry about).

hawk

dawson1112

I doubt it has any thing to do with the rim diameter, and every thing to do with the back spacing of the miata rims on a mustang.