Greetings.

I just got into an 03 Accord LX with manual transaxle as a long term reliable car. My previous car (91 Toyota MR2 turbo) met an unfortunate end when some idiot wasn't paying attention on the highway and ended up going eastbound in a southbound lane right in front of me. I had that car for 4 years and a previous 92 MR2 NA for a year before that, so I'm trying to get used to driving a front engine, front drive car again. My first car was an 86 Honda Prelude which I owned for 6 years.

Overall, I enjoy the new car, though no MR2, it is still fun to drive for a cheap, 4 door family sedan. However, I think some improvements can be made to the wheels, tires, springs and dampers to put it even more into the fun to drive category. With these improvements, that will make it better and hold me over until I can afford another sports car with the intent of keeping both cars.

I just finished school, and when I get a full time job, the first thing I will address is wheels & tires. I can't stand the stock tires on the Accords, and my near base model LX has steel wheels. So there are big performance gains to be had from changing these. I am looking at going with a 225/50 16 performance tire (Yokohama AVS Sport or Bridgestone S02 or S03) on a 16 X 7 SSR Competition with a 42mm offset.

Has anyone put 225 width tires on an 03 Accord and experienced any rubbing problems? I got my ruler out trying to measure approximate changes, and it looks like it will be very close to flush with the outer fender body.

Does Honda sell sport suspension parts (springs, dampers) through their dealer network like Toyota does with TRD? I'd like to get firmer springs and "harder" dampers that won't void the warranty, otherwise I'll have to wait three years to get those.

Thanks for any input if you are still awake through all that.

 

the closest thing you will get to having Honda sports parts is Comptech. Comptech is a great company when it comes to Honda performance. when you get Comptech parts installed at the dealer, it will not void your warrantee.

 

y u goin for 16's?? that's pretty small for the 03 accord... u could easily fit 19's into them..... prob with 235/35 tires.... that would look sweet...

 

I have 225/50/ZR16 on my 99 Accord...they should fit on yours. Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3...the tires give up long before the car does

I owned S-03's before...I would recommend the D3's over them. EVO magazine ranked the D3 #1 in a tire test and the S-03 was 2nd to last out of 8 tires. If you want me to, I can go into an in depth review of the S-03 v the GS-D3.

Chris

 

It'll be a bit more time before more companies come out with suspension stuff, but if you upgrade the suspension, wheels and tires with quality stuff, it'll handle great.

You mentioned you didn't like the looks of the stock wheels...you might want to go bigger for a better look. 18's would be nice, and 19's even fit fine.

I have 18's on my 99. Click the sig for suspension setup.

 

Thanks for all the help.

I am considering 225/45 17 also.

reasons why I'd rather have 16 or 17s than 18s or 19s:
1. Wheels are cheaper
2. Tires are cheaper
3. I think 225 is about as wide as I can go. There are MANY 225/50 16 high performance tires available.
4. A 50 or 45 ratio on a 225 is a good compromise between performance and ride comfort.
5. Less weight
6. I think the only practical reason to run 18 or 19 is to fit large brakes, but I'm not planning on this.
7. 18 or 19 allows for lower profile sidewall, true, but often at ride comfort expense, and living in the real world roads, I don't want an expensive rim to be damaged with low profile sidewalls.

About how many miles do you get out of a set of these tires? Do all four wear pretty evenly? My MR2 front tires lasted about 25,000 miles using Yokohama AVS intermediates. The rears I had to replace about every 7000 miles.

 

I got about 25k out of the S-03's and I drive em pretty hard. They wore evenly, with the fronts wearing a tad more but rotation fixing that.

But as I said, the Goodyear F1 GS-D3's are superior tires from what I've experienced so far, and EVO magazine agrees. Give me a yell if you want an in depth review of the pros and cons of the D3 versus the S-03.

 

Hi JeffW (and everybody),
I also have the 15 inch steel wheels with the lovely plastic wheel covers on my 2003 Accord Sedan, and want to replace them ASAP. In shopping around on the web, I also picked the SSR Competitions as my first choice, although I'm not sure yet what size I'm going for - but, then I thought, I'm not so sure how they'll look with the drum brakes that I have on my rear wheels
I was also thinking of getting a set of the stock EX wheels and tires (they keep appearing, new or almost new, on ebay) - but, same situation. What do you all think about this? And, can anyone suggest a wheel that would look good but still cover enough of the drum brakes so it would look okay (probably 16 or 17 inch, but even 15 inch maybe)? Thanks!!