I just bought a 98 Prelude (yes that makes three preludes in our family now lol) anyways, it is lowered, riding on 18s and has low profile tires. The guy I bought it from has the original 16 Honda rimms, so we are suppose to trade, he gets his 18s back, and I get the 16s. People are telling me though that even if I get a bigger tire that by putting the 16s on it will make the car even lower, which can't happen cuz if it gets any lower it will be sratchin' everywhere I go. Does anyone know if this is true?
Someone else suggested buying the original springs, having the car raised back up and then switching the rimms and getting larger tires. They said this is also better cuz when a car is lowered the inside of the tires wear quicker, so it would be saving me a bunch of trouble.

Anyone have any knowledge about this and wish to share?

 

Well with my nsx I have larger tires and with the way the camber angle is on it, the inside of the tires do wear alot more. How many inches is the car lowered?

 

You said the car is lowered, but not how much. Take a tape measure and go from the ground to the 4 jacking points on each side. If you have less than 5" you are asking for scrape city in many parts of the country.
Now as to swapping the wheels-you get the stock 16" ones and put something like the Bridgestone RE730/750 on them and you will be back to stock whell/tire size. Yes you can go with a taller tire-but the computer (ECU) will not love you. You can buy stock springs and raise the car to stock height-then again you can also get a set of Koni "yellow" shocks and set them down one groove to lower the car a little.
It is really critical to do the measurement I mentioned before you do any tire sizing. The stock wheels are just fine for the most part. As to CAMBER issues on a lowered car-they can be dealt with, for a price. Need help--drop me an e-mail. Been there with all of this.

 

It all depends on the size of the tires on the 18's and the size of the tires on the 16's. You can't tell just by the size of the rims.