New owner (17 Mirage CVT)

[Skylerholifield]

Hi just bought a 17 Mirage with 1.2 CVT. Love this car but the stock rims and tires 165/65 r 14 seemed too thin and turning corners was always scary so I upgraded my rims to some Enkei 92 aluminum rims with 195/55 r 15 but now it just seems like my engine is revenge higher at highway speeds and find it hard to keep it at 65-70 mph. Is this normal , will the new rims effect the transmission/engines lifespan? Thank you in advance?

[MetroMPG]

Welcome to the forum!

I upgraded my rims to some Enkei 92 aluminum rims with 195/55 r 15 but now it just seems like my engine is revenge higher at highway speeds

Check:

https://tiresize.com/comparison/

Your new wheels/tires are actually under-reporting your speed compared to the stock size. Driving at an indicated 70 MPH, you're actually going about 3 MPH faster than you were on the stock wheels/tires. Not a huge difference, but it does means higher power requirement, so higher RPM.

There's probably also higher rolling resistance and aero drag with the upgraded wheel & tire which adds a bit more to power requirements at highway speeds.

Again, not a huge amount, but it adds up.

find it hard to keep it at 65-70 mph. Is this normal

Nope. That's weird. The wheel/tire change wouldn't have made THAT big a difference. If the car won't go faster than that, something else is going on.

will the new rims effect the transmission/engines lifespan?

Very slightly higher load maybe equals very slightly higher wear. But not enough to worry about.