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Thread: Fuel Efficient 15-Inch Wheels and Tires

  1. #121
    Senior Member Top_Fuel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Basic View Post
    I can't "weight" to show off my new setup once I get rubber installed
    LOL...I see what you did there.

    Can't wait to see what tires a tire engineer decides to put on his Mirage...lol...


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        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2015 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 52.2 mpg (US) ... 22.2 km/L ... 4.5 L/100 km ... 62.6 mpg (Imp)


  2. #122
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    Quote Originally Posted by Top_Fuel View Post
    LOL...I see what you did there.

    Can't wait to see what tires a tire engineer decides to put on his Mirage...lol...
    It probably wont be what you would think...
    Resident Tire Engineer

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        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 44.4 mpg (US) ... 18.9 km/L ... 5.3 L/100 km ... 53.3 mpg (Imp)


  3. #123
    Senior Member PityOnU's Avatar
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    Huge thanks to Top Fuel for posting all of his findings conclusively in this thread.

    I went ahead and got a set of 15x6.5" wheels (silver Maxxim Maze) and the recommended tires. Some things worth noting for future people:

    1. Top Fuel recommended 40mm offset rims in his post. When I was looking, there weren't many rims which had this offset, with seemingly the majority at this size having an offset of 38mm. It's not that big of a difference, but I was still concerned when ordering mine as you never know what the clearances on these things ends up being. The rims that I ended up getting were the 38mm offset, and I can confirm that so far, I have not encountered any rubbing issues. I will update/edit this post if that changes, though.

    2. Your steering will be much heavier after the change. This should go without saying, but yeah, you'll need to start actually holding onto the steering wheel again after you make the swap. I enabled cruise control on my Mirage after doing the rim/tire swap, and boy howdy, scared the **** out of me on the highway. I started going up a hill after setting a cruise speed, causing the CVT to "downshift" (not sure the actual term for pushing the engine RPM higher in a CVT) and the engine to surge. I was casually holding the wheel with just the fingertips of my one hand, and it almost ripped from my grip. Not so much from the raw power, but more from the wimpy power steering in the car. Be careful, friends!

    3. If you are trying to get nitrogen fill ups from Costco, specifically (I bought the tires through them), they will not inflate tires to a psi greater than +4psi than what is listed in your door jam. Discount Tires, however, have no such requirement.

    4. 15" rims will look "normal" on this car - as in, it won't look like anything special. If you want the "wow" factor you will need to go 16" or maybe 17". At that point, though, it becomes very challenging to find matching tires.

    I will keep an eye on my fuel economy in the coming days/weeks and see what it ends up looking like. Gut feeling off the bat is that it sounds as though the engine is having to work a little harder. Who knows what that ends up looking like in terms of MPG, though.

    If anyone here has any experience with it, how hard is it to find different center caps to fit the rims? The ones that came with these rims are plastic domes made to look like chrome, which is annoying me because the wheel itself isn't chrome. Really cheapens the look. Would much rather have a flat, brushed aluminium cap than that monstrosity.

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  5. #124
    Senior Member Top_Fuel's Avatar
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    ...got a set of 15x6.5" wheels (silver Maxxim Maze)
    I like the look of those wheels. It looks like they weigh 16 lbs each?

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    ...recommended 40mm offset
    ...I ended up getting...38mm offset
    I think any 15x6.5 wheel offset in the range of 37-43mm is probably going to be OK on a Mirage. There are a few mm's to play with. When I was looking, it seemed like every 15x6.5" wheel I came across had a 40mm offset.


    Your steering will be much heavier after the change
    Hmmm...you're the first person to make an observation about steering feel. I didn't notice any steering change on my 5-speed. But my wheel/tire weight combination only increased by 1 pound over the OEM wheels/tires. Your Maxxim wheel/tire combination would weigh about 32 lbs...which is 6 lbs more than each oem wheel/tire weighs. A 6 pound weight increase of a wheel/tire combination on a small car like a Mirage is going to be noticeable. Maybe it's even more noticeable on a CVT?

    Here's a helpful post by the resident autocross guru discussing wheel weight...

    How important is wheel weight?


    ...from Costco...(I bought the tires through them)...
    You bought 185-55-15 tires for your Mirage from Costco?!? I didn't think COSTCO would sell you a tire size that didn't originally come on the car from the factory.


    ...15" rims will look "normal" on this car
    Agreed. 15x6.5 is a decent-looking wheel on a car this size. It's pretty much what a Chevy Spark is running...which looked normal to me.


    If you want the "wow" factor you will need to go 16" or maybe 17".
    It's extremely challenging to get 16"+ (or wheels that are 7"+ wide) to fit on a Mirage without a lot of headaches. That's why you rarely see a Mirage with huge wheels.


    ...how hard is it to find different center caps to fit the rims?
    I "built" my own centercaps for another set of wheels because I didn't like the caps that came with them. Here's what I did... Measure the center cap opening of the wheel. Get on eBay/Amazon and find some generic flat center-caps to fit the wheel. You can go further by finding Mitsubishi emblems (or labels) to fit onto the flat caps. It's a lot of trial and error...but the parts are cheap. Here are some of the caps I experimented with...
    Attached Images Attached Images   
    Last edited by Top_Fuel; 09-14-2020 at 03:46 PM.

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        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2015 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 52.2 mpg (US) ... 22.2 km/L ... 4.5 L/100 km ... 62.6 mpg (Imp)


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  7. #125
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    Quote Originally Posted by Top_Fuel View Post
    You bought 185-55-15 tires for your Mirage from Costco?!? I didn't think COSTCO would sell you a tire size that didn't originally come on the car from the factory.
    If you carry the wheels in, they don't know what they are going on
    Resident Tire Engineer

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        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 44.4 mpg (US) ... 18.9 km/L ... 5.3 L/100 km ... 53.3 mpg (Imp)


  8. #126
    Senior Member Top_Fuel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Basic View Post
    If you carry the wheels in, they don't know what they are going on
    LOL...that's the way I do it!

    It sounded like when they inflated his tires, they looked on the placard in his door jamb?!?

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        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2015 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 52.2 mpg (US) ... 22.2 km/L ... 4.5 L/100 km ... 62.6 mpg (Imp)


  9. #127
    Senior Member PityOnU's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Top_Fuel View Post
    I like the look of those wheels. It looks like they weigh 16 lbs each?
    I'm not sure where Discount Tire got that weight, but if you look on the Konig site (they produce the Maxxim brand) those rims at that size are listed as weighing 12.4lbs, which is 1lb more than the Konig Heliums.

    I originally wanted chrome wheels, but adding chrome seems to add something like 8lbs, and I didn't want to be slapping 20lb rims on my Mirage while still hoping to get good gas mileage. These ones seemed like a good compromise in terms of weight/looks (I like how it has the "-<" pattern in each of the spokes, matching the shape of the chrome at the front of the car).

    Quote Originally Posted by Top_Fuel View Post
    Hmmm...you're the first person to make an observation about steering feel. I didn't notice any steering change on my 5-speed. Maybe it's even more noticeable on a CVT?
    I'm not sure what is causing it specifically - I can't really make any quantitative measurements on anything, but I do seem to have to grip the wheel more now. I can't discount the placebo effect.

    That being said, I did this wheel swap and added the rear sway bar at the same time. It may just be that case that the more confident handling of the car is leading me to drive faster than I was previously, meaning I have to do more work. Hard to say.

    Quote Originally Posted by Top_Fuel View Post
    You bought 185-55-15 tires for your Mirage from Costco?!? I didn't think COSTCO would sell you a tire size that didn't originally come on the car from the factory.
    I bought through Costco because they had the Ecopia tires on offer for like $110 off, and because the site showed they would inflate with nitrogen instead of air (to reduce expansion/contraction with temperature fluctuations). I showed up for the installation with the new set of rims, center rings, chrome lug nuts, TPM sensors, and aluminium valve stems in the back of the Mirage. I was expecting to have to argue with them just to get them to slap the tires on the rims, but they gave no argument, put everything together super nicely for me, and even installed them on the car. Put my old wheels in the back of the car in garbage bags and even left the center cap stickers for me to put on myself. Awesome service! Was not at all angry when they told me they would only inflate the tires to 39psi - figured I had already pushed my luck wayyyyyy past the breaking point.

    Quote Originally Posted by Top_Fuel View Post
    I "built" my own centercaps for another set of wheels because I didn't like the caps that came with them. Here's what I did... Measure the center cap opening of the wheel. Get on eBay/Amazon and find some generic flat center-caps to fit the wheel. You can go further by finding Mitsubishi emblems (or labels) to fit onto the flat caps. It's a lot of trial and error...but the parts are cheap. Here are some of the caps I experimented with...
    Oh, that is perfect! Thanks for the tip! Will definitely do that

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  11. #128
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    Quote Originally Posted by PityOnU View Post

    3. If you are trying to get nitrogen fill ups from Costco, specifically (I bought the tires through them), they will not inflate tires to a psi greater than +4psi than what is listed in your door jam. Discount Tires, however, have no such requirement.
    Do you pay extra for nitrogen fill ups?

  12. #129
    Senior Member Top_Fuel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by PityOnU View Post
    ...I bought through Costco because they had the Ecopia tires on offer for like $110 off
    ...put everything together super nicely for me, and even installed them on the car.
    Yeah...Costco is the cheapest place to get those tires if you buy during a promotion. I just got tires there myself and lied to them about the car they were going on. I bought 185-60-15s this time...and told them the tires were for a 2015 Ford Fiesta. I just looked at the guy who was running the tire counter...and I could tell that if I tried to tell him something that wasn't in his computer, his brain wouldn't be able to process it. Kinda like buying parts at Autozone. You just pray the counter help can find your car in their computer system.

    I dropped my wheels off to Costco, and took them home to install myself. It's a pain in the butt, but I got 4 new Ecopias for about $82/each installed (after Costco discounts).

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        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2015 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 52.2 mpg (US) ... 22.2 km/L ... 4.5 L/100 km ... 62.6 mpg (Imp)


  13. #130
    Senior Member PityOnU's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark View Post
    Do you pay extra for nitrogen fill ups?
    Nope! At least, not if you get the wheels installed through them. Not sure if they would do free fill-ups.



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