noosense00

Hey everyone, I am new to this board. I have two questions and I hope someone can help me out. What is the power disribution for the awd 04 rx330? I have been reading around the board and I am confused. I think it is pure 50/50. Can some clarify that for me? Also, I know the stock tires (18 inch) on the rx is not the greatest. I did a search on tirerack for other tire sizes and I could not find anything. Does anyone know what the other optional tire size is? Thanks for all your help.

LexNatural

18" is the option

Lil4X

Welcome to CL, noosense and LexNatural!

17" is standard, and as LexNatural says - 18" the option. Brand of the tire seems to make more difference than size. My 18" Michelins are great street tires, no real experience off road (this one's a fwd). I switched my RX300 from the stock GY "Integrity" (to use the term loosely) to CrossTerrains (upsizing to 235's) early on and had MUCH better wear, traction, and performance both on and off road on that awd.

stllex88

It's one of the few drawbacks I see to owning a RX. Both the stock 17" tire and optional 18" tire sizes appear to be mostly unique in size (width + aspect) to the RX and thus only Goodyear and Michelin offer exact replacements. Generally you are able to upsize the width and lower the profile of any tire to get more options, but on the 18" tire at least, there really are no other options at this time that I could find. That said, the Michelins I have are OK. I drove RX's with both 18" Goodyear and 18" Michelin tires and found the Michelins to be a bit quieter. Neither available tire is a superior tire. The Michelin has a substantially higher (440) treadwear rating to the Goodyear (260). Perhaps by the time the tires are ready for replacement, Bridgestone or Pirelli will offer suitable upgrade options.

Booyah

The AWD has a 50/50 front rear split all the time!! It uses the brakes and and plays with the power a little(VDC) when the situations gets slipery in snow.

I have seen the 330 comes with either Goodyear or Michilin tires....I told my sales man that if I pick a 330 and it happened to have goodyears I would want them swapped with michlins---He said sure

noosense00

Thanks for the quick replies everyone. The lack of optional tire sizes for the 18 inch wheels is my worst fear. I was hoping to put some snow tires on them as well as better street tires. I know the tire size is now 235/55. Can I go to 245/50/18 or anyother size?

NeverSatisfied

I don't think you should have a problem w/ a 245 tire. Don't know why Lexus has such narrow tires anyway; the wider the tire, the more appealing the stance!

LexNatural

Wider tires reduce gas mileage.

HarrierAWD

Wider tires also reduce traction in wet or snowy situation.

VEGASRX330

ive seen some with 22s..but that means a very low profile tire, which i dont want. i currently have 245/40/20 and would like to switch to either a 50 or even 55 series (like my stock 18s came with). does anybody know if that would rub? thanks in advance

noosense00

It's kind of disappointing that there aren't any optional tire sizes for the RX330. I know the GS does as stated in the owners manual. Since this is still a new car, I guess I will just have to wait until tire manuf. will come out with better tires that are the OEM size.

Lil4X

As the 18" rim is fairly new there are as yet few manufacturers supplying tires in this particular size. For the same reason, there are not many manufacturers of rims as yet for this vehicle. While it is my understanding that the stock RX 330 18" rim can be retrofit on the RX 300, there are many other options for the RX 300 that share the lug pattern, but are limited primarily to the 16" and 17" diameter. The tire manufacturers thus far seem to be dragging their feet in offering options in lower profile tires. They go where the money (sales volume) is. In this case they are in a "chicken or egg" situation - made worse by a limited number of 330's on the road.

From a pure marketing standpoint, this makes sense - the replacement market is limited because this is a new model and with the dealers offering a chrome option to the OEM rim, they are diluting whatever small market ther is for rim manufacturers. Rim manufacturers in turn, can't very well produce a rim for which there is no tire. This situation will not last - look for additional tires and rims to become available within the next six months, as OEM tires begin to approach the end of their service lives and the replacement/upgrade market begins to drive the tire/rim manufacturers to the RX 330.

Can we leapfrog this situation? Would the 20's (and tires) built for the 300 fit the 330? Since the two vehicles share the same lug spacing, you would think they would. But why don't we see them on the street? I'm willing to stick my neck out here and guess that the answer lies in the reduced turning radius of the 330 producing a more critical dimension to fit a larger wheel/tire combination and still allow full steering lock. Someone with better information or a good tire shop connection please correct me!

HarrierAWD

In the Jan '04 issue of Consumer Reports, they did an interesting test on plus size wheels and tires. It turned out that the improvement in handling is marginal at best, yet the ride comfort suffers considerably.

Anyone who wishes to "upsize" his wheels and tires should go to the local library and read this article first.

noosense00

My knowledge of tires is not the greatest. How come a wider tire would result in worse traction in wet/snowy conditions? Wouldn't traction be better since a wider tire would have more contact on the ground?

jcg

The wider tire would cover more road surface but less weight per square inch. I have used toboggans in the winter years ago and found out that the larger the toboggan the faster it goes.

I also owned an '88 Honda accord LSI which came with wider tires than than the models below it and it was downright dangerous in the winter. Two friends had the same year accord but one step down in models that came with a narrower tire and they experienced no problem with winter driving. I bit the bullet after two years and got snow tires which cured the problem.

Good luck.