When do new wheels & tires affect ABS and traction control?

[mpelon]

I have a 2021 Mustang GT Premium (non PP) on order and it will come with the stock 235/50r18 square setup. I am looking at going to a 265/40r19 square setup. Already talked to my dealer’s service department and they said they would not be able to reprogram the car’s computer on this setup because it is not one of the stated options on the GT. So I would only be able to go to the 255-275 PP1 setup as a change they could reprogram. I don’t want that. I mentioned the EcoBoost has a 265 square option but he said they weren’t allowed to use that program on a GT. Anyway, I know that 265/40r19 square on 19x9.5 is very close to the stock 235/50r18 on 18x8 for speedometer accuracy but is it close enough not to affect my ABS or traction control? Here is a snapshot of the differences:

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[NightmareMoon]

If you keep your wheels approximately the same diameter as stock (most stock wheel/tire configurations use a narrow band of wheel diameters) then the ABS and traction control will be just fine.

We don't get any reports here (in 6 years haven't seen one) of ABS or traction control being problematic with a specific wheel setup. I've personally run 255/40R19 & 275/40R19, 285/35R19 square, 305/30R19, 295/35R19, and never had any issues.

ABS and traction control are basically looking at relative wheel speeds. Neither is particularly sensitive to a few percent of wheel diameter.

So ya 265/40R19 is basically exactly the same diameter as 235/50R18, so you're good to go. No recalibration needed, just bolt them on and drive away.

 

[PoCoBob]

I'm not sure if this would be relevant or not but I have a 2016 Ford Edge Sport that came with 245/50-20 wheels. I have separate wheels for my winter tires and they are 245/60-18 and I run them for about 3 months each winter. Everything works fine and I don't have to recalibrate anything. The speedo may be out a bit but nothing that causes any issues.

 

[mpelon]

Thanks for the insights from both of you. Makes me feel more comfortable going to the 265s without having to have it recalibrated. Unfortunately I am in Michigan and probably won’t get my GT delivery until its about snow time. So I think I will buy 265 summer tires and new 19 wheels for late April through early October and keep the stock 235s for the rest of the year and use my AWD suv beater on the snow days and when there’s snow on the ground. So it’ll be nice to be able just to swap twice a year and not worry about the speedo.

 

[NightmareMoon]

Thanks for the insights from both of you. Makes me feel more comfortable going to the 265s without having to have it recalibrated. Unfortunately I am in Michigan and probably won’t get my GT delivery until its about snow time. So I think I will buy 265 summer tires and new 19 wheels for late April through early October and keep the stock 235s for the rest of the year and use my AWD suv beater on the snow days and when there’s snow on the ground. So it’ll be nice to be able just to swap twice a year and not worry about the speedo.

if you’re buying new wheels for summer tires anyway, take a hard look at 275/40R19 or even better -285/35R19 on 19x10” ET35 wheels. Lots of options for wheels in that size and offset and they’re within ~2mph on the speedo w/o correction.

I do believe you can correct the soeedo to get more accurate with a tuner device or the right ODB2 dongle, a laptop, and the Forsxan software. .. To be honest I haven’t bothered because its only like 2mph and its on the safe (reads fast) side where I get fewer tickets.

 

[mpelon]

Yeah I’ll definitely consider it. A little worried about my warranty coverage doing something a little too much. I’ve seen a lot of people say they had no problems with warranty approvals even after the dealer knew they did something to it but I just get a little leery about it. At least for now, once I get delivery and drive it for a bit I’ll probably change my tune excited for some new mods.

 

[Soonertim4]

You will be fine. On my 2015 gtpp i went from 255/40/19-275/40/19 to 285/35/19-325/35/19 and everything was perfect

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