Larger wheels and mpg?

[LilBluPony]

Has anyone upgraded their 16" to 17" and found a noticably difference in their mpg? I may be jumping too quickly at this but I usually got 25-27 mpg with my stock 16" wheels. I've had my 17" bullits w/pirelli's on for bout 2 - 3 weeks now and when I filled up my tank the other day, I was down to 21 mpg? WTF? That can't be true!! Do I have to give up mpg inorder to have nice looking wheels? UGH!!

Anyone had similar experiences?

 

[pony ride]

Unless you're going to an ultra-light type rim, you'll increase rotational mass when you increase your wheel size, which will always effect your mpg. The effect on mpg depends on the increase. I went from stock 16's to 18's on my 03 V6 coupe, and it decreased my mileage by 1.5-2mpg. You may be experiencing the 'fun-to-drive' effect from the change. The increase in footprint will improve handling, and you may be getting on the accelerator a little more to feel the most out of the improvement. This will impact your MPG more than the wheel change.

 

[LilBluPony]

Well I went from 16" rims with 215 tires to 17" rims with 235's. Yes, I think I am getting on it a lil more now since the pirelli's handle much better than the old tires. But still, I didn't expect to see that big of a change. I'm going to watch it on my next several fill ups and see if it was a flukey thing. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Marine One]

Unless you used a tuner to recalibrate your speedometer & odometer my guess is that you're now running a taller tire 7 wheel combo, which rotates less over a given distance. Put another way your odometer is registering slightly less than the actual distance driven ( as is your speedometer). I ran into this years ago when putting bigger tires on a pickup truck.

 

[kooldawg6]

Unless you used a tuner to recalibrate your speedometer & odometer my guess is that you're now running a taller tire 7 wheel combo, which rotates less over a given distance. Put another way your odometer is registering slightly less than the actual distance driven ( as is your speedometer). I ran into this years ago when putting bigger tires on a pickup truck.

+1
I'd say that is your biggest reason in MPG reduction. A tuner allowing you to the change the tire revs per mile will fix you right up. I went from the factory 17s to the factory 18s and haven't really noticed any drop in MPG