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Default OT 2016 Toyota Avalon Rough Ride

I love my 2016 Toyota Avalon Limited....except for the rough ride. You
can feel most every bump, expansion joint, pavement crack and manhole
cover on the road. Even shallow potholes slam and are a teeth-jarring
experience! The tires are inflated to the door sticker pressure and
there's nothing wrong with the suspension.

I know Toyota gave this trim model a "sportier" suspension with
225/18/45 skinny tires on 18 inch wheels to improve handling- rather
than go with the fatter 215/17/55 on 17 inch wheels on the lower trim
models.

It's getting to be tire time and I wonder if it might be worth buying a
tire/wheel package in the smaller size.

Would the taller 55 sidewalls absorb road bumps better? Any problems
with transmission shift points, speedo readings, any of the
electronics/gauge stuff, etc.?

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Default OT 2016 Toyota Avalon Rough Ride

On 7/7/2020 9:35 AM, badgolferman wrote:
Wade Garrett wrote:

I love my 2016 Toyota Avalon Limited....except for the rough ride.
You can feel most every bump, expansion joint, pavement crack and
manhole cover on the road. Even shallow potholes slam and are a
teeth-jarring experience! The tires are inflated to the door sticker
pressure and there's nothing wrong with the suspension.

I know Toyota gave this trim model a "sportier" suspension with
225/18/45 skinny tires on 18 inch wheels to improve handling- rather
than go with the fatter 215/17/55 on 17 inch wheels on the lower trim
models.

It's getting to be tire time and I wonder if it might be worth buying
a tire/wheel package in the smaller size.

Would the taller 55 sidewalls absorb road bumps better? Any problems
with transmission shift points, speedo readings, any of the
electronics/gauge stuff, etc.?



When I bought my 2013 Lexus RX350 it came with 19" wheels. I made the
dealership switch the wheels with another vehicle to the 18" wheels. I
knew 19" tires are expensive and I wanted more air in them for a softer
ride.

Does your Avalon come with suspension settings you can change? My 2004
Avalon was a very comfortable ride and we loved it. An Avalon is
basically a Lexus ES and it should be a softer ride.


More air down there (volume in tire) the softer the ride.
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Default OT 2016 Toyota Avalon Rough Ride

On Tuesday, July 7, 2020 at 9:53:42 AM UTC-4, Wade Garrett wrote:
On 7/7/20 9:35 AM, badgolferman wrote:
Wade Garrett wrote:

I love my 2016 Toyota Avalon Limited....except for the rough ride.
You can feel most every bump, expansion joint, pavement crack and
manhole cover on the road. Even shallow potholes slam and are a
teeth-jarring experience! The tires are inflated to the door sticker
pressure and there's nothing wrong with the suspension.

I know Toyota gave this trim model a "sportier" suspension with
225/18/45 skinny tires on 18 inch wheels to improve handling- rather
than go with the fatter 215/17/55 on 17 inch wheels on the lower trim
models.

It's getting to be tire time and I wonder if it might be worth buying
a tire/wheel package in the smaller size.

Would the taller 55 sidewalls absorb road bumps better? Any problems
with transmission shift points, speedo readings, any of the
electronics/gauge stuff, etc.?



When I bought my 2013 Lexus RX350 it came with 19" wheels. I made the
dealership switch the wheels with another vehicle to the 18" wheels. I
knew 19" tires are expensive and I wanted more air in them for a softer
ride.

Does your Avalon come with suspension settings you can change? My 2004
Avalon was a very comfortable ride and we loved it. An Avalon is
basically a Lexus ES and it should be a softer ride.

Nope, no changeable suspension settings- though the transmission has the
three shift point setting buttons.

I had looked at the Lexus ES 350 and best I could tell, the main
difference between it and the Avalon Limited was its auto swing-away
steering wheel at engine shut off,


Things like that are OK if you buy it new or only a couple years old with
warranty and only intend to keep the car during the
warranty period or maybe a few years after. Outside that, those added
complexities just become expensive things to fix when they break,
unless you're DIY. Even then it can get pricey. Some are OK I guess
because you don't necessarily need to use that part anymore if it goes kaput.




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Default OT 2016 Toyota Avalon Rough Ride

On Tuesday, July 7, 2020 at 9:55:41 AM UTC-4, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Tue, 7 Jul 2020 09:23:07 -0400, Wade Garrett
wrote:

I love my 2016 Toyota Avalon Limited....except for the rough ride. You
can feel most every bump, expansion joint, pavement crack and manhole
cover on the road. Even shallow potholes slam and are a teeth-jarring
experience! The tires are inflated to the door sticker pressure and
there's nothing wrong with the suspension.

I know Toyota gave this trim model a "sportier" suspension with
225/18/45 skinny tires on 18 inch wheels to improve handling- rather
than go with the fatter 215/17/55 on 17 inch wheels on the lower trim
models.

It's getting to be tire time and I wonder if it might be worth buying a
tire/wheel package in the smaller size.

Would the taller 55 sidewalls absorb road bumps better? Any problems
with transmission shift points, speedo readings,


The speedometer depends only on the circumference of the tire, which
would be the same iiuc. The shift points also, I think.



There are online calculators available where you can put in the std tire
size and whatever you want to compare it against and it will do the math
and give you the speedometer difference. Generally you want to stay
within a few percent and IMO having it read out on the high side is
better to help avoid tickets.



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Default OT 2016 Toyota Avalon Rough Ride

Wade Garrett wrote:

On 7/7/20 9:35 AM, badgolferman wrote:
Wade Garrett wrote:

I love my 2016 Toyota Avalon Limited....except for the rough ride.
You can feel most every bump, expansion joint, pavement crack and
manhole cover on the road. Even shallow potholes slam and are a
teeth-jarring experience! The tires are inflated to the door
sticker pressure and there's nothing wrong with the suspension.

I know Toyota gave this trim model a "sportier" suspension with
225/18/45 skinny tires on 18 inch wheels to improve handling-
rather than go with the fatter 215/17/55 on 17 inch wheels on the
lower trim models.

It's getting to be tire time and I wonder if it might be worth
buying a tire/wheel package in the smaller size.

Would the taller 55 sidewalls absorb road bumps better? Any
problems with transmission shift points, speedo readings, any of
the electronics/gauge stuff, etc.?



When I bought my 2013 Lexus RX350 it came with 19" wheels. I made
the dealership switch the wheels with another vehicle to the 18"
wheels. I knew 19" tires are expensive and I wanted more air in
them for a softer ride.

Does your Avalon come with suspension settings you can change? My
2004 Avalon was a very comfortable ride and we loved it. An Avalon
is basically a Lexus ES and it should be a softer ride.

Nope, no changeable suspension settings- though the transmission has
the three shift point setting buttons.

I had looked at the Lexus ES 350 and best I could tell, the main
difference between it and the Avalon Limited was its auto swing-away
steering wheel at engine shut off, somewhat plusher interior and
better audio system, an extra year of bumper-to-bumper warranty,
fancier dealership decor and way better looking and really hot sales
babes.

I was ready to pop for the Lexus- but was offered a really good price
on "last year's" 2016 Avalon Limited after the 2017s had already been
in the showroom a month or two. I usually keep a car a long time so
the "lost year" in resale value really wasn't an issue for me. I
counter-offered a few thousand less and ended driving out for what
was pretty close to what I felt was a "gimme" price.



Looks like this may be a common issue:
https://www.toyotanation.com/threads...-help.1602602/



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Default OT 2016 Toyota Avalon Rough Ride

On Tue, 7 Jul 2020 09:23:07 -0400, Wade Garrett wrote:

I love my 2016 Toyota Avalon Limited....except for the rough ride. You
can feel most every bump, expansion joint, pavement crack and manhole
cover on the road. Even shallow potholes slam and are a teeth-jarring
experience! The tires are inflated to the door sticker pressure and
there's nothing wrong with the suspension.

I know Toyota gave this trim model a "sportier" suspension with
225/18/45 skinny tires on 18 inch wheels to improve handling- rather
than go with the fatter 215/17/55 on 17 inch wheels on the lower trim
models.


I'm curious why the slightly wider tire is a "skinny" tire while the
slightly narrower tire is a "fatter" tire, but I'll put that aside.

Doing the math, the 225/45-18 is approximately 659.7mm (25.9") tall when
new, while the 215/55-17 is approximately 668.3mm (26.3") tall when new,
with a difference of about 1.3% between the two. Sidewall heights are
101.25mm vs 118.25mm, respectively, but I don't think the harsh ride is due
entirely to tire size. Tire construction could still play a role, with some
tire models having a stiffer sidewall than others.

You say there's nothing wrong with the suspension, but if I needed to tame
a harsh ride that's where I'd start, especially with the shocks. Spring
rates could also be a contributor.

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Default OT 2016 Toyota Avalon Rough Ride

On Tue, 7 Jul 2020 09:23:07 -0400, Wade Garrett
wrote:

I love my 2016 Toyota Avalon Limited....except for the rough ride. You
can feel most every bump, expansion joint, pavement crack and manhole
cover on the road. Even shallow potholes slam and are a teeth-jarring
experience! The tires are inflated to the door sticker pressure and
there's nothing wrong with the suspension.

I know Toyota gave this trim model a "sportier" suspension with
225/18/45 skinny tires on 18 inch wheels to improve handling- rather
than go with the fatter 215/17/55 on 17 inch wheels on the lower trim
models.

It's getting to be tire time and I wonder if it might be worth buying a
tire/wheel package in the smaller size.

Would the taller 55 sidewalls absorb road bumps better? Any problems
with transmission shift points, speedo readings, any of the
electronics/gauge stuff, etc.?

Definitely better ride, and NO change to any calibrations. The
215/55/17 will rie better. I would defintely be checking to see if a
16 inch rim will clear the brake calipers and if so go to a 215/ 65 16
or possibly even a 215/70) which will change the speedo calibration by
a small amount but not cause any other issues)or 21
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Default OT 2016 Toyota Avalon Rough Ride

On Tue, 07 Jul 2020 13:49:28 -0500, Jim Joyce
wrote:

On Tue, 7 Jul 2020 09:23:07 -0400, Wade Garrett wrote:

I love my 2016 Toyota Avalon Limited....except for the rough ride. You
can feel most every bump, expansion joint, pavement crack and manhole
cover on the road. Even shallow potholes slam and are a teeth-jarring
experience! The tires are inflated to the door sticker pressure and
there's nothing wrong with the suspension.

I know Toyota gave this trim model a "sportier" suspension with
225/18/45 skinny tires on 18 inch wheels to improve handling- rather
than go with the fatter 215/17/55 on 17 inch wheels on the lower trim
models.


I'm curious why the slightly wider tire is a "skinny" tire while the
slightly narrower tire is a "fatter" tire, but I'll put that aside.


Fatter - not wider. More "meat" between the rim and the road

Doing the math, the 225/45-18 is approximately 659.7mm (25.9") tall when
new, while the 215/55-17 is approximately 668.3mm (26.3") tall when new,
with a difference of about 1.3% between the two. Sidewall heights are
101.25mm vs 118.25mm, respectively, but I don't think the harsh ride is due
entirely to tire size. Tire construction could still play a role, with some
tire models having a stiffer sidewall than others.

You say there's nothing wrong with the suspension, but if I needed to tame
a harsh ride that's where I'd start, especially with the shocks. Spring
rates could also be a contributor.

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Default OT 2016 Toyota Avalon Rough Ride

On 7/7/2020 2:42 PM, Clare Snyder wrote:
On Tue, 7 Jul 2020 09:23:07 -0400, Wade Garrett
wrote:

I love my 2016 Toyota Avalon Limited....except for the rough ride. You
can feel most every bump, expansion joint, pavement crack and manhole
cover on the road. Even shallow potholes slam and are a teeth-jarring
experience! The tires are inflated to the door sticker pressure and
there's nothing wrong with the suspension.

I know Toyota gave this trim model a "sportier" suspension with
225/18/45 skinny tires on 18 inch wheels to improve handling- rather
than go with the fatter 215/17/55 on 17 inch wheels on the lower trim
models.

It's getting to be tire time and I wonder if it might be worth buying a
tire/wheel package in the smaller size.

Would the taller 55 sidewalls absorb road bumps better? Any problems
with transmission shift points, speedo readings, any of the
electronics/gauge stuff, etc.?

Definitely better ride, and NO change to any calibrations. The
215/55/17 will rie better. I would defintely be checking to see if a
16 inch rim will clear the brake calipers and if so go to a 215/ 65 16
or possibly even a 215/70) which will change the speedo calibration by
a small amount but not cause any other issues)or 21


Way back last spring when Micky was obsessing over replacement tires I
built a set of MATLAB functions to compare nominal dimensions from tire
profile data-- those were

fnHSect=@(SW,AR) SW*AR/25.4/100; % Section Ht inches
fnDrim=@(Drim,SW,AR) Drim+2*fnHSect(SW,AR) % Overall diameter (in)

where SW is standard width (mm) and AR the aspect ratio, Drim is nominal
rim diameter (in)

For the above

fnHSect(215,55)/fnHSect(225,45)

ans =
1.1679


there's 17% more section height for the 215/55 over the 225/45 but if
you went with 225,55, that would be 22%--

fnHSect(225,55)/fnHSect(225,45)

ans =
1.2222


Don't have a correlation for effective spring stiffness at hand, but
that would be enough I'd think be noticeable in softness; just how much
it'll affect the handling will depend on whether you really push the
limits or not...

I really liked the stiffer suspension on the Chrysler 300M with the
sport package option until moved back to KS on the dirt roads...then it
was a tooth-rattling experience for sure. Plus, it had so little road
clearance for mud sold it after a couple years. Anyways, back to the
main thread,

fnDrim(17,215,55)/fnDrim(18,225,45)

ans =
1.0130


Is only 1% difference overall diameter/same for circumference for
calibration error...

fnDrim(17,225,55)/fnDrim(18,225,45)

ans =
1.0297

if go back with 225.

Surprisingly, even the 16" w/ 65 ratio is about the same...

fnDrim(16,215,65)/fnDrim(18,225,45)

ans =
1.0397


The section height portion change with the SW ratio compensates even
more than the rim diameter change...

--


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