Some help with the 'obsolete' 185/80r13 tire alternatives, someone recommended..

Yeah, what's up. I'm particularly new here, in fact this is my very first post and in this I thought that I'd ask for a group opinion in regards to my current situation. I currently have 185/80r13 on an older model car of mine, and since they keep "shredding" and my supplier is getting low on them, I went searching around for good and acceptable alternative sizes. I've been left with the option of replacing the original size of 185/80r13 with 175/70r13, all four of them for well over $200, but these are new tires too, but the price isn't the question here. I wanted to just know about the tire sizes and if it was okay to make such a transition... it won't kill my car will it?

Welcome to AF!!

It would help to know what model (I suspect it is a Grand Am but what trim level)and year car you are speaking about for us to help you. Without knowing it will be impossible to give you good information.

It's a year 89' Pontiac Grand Am. Thanks for the reply, and I hope to hear more!

Based on what I have been able to determine you could switch to 14 inch wheels and tires off of other models of Grand Am. The only thing would be that you would need to have the speedometer re-calibrated. They are usually 190/70 14's. These are more widely available and much cheaper. The wheels are available at most wrecking yards but prices vary.

I am not an expert, but from what I understand and I've been told, you need the same width tire and the same circumferance to within 3%.

http://www.1010tires.com/TireSizeCalculator.asp

Punch in the numbers.

You could get 185/65R15, which are very common, and within 0.7% tolerance.

Your tires are "shredding" ?
What exactly does that mean? Tread separation? Blow-outs?

How old are your tires? Unless these tires are 10+ years old. something is wrong here. Perhaps you have another problem needing repair before you spring for new tires.

Thanks for the responses everyone! ... when I say "shredding", i mean that the surface of the tire, that is to say, my front driver side tire literally shreds after a while, but this is because in buying used Radial tires which are years old, when they're damaged they tend to do that. The bare surface rips off and flies everywhere when I'm going high speeds, but it's only been the same tire, I think three times already... but I honestly think my supplier has a bunch of bad radial tires, though.

You need to have your alignment checked if you keep shredding tires on one wheel. Or maybe a bad rim? The odds of having a bunch or "bad" tires on one wheel, probably not.