15" steelies on mazda 3? will they fit?

[dan_3GT]

Hi all,

new to the website...... i just bought a mazda 3 GT and was wondering if i can get away with 15" steelies for the winter or do they need to be 16"s.

Im not 100% sure and never ran into this problem with my civic but the calipers and rotors look big....please any help would be great!!

[eqlso]

You need 16s if you have the GT. Only the GS and GX can use the 15s.

[dan_3GT]

Thanks for the reply...

[condor888000]

For clarification, hatch GS' need 16's. You can only fit 15's on if the car has a 2.0L engine. So sedan GX/GS and hatch GX.

[SolidState]

FWIW, the caliper and and pads are the same for all Mazda 3 models. The Caliper carrier and rotor size is different. If one wanted to, you could run the GS/GX carriers on a GT/GS Sport. The two benefits of this would be:

1) You could run a 195/65/15 snow tire. I find this much more perferrable than a 205/55/16.

2) You'd being doing a brake job ;)

[condor888000]

Yes you could, but then you'd be doing a brake job every time you swap the tires in order to get the most out of the system.

[SolidState]

I guess that is all in how you look at it. Whenever the wheels come off, I usually re-apply grease to the sliders and measure the pad thickness. Takes 10 minutes more per corner, but gives me pease of mind...