Fixing Speedometer issue with tire size

[arnard]

Has anyone ever put smaller tires on their beetle to fix the issue of the speedo reading 3 to 4 miles slow? I was thinking that if the next time I replaced tires on my car if I put something a bit smaller (like 185/55/16) on the car it would balance out and my speedo might actually be correct.

thoughts?

[Pelican18TQA4]

The speedometer actually reads about 4 mph fast, about a 4-5% difference. So, to compensate, you'd have to install tires with an overall diameter that's about 4-5% larger than a factory size.

[mgwerks]

And, it's only the speedometer, not the odometer, so if you tried to *fix* one thing that way, you'd throw off the other.

[dunno513]

My speedo in an 06 is only "off" by 1.2'ish mph. That's gps based. My wifes jeep is also off by a hair under 1 mph so unless you have used a gps to test your speedo, don't just assume that its 3-4 mph for every case.

Also, correcting the speedo with LARGER tires will probably have more of an impact on your MPG's than fixing a speed issue.

just my $.02

[Pelican18TQA4]

Dad's '02 Golf, my previous '02 GTI, my previous '03 NBC, my '05 NB, my brother's '01 Jetta, they're all off by about 3-4 mph as per a Garmin GPS.