[gnx547]

My 96 escort came with 13 inch tires and I would like to upgrade to either 14 or 15 inch. When upgrading, do I also have to upgrade the rotors, pads and calipers?

 

[Escort92Man]

you don't have to, but you can if you like, the stock brakes should still halt a 14 or 15 inch rim if you aren't driving insane. I have the escort GT with 10 inch rotors up front and the 13 inch rimmed escorts have 9 inch rotors up front. so a 1 inch difference.

what style of rim you going with the stock 14 inch escort rim or the stock 15 inch GT fan blade? I thought about throwing my spare set of GT rims on my LX escort so it is rolling on 15 fan blades instead of the dinky 13 inch steelies lol. but the GT is my daily driver so kinda pointless to put a good set of 15's on a car I don't ever drive

answering your question no you don't need to upgrade your brakes. it just might not stop AS fast as before but it won't be a danger at all.

 

[ValleyScort96]

are you sure you have the 13s on the 96? i though the only ones with 13s were the lx and pony from 91 and 92, since they had the 9in rotors. and all 93 and up had the 10in rotors

 

[agrowagon]

my 93 lx wagon came with 13" steelies and 9" front rotors but i upgraded to the 10" front rotors and rear disc brakes from a 93 GT. Stops on a dime!
and i also have the 93 style 15" fanblade rims on my wagon.
So to say that it is nessesary to upgrade your brakes.NO you don't have to but if you want a little more braking performance then yes. Do upgrade.

 

[white-lightning]

I believe sometime in '94 all Lx's had 10".

 

[FordMan59]

My '88 Pony came with 13" rims from the factory. I'm running 14" rims on it without any braking issues, but then I'm nearly 50 years old and don't drive like I did when I was a teenager. lol

 

[gnx547]

are you sure you have the 13s on the 96? i though the only ones with 13s were the lx and pony from 91 and 92, since they had the 9in rotors. and all 93 and up had the 10in rotors

yup, my 96 has 13 inch tires, The person I bought it from told me the 13 inch tires are factory. 13 inch tires are to small for the escort..Just imagine winter time driving, I think it would be hard to drive in the winter with 13 inch tires.

 

[ValleyScort96]

thats crazy, i havent seen any escort after 93 with 13s. but yeah find yourself those alloy 14s or some 15s so that the gap gets filled in a little better.

i have already done the rear disk swap on my pony and i need to motivate myself for the front swap so that i can stop my 17s a little better.

 

[gnx547]

About how much will my speedo be off when I upgrade to 14 or 15 inch wheels?

 

[FordMan59]

About how much will my speedo be off when I upgrade to 14 or 15 inch wheels?

Here's a link to a tire size calculator. Just put in the original size tire and the new size and it will figure the speedometer error.

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

 

[ciento44]

1) Braking. It has nothing to do with the size of the wheel you're upgrading to. It has to do with the rolling mass/intertia of the old vs. new packages. Likely, you'll be within 5lbs of the old package. Braking upgrades not required or needed if you're satisfied with your current package.

2) Speedo difference. If you put the correct size tire on your new size rim, you will see no difference.

 

[the1nicko]

Can someone tell me what is involved in upgrading to rear discs? And are the 10" front rotors from the 93 GT a direct swap?

 

[VashSpiegel]

I have a 95 LX [14" tires]. I was looking at putting the 15" fan blades from my '89 GT for the winter [more tread, drive with a tire squeal on every corner during the summer]. The problem is the lug nut pattern seems to be slightly smaller then the 15". Is there an adapter I should look into buying or should I just look down @ the junkyard for a set of 14" with more tread?

 

[ciento44]

I have a 95 LX [14" tires]. I was looking at putting the 15" fan blades from my '89 GT for the winter [more tread, drive with a tire squeal on every corner during the summer]. The problem is the lug nut pattern seems to be slightly smaller then the 15". Is there an adapter I should look into buying or should I just look down @ the junkyard for a set of 14" with more tread?

Lug pattern for fan blades should be the same as what's on the 95LX.

 

[cklaubur]

Wheels from the 1st gen Escorts (pre '91) use a different bolt pattern (4x108 compared to 4x100 for the 2nd and 3rd gen Escorts) and won't work on a '95 without an adapter.

Casey