How do I get my car to give up its secrets?

October 21, 2024 5:40 PM

I need to buy new tires from my car and I cant figure out the "additional model info" to save my life.

I had my annual inspection today and I almost failed because my back tires are pretty worn down. The tires are only two years old but the warranty is void because I unfortunately didnt do proper tire maintenance. In fairness to me, I spent my entire adult life riding NYC subways so this driving a car everyday is fairly new to me. Now I know better and going forward, I will be much better about this!

FOR NOW, I am trying to buy new tires off Tire Rack, to be sent to a local mechanic to be put on and aligned which apparently a thing, and then rotated every five seconds which apparently is also a thing.

This brings me to my question: On the tire rack website, it asks for the make and model and year and then "additional model info" of my car. You cannot leave any of that blank. My car is a 2012 Nissan Sentra. There IS no additional model info. The dropdown box says says I can choose: 2.0, 2.0 S, 2.0 SL, 2.0 SR, SE-R, or SE-R Spec V. Where would I find that info?

Here is where I've already checked, to no avail: the car itself. The car registration. The insurance policy. The manual. The bill of sale. NONE of these list anything beyond "2012 Nissan Sentra". There is no human to ask. Where can I find this info?

posted by silverstatue to Travel & Transportation (26 answers total)

Response by poster: Please do not suggest buying the tires through a mechanic etc. That is what I did two years ago and they took my money and hustled me out the door and here I am, with busted tires. I'm trying to do my research this time and want to explore options first. But to do that, I must figure out this additional model info question!
posted by silverstatue at 5:42 PM on October 21 [1 favorite]

Try putting your VIN number (which should be in your insurance paperwork and also stamped into a little plate on the driver's side under the windshield) into a VIN decoder.
posted by jordemort at 5:51 PM on October 21 [3 favorites]

It's in the VIN! (Vehicle Identification Number).

Autozone has a VIN Decoder page that will give you your info, and at the bottom it tells you where to find the VIN. My VIN is on my insurance policy so I didn't even need to leave my sofa to see I have a 2012 Jeep Patriot Latitude 4WD with 4 cylinders.
posted by kimberussell at 5:52 PM on October 21

Response by poster: I tried the VIN decoder already. It did not list the additional model info.
posted by silverstatue at 6:00 PM on October 21

If you have one of the SE/SL/SR/etc. models, there should be a corresponding badge on the rear of the car. See this SE-R example or this SL example.
posted by mbrubeck at 6:02 PM on October 21 [3 favorites]

I doubt the tire size would differ depending on the additional model info. Why not confirm that by just picking each choice and seeing if they all bring up the same tire size? If they do, just pick one at random and don't worry about whether it's right.
posted by Redstart at 6:03 PM on October 21 [4 favorites]

Get the tire specifications off the sticker inside your door.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:05 PM on October 21 [14 favorites]

the dropdown box is asking about what are also referred to as "trim level" or just "trim". i'm not intimately familiar with Nissan Sentra trim levels but all those numbers are the displacement in liters of the engine. the letters are just extra designators of different configurations.

in addition to mbrubeck's answer (look on the back), you might look on the sticker on the inside of the driver's side door and it could tell you what trim level your car is.

here is an overview of trim levels on the 2012 Nissan Senta
posted by glonous keming at 6:05 PM on October 21 [2 favorites]

Go look at your tires. The size info is printed on the side. It will say something like 165/80R/14. Take a picture of it with your phone.

Also, the VIN plate inside your driver door jamb may have your tire size/inflation specs as well
posted by toodleydoodley at 6:06 PM on October 21

Best answer:

I doubt the tire size would differ depending on the additional model info.

It actually varies quite a bit, since the different trim levels have different wheel sizes. For example, the front tire size for the base 2.0 trim is P205/60HR15, for the 2.0 S trim it is P205/55HR16, and for the SE-R Spec V it is P225/45WR17.
posted by mbrubeck at 6:07 PM on October 21 [1 favorite]

Get the tire specifications off the sticker inside your door.

Every car has this. Definitely a good way to get the information you need, and perhaps the best and most accurate way.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 6:07 PM on October 21

Response by poster: I just ran out and looked at the back of my car. Definitely nothing listed other than "SENTRA".

I know the tire size is listed in the door. I guess I could back into figuring out the trim size that way? Seems ridiculous its not just listed somewhere.
posted by silverstatue at 6:11 PM on October 21

Shop by tire size, you don't need to know the model of the car if you know the size of tire.
posted by so fucking future at 6:15 PM on October 21 [7 favorites]

Tire rack has great customer service. I'd suggest just giving them a call.

Alternatively the site will let you shop by size with no model info provided. You'd just need the size of the tires off the sidewall. This is probably the safest bet anyway as any used car that age could have had its wheels replaced and different size tires from stock put in at some point.
posted by woof at 6:16 PM on October 21 [1 favorite]

The tire size is written on your current tires. Those are the tires you need. You can search for tires by size on Tirerack. Or you can cycle through the different Sentra trim levels until you find the one that matches your current tires.
posted by MonsieurBon at 6:21 PM on October 21 [3 favorites]

Pretty sure your car is just the 2.0 if there's no other defining letters pasted on it anywhere. Does it have a rear spoiler? If not then it's definitely the 2.0, no letters. You can look at available options here by trim and sort out which you have. And yes to everyone who says you can just search Tire Rack by tire size.
posted by oneirodynia at 6:21 PM on October 21 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I'm going to mark mbrubeck as best answer because the tire size is P205/5516 so..... that means it must be a 2.0 S trim! The colorway matches what I have so, I guess that's the answer!
posted by silverstatue at 6:23 PM on October 21 [2 favorites]

If you insist on knowing it by trim level, pick them one by one and see if the tires that Tire Rack says came with that trim matches what your sticker says.

This would have been on your window sticker, most likely. The other option would be to get the list of standard features by trim level, and see which ones you have.
posted by Huggiesbear at 6:24 PM on October 21

In all likelihood, you have two worn out rear tyres and two fairly fresh front tyres (they get less of a workout). Rotation usually means swapping the fronts and rears over so they all wear evenly as a set. So one pair of tyres has worn out faster, and in compensation the other pair are less worn than they would be.

It's not an 'oh god critical maintenance missed' thing, it's just a consumable part wearing out, and it's probably not even costing you any money in the long run because the front tyres will last a bit longer.

Don't beat yourself up about it, just go read your car manual for its recommended rotation frequency - which is usually when you get an oil change, 6,000 miles or whatever your manual says; and the oil change places will often do it for free if they're changing your oil anyway.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 6:38 PM on October 21 [1 favorite]

BTW, I believe the new tires should go on the front, old go to rear. Reason- driven wheels should have identically worn tires. Different diameters cause excessive differential wear.
posted by H21 at 7:29 PM on October 21 [1 favorite]

I have access to a specialized automobile information database, I can tell you that since you know it needs P205/5516 tires, it doesn't matter what trim you pick (since the trim is being used to determine the tire size) so long as the matching one uses the same size. So picking the S trim level is perfectly fine (as are the SR and SL; the SE-R uses a different size as pointed out above). The other two should have badging (reading SR or SL) at the top right corner of the trunk opposite where SENTRA appears at the left, so if yours doesn't have that it probably is an S trim. The SE-R badging appears at the right of the license plate (with SENTRA at the left of it) so that would be a dead giveaway as well.
posted by axiom at 8:36 PM on October 21 [1 favorite]

BTW, I believe the new tires should go on the front, old go to rear. Reason- driven wheels should have identically worn tires. Different diameters cause excessive differential wear.

The recommendation nowadays is for two new tires to be placed on the rear. The rear tires have more to do with vehicle stability and you want better tires back there since they’ll have more tread and grip. You obviously don’t want to lose traction with your front tires, but if you lose traction on the rear the car is more likely to go out of control when the rear end of the car slides out.
posted by azpenguin at 9:25 PM on October 21 [3 favorites]

My 2023 Sentra SV has SV on the right side trunk lid. There is a sticker on the driver's side door pillar with tire sizes and pressures.
posted by H21 at 9:39 PM on October 21

You had said don’t suggest buying the tires from a local shop. However, if you have Discount Tire, known in some areas as America’s Tire, they own Tire Rack. The good thing about using Discount is that they sell tires and wheels and that’s it. They don’t do oil changes, brake jobs, or anything like that. They are known for their customer service (they stayed an hour past closing to get me back on the road when I had a blowout over 100 miles from home.) I prefer using specialty shops for things like tires for that reason.
posted by azpenguin at 9:43 PM on October 21 [2 favorites]

I see that you sorted it out, but I want to chime in with a "review" of Tire Rack. I have used them twice. One time at the recommendation of my local mechanic who has worked on 4 or 5 of my cars. He even knew that he was losing the business of installing them. Anyway, both times it worked smoothly and the tires were what they said they were in terms of wear and all specs. I would use them again as soon as I need tires.

I see you are in the northern Hudson Valley area. Fwiw, I have also used Mavis Tire and they are a specialty shop. They were competitive in terms of price, and two years later when I got nails in two tires at the same time, one going flat, they fixed them for free as a returning customer. I drove in an a half an hour later I was back on the road.

Good luck.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 12:06 AM on October 22 [1 favorite]

I've used https://monroneylabels.com/ to get the original window sticker for a few cars. The information you need should be listed there.
posted by gregr at 6:37 AM on October 22 [2 favorites]