Naive question - tire size

[Jack]

I got 4 snow tires 205/70-15 with my 99 Forester and
I want to sell them. A 2002 Forester owner told me that
her car has 215/60-16 tires on it. Does it mean that my
snow tires won't fit her car?

 

[Edward Hayes]

The base model came with 15 inch rims and the S version comes with 16
inch rims. No the tires will not fit unless you take rims with the
tires.

 

[Jack]

Thanks Edward for the quick reply.
Yes, my snow tires come with rims. So they should work
with her car?

 

[l.lichtman]

Right. If her information is correct, her rims are an inch bigger than
yours.

 

[John Rethorst]

Thanks Edward for the quick reply.
Yes, my snow tires come with rims. So they should work
with her car?

I'm not knowledgeable enough to tell from the numbers you gave, but if you trade
tires and rims (I assume the lug patterns are the same so you can), both your
speedometers might then be off.

 

[YKhan]

Don't worry about the fact it says "Miata", it's not just for Mazda
Miatas.

Tire size calculator
http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

You'll see when you plug in the two tire sizes, that there is only a
0.5% speedometer error between the two tire sizes. In other words, it's
a near perfect match.

In general, you will find that when a manufacturer gives many different
tire size options, all of those options have been chosen by the mfg to
have the same circumference, more or less.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Juan Vado]

I got 4 snow tires 205/70-15 with my 99 Forester and
I want to sell them. A 2002 Forester owner told me that
her car has 215/60-16 tires on it. Does it mean that my
snow tires won't fit her car?

Given that your tires are already on 15" rims
and those rims clear the brakes, they will be
a good match with less than a 1% theoretical
difference in circumference.

Many vehicle with larger wheel sizes use the extra
room to fit larger brakes. I have had a couple
of vehicles where only the OEM wheel would clear
the brakes without going up an inch in diameter
for non-OEM wheels due to the design. Steel wheels
were not an option.

 

[CompUser]

As long as the lug patterns the same, those
wheels & tires will be fine on her vehicle.

 

[Cam Penner]

Given that your tires are already on 15" rims
and those rims clear the brakes, they will be
a good match with less than a 1% theoretical
difference in circumference.

Many vehicle with larger wheel sizes use the extra
room to fit larger brakes. I have had a couple
of vehicles where only the OEM wheel would clear
the brakes without going up an inch in diameter
for non-OEM wheels due to the design. Steel wheels
were not an option.

I've had it worse. I bought steel rims (for winter) for my
Nissan NX2000 from a wrecker. Unfortunately they only had
3, and I had to order one from Nissan directly. They were
all the same size. Except when I put them on the second
year (and was rotating them) I noticed that the one from
Nissan directly didn't clear the front brakes. All of the
other 3 were fine.

It turns out that the NA built NX2000s had a different
(larger) set of front brakes on them than the Japanese
built ones. Both were imported for the same years.

Moral of the story? Try them on the car and check
clearances before you close the transaction.

 

[Cam Penner]

(e-mail address removed)
says...

It turns out that the NA built NX2000s had a different
(larger) set of front brakes on them than the Japanese
built ones. Both were imported for the same years.

Er, make that (smaller). The JAPANESE model's had larger
front brakes.

I need caffeine.