Tires Didnt Fit...

[bavariankid06]

ok, i knew that 225/50/16's would not fit on my car, but my dad got them anyways...and guess what, they didnt fit. the tire guy put them on while i was at school and saw that they didnt fit and my dad let him order 205/45/16. we went by there and told him what i wanted(225/40/16) and he said they wouldnt fit. my car is lowered 1 1/2 inches and w/ the 225/50's it was good in the back, but rubbed the front fender bad. i think 225/40/16 will fit on my car. what should the middle number be, i'm definately set on 225, but i don't know if i should get 225/40 or 225/45...?

sorry, i knew i told all u guys i would hav pics today!!!

[Bmw1990]

I say u get the 45 or higher... The more sidewall u get the better. Low pro tires look good, but ride comfort is sacrificed, and if u hit a pot hole you want as much protection as possible. also handling is sacrificed with thinner sidewalls.

If u look at the pic you can see that a 50 looks pretty good.

[e30fanm3]

i dont know about the 40s but the 50s will rub the back, i would go with 205/40s in the front and 225/40s in the back, if they even make 205/40-16s i dunno off the top of my head

[bavariankid06]

bmw1990, my car is lowerd 1 1/2" and i hav 16s. u hav 15s. 50s look good w/ a 15" wheel, but 50s on a 16" wheel adds another inch. right now i'm looking at 225/45/16, omg...there's too many fitments

[TMac325is]

what is the difference between 40s, 45s, and 50s, what does that 2nd number mean?

[Bmw1990]

second number is the sidewall width in mm's.. the bigger the number the greater the sidewall width

[BMWJNKY]

Originally posted by Bmw1990@Mar 3 2005, 06:37 PM
second number is the sidewall width in mm's.. the bigger the number the greater the sidewall width

[snapback]303470[/snapback]

No. The second number is the aspect ratio. It is the ratio of sidewall to tread width. For instance a 315/40/17 is going to have a larger sidewall than a 225/40/17 because the ratio of sidewall to tread width is bigger.

Also, you will gain handling if you go with a shorter sidewall, less flex meens crisper turning at speed.

What width wheels are your 16? I have 15 X 7 Racing Dynamics on my car with 215/50/15's and anything wider than a 215 on a 7" wheel is useless. Yeah you can put a wider tire than a 215 on a 7" wheel but you are not going to gain anything cause the width of the wheel will pull in on the width of the tire so you will not get the full width of the tire on the ground.

[witeshark]

I don't really wanna say this, but to fit a low profile tire on 16s may mean getting that height back. Lowered you may simply not have room

[spiff325is]

225 = width, 40 = profile size, 16 = rim size.

[e30fanm3]

AJ is correct, for example on a 225/50 no matter what size wheel the tread is 225mm wide and the side wall is 50% of that width, so the side wall is about 112.5mm tall, and a 225 will not fit the back of a lowered e30 without scrubbing at least a little, i put bilstein sports to try to stop it but it still scrubs every once and a while but not near as bad

[FastSeb]

Hi BavarianKid ! (so u are from EU too )


What happened to your father when he went to get your tires is a usaual story, you should not always believe what those so called "professionals" think about choices of tyres.
Anyway.

What the others are saying is right buèt this is technical.

I believe that the 225/40/16 would fit your car , now the problem is that you would find yourself with a really "hard suspension" feeling, I had that kind of problem once when I fited my Opel Corsa GSI with 194/45/14, ten years ago. I could feel every single lil' piece of rock in the steering.
So, it's just about choice, the 40s will surely fit but your car will loose a lot of driving comfort.

take it easy !


FastSeb.

PS : did you see that movie called "D2racer -pedal to the metal-" ? it's cool !