16" rims. Use 205/55R16 only, or other options?

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

mickeyjf

Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2021
Messages
11
I found a used set of compatible rims so that I could keep summer and winter tires each on their own set. The plan is to put winter tires on the steel rims that came with the car, and put the all-season ones on the alloy rims I just got. I was happy enough with the deal I got on the rims, but (bonus?!) they came with 215/65R16 tires that turned out to be in very good shape. Should I just pass these tires on, or can I use them on my 2017 Leaf? Why/why not? If yes, what should I expect to be different from the 205/55's that it came with? TIA
 
They should work fine. I'd be mostly concerned about the TPMS sensors since the car will have a permanent warning light on unless you update those somehow.

The 205/65R16 are nominally 6.4% larger in circumference so your speedometer will probably be more accurate and should be very close to spot on.

https://tiresize.com/comparison/
 
Just to be clear, I do want to (must ) use these 215/65's on the 16" rims if I can use them at all. I have read that other are using 17in "something or others", but obviously, on 17in rims.

My speedometer now reads roughly 6% high - i.e., indicates 64kph when the roadside radar says 60kph. I mentioned this to the dealer at last annual checkup, and they kinda hand waved, said they couldn't really do anything about it, and didn't quite look me in the eye. It did occur to me that tire size might be the issue, but the door jam info says I have the correct size for the car. (US vehicle imported into Canada by the dealer.)
 
mickeyjf said:
Just to be clear, I do want to (must ) use these 215/65's on the 16" rims if I can use them at all. I have read that other are using 17in "something or others", but obviously, on 17in rims.

My speedometer now reads roughly 6% high - i.e., indicates 64kph when the roadside radar says 60kph. I mentioned this to the dealer at last annual checkup, and they kinda hand waved, said they couldn't really do anything about it, and didn't quite look me in the eye. It did occur to me that tire size might be the issue, but the door jam info says I have the correct size for the car. (US vehicle imported into Canada by the dealer.)
I had the same speedo/odometer error on my '14 LEAF SV with 205/55/16 factory tire size. My dealer service dept also dismissed the problem as "acceptable" by industry standards. This Summer, purchased a set of used Gen1 16" LEAF alloy wheels for a 2nd set of tires for Winter frost-crater season on my '19 LEAF SL with 17" wheels. Plan to use 205/60/16 (preferred) or 215/55/16, either should produce good speedo accuracy. That 215/65/16 is bulkier, maybe check clearances carefully.
 
That 215/65/16 is bulkier, maybe check clearances carefully.

Yes the tire size comparison link posted earlier shows quite a difference, which is why I'm raising the question in the first place. I'm not sure how to check the clearance though, other than "put it on and see it it works". I'd love it if someone here could say "yes it worked fine for me" or "No, it caused [fill in the blank] issues".
 
I ran 215/55 R17 tires on my 2015 and have been running them on my 2019 (in place of the OEM 215/50 R17's). The 215/65 R16's would be about 0.2 inches larger overall diameter than what I am using now, but the same width. Since I did not have clearance issues on the 2015 (and none so far on the 2019), they should be OK for summer use. There would certainly not be enough room for tire chains in the winter so you should consider a smaller size when you buy winter tires.
 
The 215/65 R16's would be about 0.2 inches larger overall diameter than what I am using now, but the same width.

The tire size calculator shows about 0.6 larger. Enough to matter? Hopefully not. The only issue is that it I'm certain they won't work, I'll move them along now rather than take the trouble to find storage space for them.

OOPS! :eek: I took a closer look at the 215/65's. It turns out they are winter tires :!: I didn't see the snowflake, but had had missed that they did have the "M+S".

So now my questions are a) is there still a size issue, b) are these less suitable than 205/55's as a winter tire, and c) is it worth swapping the steel rims that are on my summer tires so that they are used for either the 205/55 or 215/65 winters, and using the alloy rims on the summer tires?
 
OOPS! :eek: I took a closer look at the 215/65's. It turns out they are winter tires :!: I didn't see the snowflake, but had had missed that they did have the "M+S".

All All Season tires have the words "mud & snow" on them. Look up the tire model to see if they are actual snow tires.
 
I live in British Columbia - in the part where it rarely snows or gets below freezing. However, there are a few roads over high altitude areas between here and the relatives homes that require winter tires from Oct. through March.

From the Gov. Web site:
What is a Legal Winter Tire in B.C.?

A legal winter tire (on a standard passenger vehicle or a four-wheel/all-wheel vehicle) MUST have at least 3.5 mm of tread depth.

A winter tire must be labelled with either of the following:

The letters "M" and "S", the minimum legal requirement (mud + snow/all season tires)
The 3-peaked mountain/snowflake symbol (some manufacturers label with both the mountain snowflake and the M+S symbol)

So I think these meet the legal requirement. And they have about 6mm of tread, so they should be OK.
 
I just recalculated the diameters and confirmed the difference in diameter between 215/55 R17 and 215/65 R16 is 0.7 inch. I am not sure there would be enough fender clearance to accommodate the 215/65 R16 tires you have. If you want to have enough room for Class S tire chains, then you should not go larger than 215/55 R16 since the width and diameter would match 215/50 R17 that is used as OEM.
 
By eyeball it looks like there is plenty of room, and I had been thinking that I'd put them on, drive over the local speed hump/bumps, and see if they rubbed. But I have decided that they are so much larger than the size that Nissan uses that even if they don't rub, they would probably effect driving in some way, and probably not for the better. So I'm now thinking I will just pass them along after all and use the 205/55's that I have. ("Overthinking" is my middle name.)

Now I just have to see if I can fit both a set of 215/65's on rims and a set of 205/55's off rims in the car at the same time to get them to the tire shop to be re-mounted. Looks pretty tight, if even possible.

I was never going to use chains. They don't make summer tires legal for passenger cars in the areas here where snow tires are required, and 98% of the winter where I live is snow free anyway.
 
Back
Top