When you’re purchasing new tires, size matters. However, with all the varied sizes of tires out there, it can be hard to figure out exactly what tires fit on what rims.
Therefore, if you have 16-inch rims, you may be wondering if you can fit 15-inch tires on them. If you’d like to find out, keep reading to see whatI learned!
Can You Put 15-inch Tires on 16-inch Rims?
You cannot place 15-inch tires on 16-inch rims, because the hole in the middle of the tire will be too small to fit around the rim, making it impossible to put on safely. In other words, it literally won’t fit. However, you can replace your 16-inch rims with 15-inch rims in most cases.
For more information on what tires you can put on your 16-inch rims, keep reading below for more useful facts and tips!
What Size Tires Can You Put on a 16-inch Rim?
As the name might suggest, you’ll need to install 16-inch tires on your 16-inch rims. However, you can install different tires on these rims, just as long they’re 16-inches in size.
Overall, you can’t put bigger or smaller wheels on 16-inch rims, and to do so, you’ll have to get completely new rims.
Can You Put a Different Size Tire on a Rim?
To an extent, you can use a different size tire on your rims, as long as the middle of the tire is the same size, because if it’s too large or too small, it won’t fit on your rim at all.
With that said, the outside of the tire can be smaller or larger. In many cases, it doesn’t matter much what the outside of the tire is, but instead, all that matters is that the tire can fit on your rim.
Can You Put a 14-inch Tire on a 16-inch Rim?
You can’t put a 14-inch tire on a 16-inch rim, because the hole in the middle of the tire wouldn’t be large enough to fit onto the rim, causing you to end up with a tire that’s completely unable to get on your car to begin with.
Rather, to fit a 14-inch tire on your car, you’ll need 14-inch rims. However, it isn’t often easy to simply change the rim size on your car.
Therefore, you likely can’t put a 14-inch tire on a car with 16-inch rims without jumping through a lot of hoops. Instead, it is recommended to look for 16-inch tires that fit the bill.
Can You Put Bigger Tires on 16-inch Rims?
Being able to use bigger tires on 16-inch rims largely depends on what you mean by “bigger.”
For instance, the outside diameter of the wheel doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not the tire will fit on your rims. Instead, it’s only the inside hole that matters.
For a car with 16-inch rims, you need tires that have a 16-inch inner hole. Otherwise, the tire won’t snap onto your rim, and it won’t be usable.
However, you can purchase tires that have a bigger outside diameter and put those on your 16-inch rim. As long as they can actually fit onto the rim, the overall size of the tire doesn’t matter all that much.
You also have to consider your car’s wheel well too, because massive tires won’t fit on most cars. Usually, it’s best to check your user’s manual to figure out what tires are best for your car.
Does Width Matter for Rims?
When you’re fitting tires to your car, the width of the rim will affect the width of the tire. When you mount a tire onto a narrow rim, the width of that tire will likely be affected somewhat.
With that said, it isn’t a 1 to 1 difference. Specifically, it’s estimated that a tire’s width changes 1/5 inches for every half inch of change in the rim.
The width of a tire matters because the more width a tire has, the more contact with the road it will get. In turn, wider wheels will have better grip and control. After all, they’ll literally be touching more of the road.
For this reason, many people prefer wider tires. However, that doesn’t mean that your car can support wider tires.
Therefore, you need to consider what your user’s manual said about different size tires, as well as what your rims can support.
What Happens if You Put the Wrong Size Tire on a Car?
Tires can be sized incorrectly in a variety of different ways. First, having tires that are too tall can make the vehicle more likely to roll over, since they would raise the center of gravity.
Furthermore, very tall tires may rub the inside of the wheel wear. Eventually, that would affect the wear of the tire and lead to control issues.
In all likelihood, the tires probably wouldn’t last as long either.
Putting the wrong width tire on a vehicle is also important, especially if the tires are too thin. Even if they’re the right size otherwise, too-thin tires may have trouble holding up your car.
In this case, control issues will also be common, especially if snow and ice is involved.
Can You Put Smaller Tires on a Bigger Rim?
All tires will need to be the same size as the rim. Otherwise, they won’t be able to attach to bigger rims, because the hole in the middle isn’t long enough.
With that said, width is a little bit different, and you have more play when it comes to the width of your rims and tires. However, you still want to get as close to the size of your rims as possible.
To learn more about rims and tires, you can also check our posts on what are rims made of, if tires comes with rims, and tire leaking air around rim.
Conclusion
When you’re putting new tires on your car, you’ll need to match them to the rim size of your vehicle. Otherwise, you may be unable to put the tires on your car at all.
Therefore, if you have 16-inch rims, you’ll need tires that have a 16-inch hole in the middle. While you can change the rim size, it’s often simply better to purchase tires that fit your current rims.