range of tire sizes - finding used winter tires

**bodywhomper** · 08-05-2010, 05:26 PM

in an attempt to be cheap, i'd love to find some lightly used winter tires for my new (to me) minivan to use come wintertime. in looking through ads in my general region on craigslist, i'm not specifically finding the exact OEM sized tire (215/65/16 - on there now - or 225/60/17), but i've found ones that are fairly close. Is there a good rule of thumb about what sizes will generally work or a tool about how much the odometer/speedometer will change when deviating from OEM sizes? What about the variation in tire size that will be good enough on the current wheels? i know of course i'd need a 16in tire using the current wheels, but not sure what range of size would work on those wheels.

tia

cheers

**stevesmith7** · 08-05-2010, 05:56 PM

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

Stay within 5% or so and you'll be fine.

**BakerBoy** · 08-05-2010, 07:52 PM

Make sure you get a good deal on them. Decent snows can be had for ~$70 a tire, and this is obviously your wife and 5 children we're talking about if its a minivan...

L7 · 08-05-2010, 08:52 PM

1010tires or tirerack or both have a calculator that tells you exactly what fits, what variance you get in circumference and what the speedo error will be if any.

**bodywhomper** · 08-13-2010, 11:58 AM

Thanks for the responses.

Originally Posted by stevesmith7

Stay within 5% or so and you'll be fine.

How about changing sizes on a awd subi? the change would be less than 2%. i've heard w/o a detailed explanation that awd are finicky about tire sizes, but think that this was mostly related to different tire sizes at one time on the vehicle....

cheers

**SeatownSlackey** · 08-13-2010, 12:10 PM

Originally Posted by bodywhomper

Thanks for the responses.

How about changing sizes on a awd subi? the change would be less than 2%. i've heard w/o a detailed explanation that awd are finicky about tire sizes, but think that this was mostly related to different tire sizes at one time on the vehicle....

cheers

correct. problem or increased wear occurs on awd cars (subies, audis) when there is too great of a differential between front/rear or side/side.

4 brand new tires w/ same diameter should be fine.