Anyone running 215/55/16 tires?

Hello,

First post and before I start I'd like to thank everyone in this community for all the great info I've gathered while lurking.

I recently pulled the trigger on a 2010 M5 Sport auto. Love it.

The one thing I don't love is the wheel and tire setup. My wife's family has a big farm out in the boondocks of Kansas and driving out there occasionally on rock and dirt roads is not the greatest environment for 17" wheels and 205/50 rubber. So, I just picked up a set of Mazda3 16x6/5 stock wheels in the split spoke style. I'm now going to order some tires from tirerack. I think the little extra sidewall on the 16's will gain me a little more compliance running out to the farm versus the stuff that came stock on the van considering the somewhat rough road surface. Here in the city, there are plenty of potholes, metal plates, etc that make me nervous running stock as well.

Here is my dilemma. I got on the miata tire size calculator and it looks like you could run the conventional wisdom 205/55/16 tire on this wheel, or you could also possibly run a 215/55/16, which also puts you real close to the stock overall diameter. Seeing a lot of you run 215 rubber on your 17" wheels, I'm wondering if it's possible to run the 215 tires on the 16" wheels as well, maybe gaining a little rim edge protection and still keeping the overall diameter close to stock. Seems to me that the 215/55/16 setup is actually as close or closer to stock than 205/15/16 is.

If anyone has any experience or insight, much appreciated.

Thanks

Matt in Kansas City

you will be fine running a 215 on a 6.5" wide wheel...you can always check the tire manufacturer's website to check the wheel widths they recommend for their 215's though (a 215 isnt the same with every brand...the 215's im running on my mazda3 are actually more like 230 in width because they ran wide in that size/brand of tire)

and yes the 215/55/16 is a better match to the stock wheel than a 205/55/16

BPboiler3 said:

you will be fine running a 215 on a 6.5" wide wheel...you can always check the tire manufacturer's website to check the wheel widths they recommend for their 215's though (a 215 isnt the same with every brand...the 215's im running on my mazda3 are actually more like 230 in width because they ran wide in that size/brand of tire)

and yes the 215/55/16 is a better match to the stock wheel than a 205/55/16

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Thanks for the reply. I was pretty sure I could get away with the 215 on the stock rim, but I just wondered if anyone had any actual experience doing the same. Thanks for the suggestion to look at manufacturer websites. It seems that when looking at revs per mile, on most manufacturer sites the 215/55/16 is closer to the stock 205/50/17 Mazda5 tire than the actual (Canadian) 205/55/16 stock M5 GS and Mazda3 size. Odd that Mazda didn't spec a 215/55 on the Canadian GS M5 since the revs per mile is closer to the 17-er than what they went with. Admittedly a small difference. I'll probably opt for the 215s. Thanks again.

I run 215/55R16 snow tires on my 2009 Mazda5 GT. No issues. The speedometer matches what my GPS says for speed.

According to my calculations:

tire size: 205/50/17
speedo error at 60mph: 0 (speedo reads 60)

tire size: 205/55/16
speedo error at 60mph: 0.5 (speedo reads 60.5)

tire size: 215/55/16
speedo error at 60mph: -0.6 (speedo reads 59.4)

So, either tire size results in about a 1% change in overall circumference, and therefore speedo calibration, but in opposite directions relative to the stock tire size (205/55/16 is closest to 205/50/17, but it's splitting hairs).

I am running 205/55/16 winter tires and rims on my Mazda5. I opted not to go wider because snow tires perform better in snow when narrower.

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, I came up with the 205 vs 215 being relatively a wash compared to stock overall circumference. Actually, it depends on the specific tire as all tires are not exactly the same even though the size on the sidewall may be. I found that some 215/55/16 are actually closer to stock than 205/55/16 depending on the tire you look at and who manufactures it.

My main interest was whether anyone actually ran the 215s in a 16 in the real world. Interested in seeing how they look on the 5.

I'm not going to be running winter tires. I just want to go to a 16 all the time and run all season tires, kind of like the stock base model Canadian 5s. Too many potholes, etc around here for me to be comfortable with the stock wheel and tire, with my wife driving who is not particularly the type to baby fragile wheels.

speed77, have a pic of the 5 with this setup on it by chance?

syncro87 said:

... So, I just picked up a set of Mazda3 16x6/5 stock wheels in the split spoke style...

Click to expand...

Welcome, and I have an old roomate named Matt from Kansas City. Sorry about the Chiefs this year.

And I am also interested in the 215/55/16 tires so that I can (hopefully) greatly increase the tire life without sacrificing performance. I'm at about 19,000 miles on my '09 Mazda5 and the tires are pretty worn. What I'd like to do is to pick up some Michelin touring tires, probably the MXV4s which are what I use on my Honda Accord.

Anyway, where did you pick up the Mazda3 wheels and for how much? Any updates on your tires? Pictures?

Thanks!