my friend wrecked my car he plans on replacing the tires they are p215 60 r16 rims. he wants to replace him with 17 inch tires that he already has. will this work or will this be as dangerous as I think it sounds? please advise and thank you for your wisdom and input in advance.
Not knowing what this vehicle is you should stay with factory original. The question is are they going to make mistakes on the body work also? And NO a 17 inch tire will not work on a 16 inch rim.
You can NOT put 17 TIRES on 16 rims.
However…your terminology leaves me wondering…
Do you mean that he wants to put a complete 17" tire AND rim set on it ?
IF those 17s are on rims then that is a possibility if the bolt circle and center hole are right for the vehicle.
Impossible. No need to worry about safety, 17" tire will fall off 16" rims.
It won’t be dangerous at all to put 17" tires on 16" rims. The tires will fall off the rims and the car will sit on the rims in the driveway, undrivable. It’ll be the safest car on the block.
Now, about your friend wrecking your car… ???
What exactly did your friend do? Has this car been examined by a professional yet? If the tires and maybe the wheels were damaged, then there’s very likely damage to the suspension as well, which could be dangerous.
I think I just caught on. Your friend crashed your car and you need new rims and tires as a result of the crash. Your friend wants to replace your damaged wheels with wheels that he has hanging around. And neither of you knows it they’ll fit.
Don’t even consider it. There’s more than just the rim diameter to wheels. If the bolt pattern isn’t correct, the offset is wrong, the rims are too wide, or some other problem exists you may end up with a dangerous condition. Clearly neither of you is knowledgeable enough to be able to make these determinations, and you’re liable to make a big, big mistake.
If you’re talking about 17" tires on 16" rims and not complete 17" wheel assemblies then forget it.
If for the sake of discussion you could get them mounted up and they held air what would likely happen is that the person(s) in the car runs a high risk of injury or death on the first curve when the tires start peeling off of the rims.
If your friend is actually considering this and my assumption is that he may also be fixing everything else related to the crash it might be good idea to keep him a mile away from the car.
If he’s considering 17" tires on 16" rims there’s not telling what other type of backyard and dangerous cobbling he’s doing to the car.
Does this question even require an answer? Seriously?
If you have 16’s and he has 17’s the ONLY WAY it will work…is to replace the wheels and tires at the same time with 17’s. The wheel size dictates the tire size…not too difficult.
From your tire size I am guessing this is a Taurus? Not that it matters but the Ford Taurus liked to use that size tire. You cannot mount any other size tire onto a 16 in wheel… or any other size wheel… Its a fairly simple concept here kids.
Blackbird
^I think OP means both rims and tires swapped but got twisted up on the correct terminology…
If you are considering replacing both the wheels (rims) and the tires, that is probably going to be a problem. Esp if this is a newer car. In the old days of car designs you could swap wheels however you liked, as long as they fit, no problem. These days the engineers who design the car use the wheel design as part of the suspension system. So you pretty much have to stick with OEM wheels. That’s the reason replacement wheels are so expensive these days. There are dozens of different designs but each of them is only are usable on certain cars. No economy of scale any more for wheels.
Considering this is a friend who messed up, I think if he wants to remain a friend, he should replace the damaged rims and tires with the correct parts
It would be nice if the OP would come back and clarify whether it’s 17" tires on 16" rims or complete wheel assemblies. I read this as it meaning the former.
If someone is insane enough to consider 17" tires on 16" rims I would not even want them washing my car much less repairing something on it.
If the wreck damaged tires and or wheel rims then I have to wonder what’s bent in the suspension.
Not exactly true anymore George… All you need to do is find the correct offset and lug spacing and you can put whatever wheels you want on just about anything. All about offset and lugs spacing… That being said…the guy doing the swap needs to do his homework prior to this swap.
Blackbird
@Rinie, come back and let us know if your friend wants to mount 17" tires on 16" rims or 17" rims with the tires already mounted. Please excuse the guys that acted poorly in responding to your question.
Come on guys. A lot of people that post R&M questions don’t understand the issues associated with cars. This appears to be the case with the OP. If you want to post a counterproductive response, take a break first. I’ve started doing that when I see a post that makes my juices flow. Save the indignant responses for the regulars that would be perfectly happy to snarl back.
I just sold some 17" Audi S4 rims to a guy who owned a newer Audi and he had 18" rims. The wheel design was almost identical. He wanted to have a full size spare and have matching wheels? I did not ask if he even had a spare. Maybe it has a can of fix-a-flat? It is AWD of course so maybe Audi does not even provide an odd size mini spare? Buyer seemed like he knew what he wanted. I did check caliper clearance though. At least 1.5" from caliper edge to inside of rim. A 16" rim would mount easily.
Your friend wrecked your car and you now trust him to fix it. You have the problem, not he. He needs to poney up the money and pay a professional.
Amen to Dag’s’ statement, which summarizes the statements of others here. .