Can 17 inch tires be safely put on 16 inch wheels?
NO!!! The tire bead will not seat.
Is this a joke? Jay Leno, is that you trying to shake things up?
Unfortunately, it’s no joke. I was out of town and sent my wife to Discount Tire America to purchase new tires. I had ordered the OEM (205/65/16, straight off the tire) online. The fools at the store told her that the tire sizing was wrong and put 215/55/17 on the car.
I can’t imagine anyone having experience mounting tires, not noticing this.
If 17" tires were put on …then the car has 17" rims…
Tires taken off were 205/65/16. They would not have fit on 17 inch rims. The current tires seated but do not fit correctly on the rims.
There’s no way the 17inch tires are “seated” on your 16 inch wheels, no matter what it looks like.
DO NOT drive this vehicle! You are risking catastrophe if you do.
Have this vehicle transported back to the tire shop and have the correct size tires installed.
There is some tidbit of information missing here.
It’s possible the OE trim size was 16" (Tire size = 205/65R16), while the vehicle currently has 17" rims.
I just can’t imagine why a tire store would mount a 215/55R17 on a 16" rim, particularly when the original tire size was ordered. While a 205/65R16 isn’t the world’s most popular tire, a 215/55R17 is less so.
Something is missing!
NO…
Well I don’t know how experienced they were but a colleague of mine had a similar problem when he took his car in to get new tires. An hour(!!) after they pulled his car 'round back they came back and told him they had a tough time trying to mount the tires they pulled from stock (they were trying to put 14" tires on his 15" wheels). They eventually figured out he needed 15"s.