Our original tires are P205/55 R16. New Snow tires are P195/60 R15. Does smaller tire size matter?

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Our original tires are P205/55 R16. New Snow tires are P195/60 R15. Does smaller tire size matter?
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Our original tires are P205/55 R16. New Snow tires are P195/60 R15. Does smaller tire size matter?

We have a Saturn 2005 ION3 and recently bought 4 new snow tires from a Saturn dealership. Our original tires are P205/55 R16. We just found out Saturn installed P195/60 R15 snow tires on our car without telling us the change of tire size. Does the different tire size matter?

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pbleek

Its actually a good idea to go to a smaller rim and narrower tire for your winter tires, narrower winter tires cut through the snow and slush better, the thicker sidewall gives you more cushioning to compensate for everything getting stiffer in cold weather. Also thicker sidewall protects your rims against damage from those snow covered curbs. The tires are also less expensive to replace. The diameter of the two tires you listed is roughly the same, should not affect your speedometer.
Clearly you must have changed the rims.

UCANTCME

Your speed will be off just a little and this could set off the check engine because the (VSS) vehicle speed sensor could get confused.

As long as the tires are the same size like 15 or 16 inch the speed will differ by the following...

Running P205/55 R16 and then running P195/60 R16 the speed will be off by .87 mph driving at 65 mph and 1.01 mph difference at 75 mph.

But if they changed out the tires and rims then the speed difference will be greater.

rfpunchfan

the speedometer could be off a bit, and did you get a different set of rims? because the R15 tires are made for a 15 inch rim, and the original tires are on a 16 inch rim, an R15 tire would not fit on a 16 inch rim

Bill M

I don't know how they could replace R16 with R15 without changing the wheels, but if the smaller tires fit, maybe the bigger tires were wrong. Are you sure the old tires were R16? Were they changing another customer's tires at the same time?

George A

They would have also had to replace the rims if they installed a P195/60R15 tire. The 15 or 16 indicates the diameter of the rim. You can fit a 16" tire on a 15" rim- it won't hold air but it would go on. But you cannot fit a 15" tire on a 16" rim without doing a lot of damage to the tire. If they did install new rims- what did they do with your original 16" rims? And yes a 15" tire on a vehicle that has the speedo calibrated for 16" tires will make the speed off by a few MPH +/-.

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