New Tires & Rims

[JoeBazz]

I wanted to no if I went from 15" to 16" tires and rims on my 93 SC300 (all original & stock),would I need to modify anything on the suspension or anywhere else?The new tire size would be 225/55-16.Thats the size I was told would best fit.

[Brendon Bosy]

OMG, why is it that people keep asking the same questions over and over again? I'm getting tired of this BS and typing the exact same answer every day. The ability to swap tires/rims all depends on three factors; offset, overall diameter, and overall width.

OFFSET - This is how far the lugs connect to the wheel in relation to the wheel's center line. Stock offset is +50mm, which looks pretty sucken in on our cars. Max offset you can go without scrapping the fenders is +38mm; max offset you can go with your fenders rolled is +22mm.

DIAMETER - When you increase the diameter of your rim, you need to decrease the thickness of your tires (overall diameter). If your overall diameter is increased too much from stock, then your tires will scrap the wheel wells everytime you hit a bump. If the tire's too small, your undercarraige can potentially bottom out and scrap the ground. Also, changing the overall diameter can affect your speedometer's readings. A general rule of thumb is not to increase/decrease the overall diameter by more than 3% from stock.

WIDTH - Often times larger diameter rims will also be wider in order to support wider tires. Our SCs can go as wide as 10" on a stock +50mm offset before they start scrapping the suspension. From what I've read, 12" is the widest you can go (requiring rolled fenders and +22mm offset), although I've never seen more than 11" fitted successfully.

Short answer to your question is yes, 225/55R16s will fit on your car. The more important issue is what rims you are looking at and if they fit the parameters above. For your application, you don't really need to worry about anything except offset. Unless you were looking at very low profile tires or very wide tires/rims, then you would need to concern yourself with these three factors.

[JoeBazz]

OMG, why is it that people keep asking the same questions over and over again? I'm getting tired of this BS and typing the exact same answer every day. The ability to swap tires/rims all depends on three factors; offset, overall diameter, and overall width.

OFFSET - This is how far the lugs connect to the wheel in relation to the wheel's center line. Stock offset is +50mm, which looks pretty sucken in on our cars. Max offset you can go without scrapping the fenders is +38mm; max offset you can go with your fenders rolled is +22mm.

DIAMETER - When you increase the diameter of your rim, you need to decrease the thickness of your tires (overall diameter). If your overall diameter is increased too much from stock, then your tires will scrap the wheel wells everytime you hit a bump. If the tire's too small, your undercarraige can potentially bottom out and scrap the ground. Also, changing the overall diameter can affect your speedometer's readings. A general rule of thumb is not to increase/decrease the overall diameter by more than 3% from stock.

WIDTH - Often times larger diameter rims will also be wider in order to support wider tires. Our SCs can go as wide as 10" on a stock +50mm offset before they start scrapping the suspension. From what I've read, 12" is the widest you can go (requiring rolled fenders and +22mm offset), although I've never seen more than 11" fitted successfully.

Short answer to your question is yes, 225/55R16s will fit on your car. The more important issue is what rims you are looking at and if they fit the parameters above. For your application, you don't really need to worry about anything except offset. Unless you were looking at very low profile tires or very wide tires/rims, then you would need to concern yourself with these three factors.

Thanks for the info. You should try not getting so upset. I was reading a few different`t threads and I wanted to double check thats all. The short answer would have been fine.I just wanted to be sure before I spend $1000 on tires and rims from The Tire Rack and have to pay to ship them back. I`ll probably stick with the 15" because it will save me $150 -$200.

[esska11]

ive got the factory 16 inch rims on my car and they are nice im going to get 18's in the next month or so glad brandon got so mad and put that info up...anyways if i was you and you are going to spend that type of money anyways i would get the 16's and spend the extra money on your car

[lemaylexus]

I've been experiencing a fairly severe wobble in the wheel at various speeds and when breaking at higher speeds. Feels like I need new rotors, which may be the case, but I also think all of the wheels on my SC are bent because my local tire dealer told me he couldn't get any of them in perfect balance (even when he puts weights on both the inside and outside of the rim) when I bought new tires a couple months ago. Anyway I'm looking at buying some new wheels now as this wheel wobble is getting extremely annoying. Does anybody know if my new set of 225/55 R16's will fit on these rims? I know it's probably an easy answer but I don't know enough about tires to know if they'll fit or not. And what do you guys think of the way the wheels look? My 97 SC is silver, so I think it would be a good match. I hope these rims will fit, they seem to be within the obvious boundaries of what Bosy said.

Just did a little more research and figured out the stock rims are 16x6.5, and since those rims are 16x7 I don't think the 225/55R16's will fit. If someone could confirm that though, I'd appreciate it.

[JoeBazz]

I've been experiencing a fairly severe wobble in the wheel at various speeds and when breaking at higher speeds. Feels like I need new rotors, which may be the case, but I also think all of the wheels on my SC are bent because my local tire dealer told me he couldn't get any of them in perfect balance (even when he puts weights on both the inside and outside of the rim) when I bought new tires a couple months ago. Anyway I'm looking at buying some new wheels now as this wheel wobble is getting extremely annoying. Does anybody know if my new set of 225/55 R16's will fit on these rims? I know it's probably an easy answer but I don't know enough about tires to know if they'll fit or not. And what do you guys think of the way the wheels look? My 97 SC is silver, so I think it would be a good match. I hope these rims will fit, they seem to be within the obvious boundaries of what Bosy said.

Just did a little more research and figured out the stock rims are 16x6.5, and since those rims are 16x7 I don't think the 225/55R16's will fit. If someone could confirm that though, I'd appreciate it.

I will probably go with the 16x6 rims and the 225/55 16`s. I have to make up my mind on the tires, either the Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Position or Yokohama AVS ES100. I only drive the car from may till october. the bridgestone have a much better tread life.

[Brendon Bosy]

I've been experiencing a fairly severe wobble in the wheel at various speeds and when breaking at higher speeds. Feels like I need new rotors, which may be the case, but I also think all of the wheels on my SC are bent because my local tire dealer told me he couldn't get any of them in perfect balance (even when he puts weights on both the inside and outside of the rim) when I bought new tires a couple months ago. Anyway I'm looking at buying some new wheels now as this wheel wobble is getting extremely annoying. Does anybody know if my new set of 225/55 R16's will fit on these rims? I know it's probably an easy answer but I don't know enough about tires to know if they'll fit or not. And what do you guys think of the way the wheels look? My 97 SC is silver, so I think it would be a good match. I hope these rims will fit, they seem to be within the obvious boundaries of what Bosy said.

Just did a little more research and figured out the stock rims are 16x6.5, and since those rims are 16x7 I don't think the 225/55R16's will fit. If someone could confirm that though, I'd appreciate it.

The bolt pattern isn't correct. I guess that's the 4th thing I forgot to add on my original reply. Bolt pattern for our cars is 5x114.3 Most cars today use that pattern; only backwards American cars still use 5x100. A few odd German cars still use it too.

As for the tire's fitment onto a rim, 225/55R16 can fit on 7" easily. Each tire has a width range; most 225/55R16 tires have a width range from 6" to 8". Sometimes different tire brands have slightly different ranges. Check tirerack.com for spec details.

By the way, this forum really needs to create an info topic about tires and rims. I'd be glad to write it.

[UCF3]

Joe:

as long as you stick with the OEM Lexus wheels it shouldn't be a problem. Also there are some more details about what you're asking for in the Wheel and Tire Thread on our Forum.

[lemaylexus]

I've been experiencing a fairly severe wobble in the wheel at various speeds and when breaking at higher speeds. Feels like I need new rotors, which may be the case, but I also think all of the wheels on my SC are bent because my local tire dealer told me he couldn't get any of them in perfect balance (even when he puts weights on both the inside and outside of the rim) when I bought new tires a couple months ago. Anyway I'm looking at buying some new wheels now as this wheel wobble is getting extremely annoying. Does anybody know if my new set of 225/55 R16's will fit on these rims? I know it's probably an easy answer but I don't know enough about tires to know if they'll fit or not. And what do you guys think of the way the wheels look? My 97 SC is silver, so I think it would be a good match. I hope these rims will fit, they seem to be within the obvious boundaries of what Bosy said.

Just did a little more research and figured out the stock rims are 16x6.5, and since those rims are 16x7 I don't think the 225/55R16's will fit. If someone could confirm that though, I'd appreciate it.

The bolt pattern isn't correct. I guess that's the 4th thing I forgot to add on my original reply. Bolt pattern for our cars is 5x114.3 Most cars today use that pattern; only backwards American cars still use 5x100. A few odd German cars still use it too.

As for the tire's fitment onto a rim, 225/55R16 can fit on 7" easily. Each tire has a width range; most 225/55R16 tires have a width range from 6" to 8". Sometimes different tire brands have slightly different ranges. Check tirerack.com for spec details.

By the way, this forum really needs to create an info topic about tires and rims. I'd be glad to write it.

Well, if 25.4mm still equals 1 inch then those wheels have to be the correct bolt pattern at 5x4.5in. Sorry if I'm missing something obvious here, but how isn't that the correct bolt pattern?

[Brendon Bosy]

Hmm, you're right. I was only looking at their metric calculation. 4.5" is 114.3 mm (4.5 x 2.54 = 11.43 cm), yet they list their metric measurement at 100mm. Perhaps they mis-calculated imperial-to-metric. I'd call them up to verify that. In either case, the last thing you want is to spend $400 only to find out when you open the box the bolt pattern isnt right.

[lemaylexus]

I agree completely. I think the deal is it's compatible with two bolt patterns, 5x100mm and 5.45". If you look at the pic there are 10 bolt holes on the wheel. Seems like $88 a pop is pretty damn cheap, too. I may end up buying these wheels.