[pilotboy1985]

Hi Everyone,
I used to drive a Sonata and I kept my winter tires when I bought the Niro.

Now, I've confirmed the bolt pattern is already the same, however my Niro currently has 16 inch wheels and my winter tires are 17 inch. They are 215/55R 17 (and are on steel rims)

I called the Kia Dealer and they said you can go down an inch, but not up an inch, so going from my current 16 inch to these 17 inch winters would not work. However two people at work said it would be fine.

Looking for your opinion on if these tires on rims will fit?

Thanks

 

[yticolev]

Opinion? Take it to a tire dealer to find out for sure. Could be an offset difference. Go down an inch but not up an inch is just made up crap. There are 18" OEM wheels on the touring model.

Going wider for winter tires is the wrong direction for snow performance. That wheel tire combination has a slightly larger diameter than OEM but should fit.

 

[Roadkill401]

The size of the wheel is larger by about 2.3%. The dia is 26.3" where the original tire is 25.7". It is not likely that you are going to get a whole lot of rub, but the wheel is also quite a bit wider, so you might get into trouble when you turn full lock. I am trying to decide if I put my wifes old Sportage winters on. The are 215/65R16, so they are even larger than what you are suggesting. So I'd be interested to find out how it works out for you.

 

[brandent]

Tirerack.com has a great search tool that specifies what tires/rims will work. Just tell it model and year and see if it has any 17 in compatible. As already noted the 'can't go up' comment is ridiculous. What you do need to do is make sure the total diameter of the tire is the same. As an example the Touring HEV has 18in rims as an option but they will be the exact same circumference/diameter as the 16 inch as measured from the outside of the tire. The sidewall will be shorter on the 18 in. The reason they say 'go down one' is that a higher sidewall will have more 'give' and be less likely to be damaged by potholes. They also ride smoother. There are effectively zero advantages to those large rim sizes with wide low sidewall tires. They are heavier which increases rotational inertia which drives down fuel mileage, they are more expensive, wide tires suck in snow, the low profiles damage easily. The two vehicles I had with these kinds of tires couldn't get to the end of natural wear. Inevitably one of them would get a slipped belt or something from hitting a pothole.

So yes you can go up an inch. Maybe 17s won't be as good as 15s in snow but that different is trivial compared to using snow tires vs not using snow tires. 17in snow tires will work fine.

This link gives great info and at the end has a link to tirerack.com tire sizing wizard which will tell you what is/isn't compatible.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=126

I tried it just now and indeed 215/55 R17 was one of the compatible options.