New 16inch wheels and tires, rubbing in rear

[PHL]

I have a 1995 standard 318ti Sport (I believe) with just about 80K miles. When I bought it two months ago, it came with snow tires on 15inch alloys (205/60?/15). Decided to upgrade to larger wheels and summer tires. Bought 16inch Mille Miglia on eBay. Size 8Jx16H2, offset of 15ET or 40--did I interpret that correctly?. From TireRack, bought Sumitomo HTR Z P225/50WR-16.

Brought it to a garage near me and had the tires mounted and installed. These tires are huge, it looks like I drive an SUV! The tires protrude out a bit in the front, but the problem is in the rear. The tire on the rear passenger side rubs on the fender. Just that tire, not the other on the same axle. The other tire runs just fine. The mechanics at the garage recommended that I upgrade the shocks in the rear. I'm thinking this is the correct solution, as the car would dip a bit going over the dips in the poorly paved streets that run in Philadelphia. Do you agree? If so, do you think I should have the springs replaced at the same time, so as to save on the cost of labor? Or just tackle one problem at a time, and replace just the shocks?

Furthermore, did I mess up on my purchase of tires or wheels? I believe that you can mount that tire size on a 318ti, is it just that specific tire make is larger than others? Are the wheels too large?

Sorry about all these questions. I thought I had researched enough, so I was quite surprised by the size of my mini SUV, to say nothing of the rubbing issue.

[angel318ti]

P225/50WR-16? you have to understand that the radius of your tire is off now so you'll have to check your speedometer. if you went with this size tire all the way around thats why its rubbing on the rear. these tires are just too tall for that size wheel. 225/45/16 might have been a better choice or even 215/45/16.

[bjt42]

Later year sport models come with 16" wheels, stats as follows:

Style 18 wheels - width 7", offset 46mm
Tyres - 225/50R16

so you should be OK. The only thing I can think is that the different offset on your wheels is causing the rubbing.

[GDB]

I'm with bjt, my money's on the wheel offset being the problem.

Just go with a narrower tire (215 should work) and call it a day. If you call up tirerack and explain what happened they just might give you some sort of financial break if you send the currect tires back.

[PHL]

Did I read the offset incorrectly on the wheels? The correct offset should be 40, right?

[davep-uk]

i'm running 18's with a 47mm offset so you should be fine with 40mm.

[GDB]

My 18's with a 38mm offset and 235s had some minor rubbing, but that was a non issue with the 225s. Anyways, skinnier tires or rolled fenders is gonna be the cheapest solution.

[steelejared]

I have a 1996 Active and I just mounted 16 inch rims with a 46mm offset and 225/50/16 tires. Although it does seem to fill out the wheel wells a little more, I get no rubbing or fitment problems.

I found a nifty calculator at: http://www.1010tires.com/TireSizeCalculator.asp
that allows you to compare tire sizes and shows the speedo variation that you should expect.

Changing from 205/60/15 to 225/50/16 causes the speedo to read .681% too slow.

[bjt42]

The correct offset is dependent on wheel width I think? The correct offset for a 7Jx16 wheel is 46mm, I'm not sure what it is for an 8Jx16 wheel.

[GDB]

Originally Posted by steelejared

I have a 1996 Active and I just mounted 16 inch rims with a 46mm offset and 225/50/16 tires. Although it does seem to fill out the wheel wells a little more, I get no rubbing or fitment problems.

I found a nifty calculator at: http://www.1010tires.com/TireSizeCalculator.asp
that allows you to compare tire sizes and shows the speedo variation that you should expect.

Changing from 205/60/15 to 225/50/16 causes the speedo to read .681% too slow.

that's not enough difference to matter. at 60 mph there's not even a 2mph difference.

[weezer]

I recently had the same problem. Traded my 17s to an OEM 16x7 wheels from 98 328i (style 25/K) wheels, but two of them were bent, so bought two on ebay, but the offsets are different than the original two. The recent wheels has an extra 10mm offset and rubbing my fenders in the rear. I think for 16s the correct size tires are: 205 55 16 or 215/225 50 16. So it does depend on the offset of the wheels.