Hello All,

My wife's 2015 mini cooper S needs new summer tires. Right now it has the stock 195/55/16's, but they are done.

I have new set of 235/55/r17 summers from my old GLA250. Any idea if this will fit? Bolt pattern appears to be the same. I'm concerned about rubbing.

Many thanks in advance.

 

You are probably going to have an issue with rubbing, but without knowing the wheel's offset it's hard to tell. Those are some pretty tall tires ... they are going to wreak havoc with your speedo.

Something else to consider is that wheel/tire weight makes a big difference in how these cars handle. I am running 215/45-17s because once you go beyond that the tire weight increases os up very quickly. So, even if they do fir, you are probably not going to like how they handle.

 

Thanks! I'll just go buy new tires.

 

Finished burning up a set of Bridgestone Potenza RE-71R’s. Getting two sets on Thursday, one for the R50 and one for the 74 Datsun 240Z race car! With this $100/prepaid Visa refund on each!
https://www.firestonecompleteautocar...bs-spring-2020

 

In order for a wheel and tire to fit the MINI you need to check what is the OEM wheel and tire size. Assuming you have 195/55-16 tires this would be matched with 16x6.5" et48 wheels. et 48 is the wheel offset which is stamped on the inner spoke of the wheel and is a measure of how far the wheel spokes are from the mid point of the wheel width. The higher the number of the wheel offset the more it is closer to the inner suspension, the lower the number the more the wheel pokes out.

Tire size needs to fit the wheel being used and also not be too large or small for the MINI. OEM tire diameter is 24.3" and will give adequate clearance from the wheel arches and be OK for ground clearance and speedometer and odometer rough accuracy.

235/55-17 fits wheels 6.5-8.5" wide, perfect for 7.5" wide rims, tire diameter 27.2"

If used on an OEM MINI 17" wheel which is 17x7" et48 the tire would fit OK. Tire diameter is 2" taller than OEM for the MINI so no the tire is too tall to fit OEM suspension without major rubbing.

If you want to keep the current MINI wheels then you can find tires for 205/55-16 which fits but is slightly tall at 24.9" however it will work with OEM suspension. Tire selection is OK with this size

Alternatively you can also look at 205/50-16 which fits OEM wheels but is more limited in tire selection (Extreme Summer tire, Ultra High Performance/Grand Touring All Season tires). Tire diameter is 24.1" which is fine.

 

Tried Firestone FireHawk Indy 500 225/50-16 on these Bridgespoke wheels, R50 is slightly lowered(3/4”) and they barely rubbed on the inner fenders. Had to run 5mm spacers or they would have rubbed on R56 aluminum rear trailing arms. Just a tad too big! Loved the look! And loved the grip of the Indy500’s!