[DCarey515]

Hey Guys, Im in need of some serious help here. I bought a set of 2006 Impala rims with 225/60/16 tires to put on my 2000 Malibu w/ 15 inchrims and 215/60/15 tires. Everything bolted up fine, drove fine, until I started down the highway. Saw smoke out the back of the car, pulled over to check and the struts had eaten into the inside of the tire.
Does anyone know if there is a way to make these tires and rims work with my vehicle or did I just mess myself up?
Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Carey

 

[scottb1982]

All you have to do is put some 225/50-16 tires on and you should be good. I did the research yesterday since I have 02 Impala rims in my shed right now and look to pick up a 04 Classic today. The stock Impala size tires are too tall, and might be enough to rub on the strut towers. The second number in the tire size is the percentage of the width that your sidewall is. Hope that helps!

 

[DrivenDaily]

Hey Guys, Im in need of some serious help here. I bought a set of 2006 Impala rims with 225/60/16 tires to put on my 2000 Malibu w/ 15 inchrims and 215/60/15 tires. Everything bolted up fine, drove fine, until I started down the highway. Saw smoke out the back of the car, pulled over to check and the struts had eaten into the inside of the tire.
Does anyone know if there is a way to make these tires and rims work with my vehicle or did I just mess myself up?
Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Carey

All you have to do is put some 225/50-16 tires on and you should be good. I did the research yesterday since I have 02 Impala rims in my shed right now and look to pick up a 04 Classic today. The stock Impala size tires are too tall, and might be enough to rub on the strut towers. The second number in the tire size is the percentage of the width that your sidewall is. Hope that helps!

Carey,
Your description sounded to me like the struts had damaged the inner SIDEwall, but scottb's post makes it sound like it's rubbing on the tread due to being too big in diameter. Can you clarify?

He's right about the 50 or 60 being the percentage of the 225 width. But since the 225 is the same width on both tires it won't change the width if it's rubbing on the sidewall, just the aspect ratio.

Another thing to consider is the offset. If the tire is too close to the suspension due to offset then you'll need either a new set of wheels or some spacers to move them farther away. Changing the tire size will do little or nothing if that's what's needed.

 

[scottb1982]

That is very true. I wonder if he would be able to run 215/55-16 to balance it out. That should make it the proper height while narrowing the tires. Depending on exactly where the rubbing is happening, changing just the height could make a world of difference. The main part I can think it could be rubbing would be the spring perch, which would normally be right over the tire... I don't know of any cars where the perch is next to the wheels/tires. Bottom line is that he is definitely running the wrong size tires.

There is a chance that the Impala wheels (at least the 06 and up) do sit a little further in, but not too likely. If you used the Impala SS wheels, you would have a higher possibility of them not fitting. Some 00-05 Impala owners run into problems running 06+ Impala SS wheels.

Is it rubbing on only one side of the car, with one tire, or are both tires rubbing? If only one, you may just need to do an alignment, as long as he puts the right size tires on.

 

[DCarey515]

The offset was different with the Impala rims. The only way to make this work would have to get spacers put on. The strut towers ate into the tires by about 1 inch. Perfect groove all the way around the tire where the tread meets the sidewall.
I ended up getting ahold of the guy I bought them off of and he just gave me my money back. It was someone from a dealership selling takeoffs. I guess he didnt want there to be any trouble. Ended up just getting the right size tires for what I had.