Should I use lowering springs with 16" wheels?

[ColderinBoulder]

I was looking at some photos of 16" wheels, noticing most of them were slammed or close to it. I daily my car and would like to retain stock wheel gap at most, but I'm concerned that with a 16" wheel my wheel gap will be much larger.

Thanks

 

[M-Sport fan]

The wheel-fender gap will be almost the same as factory with a 205/45-16 tire (like a tenth of an inch or so shorter overall than a 205/40-17), and LESS gap than factory with a 205/50-16 tire, given a factory suspension in good condition (i.e.; no blown-out dampers/excessively sagging factory springs).

IF you could live with a 200 tread wear tire on a separate set of wheels, the 215/45-16s would fill out the wheel wells a bit more than the factory setup, but not as much as a 205/50-16 would.
Sadly, there are no UHP all season tires available in this size (they would be on my car if there were.)

The gap will be ridiculously large if one went to a 205/40-16, but that size is one of the rarest out there, so not much choice anyway (only TWO tires on TR).

 

[ColderinBoulder]

The wheel-fender gap will be almost the same as factory with a 205/45-16 tire, and LESS than factory with a 205/50-16 tire, given a factory suspension in good condition (no blown-out dampers/excessively sagging factory springs).

The gap will be ridiculous large if one went to a 205/40-16, but that size is one of the rarest out there, so not much choice anyway (only TWO tires on TR).

Hey thanks for the quick reply my dude. My car has 20,000 miles so my stock suspension should be good. Navigating all of these tire and wheel sizes for the first time is pretty tough. I was looking at this photo: which I believe are 15 inch wheels but I would like to achieve a similar look on a 16" RPF1 instead. Also, I am not sure if the car in this photo would drive like shit or would be a good ride height for a daily with the fucked up roads- so any insight on that would be great.

 

[SteveS]

You do realize that there are two parts to the tire/wheel combination that result in the total height of the package? Yes, it's true that decreasing the wheel size could increase the gap between tire and wheel well if the amount of tire outside the rim were to remain the same. But the whole point of what we used to call +1 or +2 or +3 sizing is to maintain the same overall diameter of the wheel/tire combination when you vary the diameter of the wheel. You do this by varying the aspect ratio of the tire, which is the percent of the section width that the sidewall height measures. The number after the slash in a tire size represents the aspect ratio. The standard Fiesta tire is 205/40-R17. It has a 40 aspect ratio. If you drop the wheel size an inch by going to a 16" wheel, or two inches (-1 or -2 sizing), you can maintain the same overall diameter by increasing the aspect ratio of the tire to 45, 50, 55, or 60, depending on the section width you choose.

In the photo you supplied, you can clearly see that there's a lot more sidewall between the edge of the rim and the surface of the tread than on the standard 17" wheel. This means the tire has a taller aspect ratio than the original. The standard Fiesta tire has a diameter of 23.5". Dropping to a 15" wheel, you can get close to the same diameter by using a 185/60R15 (23.7"), 195/55R15 (23.4"), 205/50R15 (23.1"), 205/55R15 (23.9"), or 225/50R15 (23.9"). The car in the picture is lowered as well, probably by about an inch or maybe inch and a half.

If you wanted to use 16" wheels, you could use 205/45R16 (23.3"), 215/45R16 (23.6"), or 195/50R16 (23.7").

There are tire size calculators online that allow you to see these numbers. The one I used to post this is at tiresize.com/calculator

 

[ColderinBoulder]

You do realize that there are two parts to the tire/wheel combination that result in the total height of the package? Yes, it's true that decreasing the wheel size could increase the gap between tire and wheel well if the amount of tire outside the rim were to remain the same. But the whole point of what we used to call +1 or +2 or +3 sizing is to maintain the same overall diameter of the wheel/tire combination when you vary the diameter of the wheel. You do this by varying the aspect ratio of the tire, which is the percent of the section width that the sidewall height measures. The number after the slash in a tire size represents the aspect ratio. The standard Fiesta tire is 205/40-R17. It has a 40 aspect ratio. If you drop the wheel size an inch by going to a 16" wheel, or two inches (-1 or -2 sizing), you can maintain the same overall diameter by increasing the aspect ratio of the tire to 45, 50, 55, or 60, depending on the section width you choose.

In the photo you supplied, you can clearly see that there's a lot more sidewall between the edge of the rim and the surface of the tread than on the standard 17" wheel. This means the tire has a taller aspect ratio than the original. The standard Fiesta tire has a diameter of 23.5". Dropping to a 15" wheel, you can get close to the same diameter by using a 185/60R15 (23.7"), 195/55R15 (23.4"), 205/50R15 (23.1"), 205/55R15 (23.9"), or 225/50R15 (23.9"). The car in the picture is lowered as well, probably by about an inch or maybe inch and a half.

If you wanted to use 16" wheels, you could use 205/45R16 (23.3"), 215/45R16 (23.6"), or 195/50R16 (23.7").

There are tire size calculators online that allow you to see these numbers. The one I used to post this is at tiresize.com/calculator

Thank you!!