They sold me the wrong tire! Are these ok?

TL;DR when I went to the tire shop, they noted my car as a 2016 Honda Accord EX sedan not a 2016 Honda Civic EX-T sedan. The Accord takes 215/55R17, my Civic takes 215/50R17. I understand that the only difference is that the 50 is a bit more narrow than the 55, and he assured me, once I noticed the error, that this tire will be fine/safe/cause no problems in my car, but they'd be happy to correct it if I want to.

What would you do? I'm pretty inept in all of this. They're the same price.

If they are willing to correct it have them do it. Honda spec'd out that tire size for a reason. It may save you issues down the road if you ever need one tire replaced as some places won't work on a car that has tires different than oem.

jbuttke1179 said:

If they are willing to correct it have them do it. Honda spec'd out that tire size for a reason. It may save you issues down the road if you ever need one tire replaced as some places won't work on a car that has tires different than oem.

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Sounds like when the local Honda dealership put the rear tires on the front, and the front tires on the rear, of my boss'es S2000.
Handled great with those 225/50's on the front ... but oversteered like a bitch with the 205/55's on the rear!
with him!

Thanks!

shaylarz said:

TL;DR when I went to the tire shop, they noted my car as a 2016 Honda Accord EX sedan not a 2016 Honda Civic EX-T sedan. The Accord takes 215/55R17, my Civic takes 215/50R17. I understand that the only difference is that the 50 is a bit more narrow than the 55, and he assured me, once I noticed the error, that this tire will be fine/safe/cause no problems in my car, but they'd be happy to correct it if I want to.

What would you do? I'm pretty inept in all of this. They're the same price.

Click to expand...

215 is the width in millimeters. 55 is the height of the tire. It’s a percentage of the width. So a 215/50 isn’t as tall as a 215/55. 215mm x 55% vs 215mm x 50%. You’re biggest issue will actually be your speedo. There are calculators around to figure out the difference.

Posted while I was writing the same thing

Nanook said:

215 is the width in millimeters. 55 is the height of the tire. It’s a percentage of the width. So a 215/50 isn’t as tall as a 215/55. 215mm x 55% vs 215mm x 50%. You’re biggest issue will actually be your speedo. There are calculators around to figure out the difference.

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and your MPG estimates and your Odometer count but yeah those are all a result of the speedo being wrong.

You also have the possibility of rubbing on extreme lock to lock swings depending on exact clearances (i'm not familiar enough with this specific car yet to know if it would be an issue or if you would still be in the clear, it also technically raises your center of gravity and your cars ground clearance by about 4/10ths of an inch which has the potential to effect handling, would it be noticeable, probably not, when I bought my Trailblazer the tires on it where a size larger then stock all it really did was make the speedometer read wrong.

If they are willing to fix it then go ahead and do it just to avoid having your speedo be off by about 2 MPH at highway speeds.

Have them fix it. As others have said it's probably fine, but life will be easier with the right tires. Then your tires match your door jamb sticker, and you don't need to remember this little mix up 2 or 3 years later. Or when you blow a tire and go to buy a replacement.

Also, someone else might get a nice deal on some very lightly used 215/55R17 that this tire shop will have to sell after they take them off your rims.

Bring it back and have them correct it.

If the mismatched tire is in the front, it will spin slower than the opposite tire on same axle.