First off sorry if this has been asked before, I tried a forum search but no results came up.

I currently have 225 45 17 tyres on my X Type. I would like to fit wider tyres on the rear and have the chance of a pair of virtually new 235 55 17 Pirelli Scorpions for very little money. I know they are 10mm wider and higher so would these fit the rear wheels please or would they cause problems?

Thanks.

 

Turbodrive, I could not say with a straight face to buy those tires. The bigger tires that you are looking at getting are 0.4" wider and 2.2" taller. The wider aspect is not really the problem here. It is the 2.2" taller. I can guarantee that you are going to have some tire rub. So, unless you are willing to spend money and get the wheel wells enlarged, you are going to have issues. This will be especially true if the area you live in has annual safety inspections. I can almost guarantee that you will fail inspection and end up having to replace the tires that you just bought.

You want to go wider, then look at getting say some 235/40R17's for on your car. Those will just barely fit (I ran them on my X-Type for many years). Even then, I could see where the tires had very gently rubbed the back of the wheel wells.

 

also remember, because of the AWD u want the same size tires in all corners.
i have 235/45/17 they fit ok and look good.
the only rubbing is on the splash guard in the front wheel well, but the guard is a little loose and i have aftermarket rims with a 40 offset.
it only rubs slightly on hard turns and will possibly fit fine when i tighten those splash guards.
id be curious to see what a 235/40/17 looks like in the wheel well. the 45 looks awesome

 

iownme, the 235/40R17's look the same size as the stock 17's, but are the 0.5" wider. So, you have the tire sitting a 0.25" more towards the outside of the car.

 

tjhanks Thermo.
i like a wider look so i'll get 40's next time

 

Thanks for the very good info guys. In light of what I have been told I think it will be wiser just to stick with 225 45 17's.

 

Turbodrive, like was mentioned, because your car is AWD, you have to make sure that your front and rear tires are exactly the same diameter. You can have different width tires front and rear, but now you are needing to find the correct width and height relationship. While the car can absorb some tire diameter difference (this is what allows you to make corners since the inside front wheel turns much slower than the outside rear tire), you get too much of a difference and you are going to run into issues (the least of your worries being the DSC system kicking in, trying to slow the front tires, worst case being a CV shaft breaking or your transfer case breaking).

So, it is easier to simply keep the same size tire all the way around the car with an AWD car. You have atleast 1 option for wider tires when you need to replace your current tires.