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Sidewall

265/40R16

265 mm across the tread, a sidewall 40% of that — 106 mm — on a 16-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 24.3 inches tall.

106 mm sidewall618 mm · 24.3"
Sidewall
4.17"
106 mm
Overall
24.3"
618.4 mm
Circumference
76.5"
1.943 m
Revs per mile
828
per minute at 60 mph

What it needs to sit on

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It mounts on a rim between 7.5" and 9.5" wide, and the tread follows the rim: roughly 5 mm of section width for every half-inch, so about 255 mm across at the narrow end and 275 mm at the wide one. Written the way lift kits and wheel wells are, it is a 24.3×10.4R16 — tall by wide, in inches.

What fits instead

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Same 16-inch rim, height within 3%. Past that the speedometer starts lying and things begin to rub.


SizeHeightRide heightSpeedo reads 60, you doCompare
255/40R1624.0" -1.3 %-4.0 mm59.2 mphside by side
275/40R1624.7" +1.3 %+4.0 mm60.8 mphside by side
245/45R1624.7" +1.4 %+4.3 mm60.8 mphside by side
285/35R1623.9" -2.0 %-6.3 mm58.8 mphside by side
245/40R1623.7" -2.6 %-8.0 mm58.4 mphside by side
285/40R1625.0" +2.6 %+8.0 mm61.6 mphside by side
255/45R1625.0" +2.8 %+8.8 mm61.7 mphside by side

Same height, different rim

Bigger rim, same overall height. Sharper steering, harsher ride, and far less rubber between your wheel and the next pothole.


265/35R1793 mm sidewall — 13% less
265/45R15119 mm sidewall — 13% more
235/40R1794 mm sidewall — 11% less
235/50R15118 mm sidewall — 11% more
275/35R1796 mm sidewall — 9% less
245/50R15123 mm sidewall — 16% more

If you fit something taller

A taller tire covers more ground per turn, so the needle reads low and the odometer counts short. Over ten thousand miles on the dial, the last column is what you really drove.


Fitted insteadReads 30Reads 50Reads 70Real miles per 10,000 shown
255/40R1629.6 mph49.4 mph69.1 mph9,871
275/40R1630.4 mph50.6 mph70.9 mph10,129
245/45R1630.4 mph50.7 mph71.0 mph10,137
285/35R1629.4 mph49.0 mph68.6 mph9,798
245/40R1629.2 mph48.7 mph68.2 mph9,741