Will 15" wheels fit on 1996 850 R Wagon?

dmack87 · Post by **dmack87** » 26 Jul 2018, 05:12

Earlier post about some 16s, but now I am wondering if any 15" wheels will fit on my 1996 850R that has now bent 9 rims and blown multiple tires? Is anyone running any OEM 15s on an R?

Post by **misha** » 26 Jul 2018, 05:31

15" on R???
No,no,no.....it's insane!
Put him on at least 16" with 205/55/16.
They will fit since all wheels are interchangeable,but it would look awful.

dmack87 · Post by **dmack87** » 26 Jul 2018, 06:48

I agree that it would change the appearance of the car considerably but the reason I don't see it as insane is the fact that for 15 years I have spent thousands on replacing tires and wheels on this car. I have gone through 9 bent Volan wheels so far, not to mention the very short tire life I have experienced. At this point I just want to get some wheels that will not blow out, bubble, or bend the rims every time I drive over a pebble in the road. I am trying to get as much tire and air between the road and the wheel as I can. I am leaning towards 16s but my question remains if it is possible to put 15s on an R model 850 wagon?

dmack87 · Post by **dmack87** » 26 Jul 2018, 07:14

Actually as I continue to work on wrapping my brain around all of this, it looks like even if I did manage to get 15s on here, I would only gain 2/10ths of an inch of sidewall height:

: Snap 2018-07-26 at 08.11.05.jpg (23.8 KiB) Viewed 1827 times

However if I go with the 16s and put 205/55/16 tires, I increase my sidewall height by 1.2":

: Snap 2018-07-26 at 08.12.25.jpg (24.62 KiB) Viewed 1827 times

That sure doesn't seem like much, but I am hoping it might be enough to stop all these blowouts and bent rims?

btw.. great tool for understanding tire sizes: https://tiresize.com/calculator/

Sommerfeldt · Post by **Sommerfeldt** » 26 Jul 2018, 09:46

15" won't look good at all. Curious though - I've had 16" on as winter tires on the T5-R I had, and 17" summers. On the current, I run the recommended 16" in summer and 15" in winter. Nothing has ever happened to them - I may have scuffed up one of the rims being careless at a gas pump once... but certainly not anything that would render them unusable.

How are you managing to ruin 9 rims (of any size)?

- S

dmack87 · Post by **dmack87** » 26 Jul 2018, 09:49

Ended up ordering 4 of these re-manufactured Mimas 16" wheels:

https://bit.ly/2LNABX0

and

Vredestein Quadtrack 5 in 205/55-16

https://bit.ly/2AavIWy

Should look pretty close to the Volans with another 1.2" of sidewall height.

Post by **scot850** » 26 Jul 2018, 11:14

15" wheels will not fit if you have 302mm brake rotors.

Neil.

Post by **abscate** » 26 Jul 2018, 14:43

I thought I put 15 steel snows on my T5 with 302mm??

Post by **matthew1** » 26 Jul 2018, 14:45

16" Columbas don't even fit 302 without work viewtopic.php?t=74378

sventastic · Post by **sventastic** » 26 Jul 2018, 19:56

abscate wrote: ↑26 Jul 2018, 14:43 I thought I put 15 steel snows on my T5 with 302mm??

Seems very unlikely - I had only 2-3mm of clearance with my 16" steel wheels (OEM Volvo wheels)