I bought some tires because mine were pretty shot. However I got one size smaller on accident. The origonals were 185 75 r14. The new ones are 185 65 r14s. It does ride a tad bit lower. Will it have any adverse affects on the car?
Thanks!
Evan Piveral

 

Tire guys that I have dealt with are ok with on number up or down

I would buy the matching one as soon as you can as it will eat your smaller tire or through off the others alignment or bad wear for sure.....if they are new they wont blow up or something like that...

slap it on the back for sure.

 

They're already on the back. I didn't have the front two done because they were put on last year. I was going to have them switched, but if you believe they'd be better on the back I'll just keep em there. You say they might wear abnormally fast? That might not be good. I suppose I'll worry about that later. My old tires had virtually no tread left on them.

 

the one to watch out for is sometimes a different size tire has a much lower load rating than is appropriate as its intended for a different application. The load rating is the numbers after the size, like P205/55R16 92H, the 92 is the load rating. RWD volvos seem to like a fairly hefty and stiff tire.

RWD cars are pretty tolerant of size differences, its FWD cars that get really squirrely with even slight size changes. a small tire in the back will mean you're going a little slower than your speedometer indicates, and at the same actual speed, you're turning a bit higher RPM.

one thing a lot of folks miss, 240 WAGONS came with a larger and heavier rated tire than 240 sedans, I believe a P195/70R14 is the optimal modern size on a wagon, while P185/70R14 is the sedan size. But thats from memory and I'm too lazy to look it up.

 

hmmm, Volvo's Specifications for 1982-1990 240's says, 244 takes 175R14 or 185/70R14 (or 195/60R15 with the 15" turbo wheels). it says the Wagons (245) take 185R14 R which was a reinforced tire equivalent to 185/82R14, which is an obsolete size, no longer available. closest match to this would be P195/75R14, I believe.

 

Hmm.. The old ones were 185 75 r14. I suppose they would have been close? Oh! And on the car, the door sticker specifies that size. The one talking about tire info.

 

now I'm going to have to go look at the door sticker on our 87 240 sedan

 

Haha! What were your findings? Mine is a wagon! Just an fyi. Also, I have done research, and what I found was, wagons had 185/75r14, while sedans had 185/70r14. So I'm a couple sizes smaller. For the heck of it, I looked at the spare. It's a 185/65r14. Same size as my new tires! And boy were you right when you said my speedometer would be off! It's about 5 miles or so off. Now I have a speedometer app on my phone for the time being so I'm not accidentally driving like a senior citizen.

 

I suspect a P185/75R14 is about the same diameter as a P195/70R14.

hmmm. Tirerack.com thinks a 92 240 wagon takes P195/75R14 or P205/70R14, and a sedan is 185/70R14

picking a random brand/model tire (Kumho Solus KR21), here's some sizes and outer diameters...

• P185/70R14 - 24.2"
• P185/75R14 - 25"
• P195/70R14 - 24.8"
• P195/75R14 - 25.5"
• P205/70R14 - 25.4"

and your P185/65R14 are 23.5" ...