I am always looking for a way to save money when it comes to maintaining our family vehicles. So, when I saw a scrap vehicle with five almost new tires, I jumped at the opportunity to purchase the wheels/tires. The wheels came from a 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee. They had plenty of tread left and the size was almost a perfect match for our 1990 Jaguar Sovereign. The price for the wheels/tires? Only $34.60. How could I go wrong? At this point, I was pretty happy with myself. But after driving my wife’s 2002 Honda Odyssey yesterday, I realized that we still had Gislaved snow tires on it. You can imagine the noise they make on the asphalt. But would the Jeep rims fit on the Odyssey?
Maybe. At first glance, the 215/75R15 Jeep tires were not an option for the van because Honda uses 225/60R16 tires. But, but, but… both rims had the same bolt pattern and the circumference was quite similar. So we gave it a try. The first step was measuring the inside of the current Honda rim. This was an important step (as I learned when trying to swap rims from a Jaguar XJS to an XJ6) because the inside of the rim must be large enough to house the brake rotors and calipers. On both rims the inside radius was approximately 7½ inches. So, it appeared to us that there was enough room inside the Jeep’s 15 inch tires to house the brake hardware.
Maybe not. We began by blocking the three other wheels and jacking up the front driver’s corner of the Odyssey. But with 218k miles on the van, the underside made some painful cracking noises when we jacked under the factory lift point under the driver’s door rocker panel. Instead of splitting the van in two, we decided to position the jack under a strong suspension spot behind the wheel. This held things up with no extra noises and we soon had the Honda wheel removed. But, but, but… having the same bolt pattern and fitting on the vehicle are two different things. The wheels fit on the lugs but they were too short to allow the nuts to grab the threads. Too bad.
For future reference, www.TireRack.com gives the complete measurements for most wheels including offset, backspacing, and bolt pattern (but not the 1990 Sovereign). This is what they say about each vehicle.
| 1990 Jaguar Sovereign |
1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee |
2002 Honda Odyssey |
|
| Offset | ??? | -19mm | 45mm |
| Backspacing | 5.7″* | 3.66″ | 5.94″ |
| Bolt Pattern | 5-120.7 | 5-114 | 5-114 |
| Tire Size | 205/70 VR15 | 225/75 R15 | 225/60 R16 |
* I measured this myself. So, take it for what it’s worth.
Here are a few videos explaining wheel offset and backspacing: