Wonderin' something... my car has 17" sport tires on it. Living in Boston, they aren't going to get me anywhere in the winter so I'll be driving the Tribute to work on the snowy days. Thing is Tirerack.com has IMO a pretty good lookin' deal for Blizzaks. The tires are already mounted and balanced on 16" rims, therefor I could preserve my other rims and sport tires which wouldn't get me anywhere anyway in the snow. Problem is, the car is fitted with 17"s and I know that pretty much everything on it is electronically sensored (IS 300), including the transmission which has e-shift. So I reckon I can't just take off the 17's and put on the 16's and be on my way. That would be too perfect... alternating tires in the spring and fall... Here's the question - what would have to be done to add those tires, and would it be worth it? What about height off the ground? Buddy says to do the match when it comes to tire thickness, but this'll be a project. Obviously the other consideration is to just get the Blizzaks in 17" but I wouldn't get the rims and the tires I'd have to get mounted and weighted separately... let alone the alignment.
Can't you just get a 16" tire with a higher profile so that it almost mirrors your 17s in terms of overall tire height? Or am I misunderstanding your post?
Yeah - that's what I think I have to do. BUt I didn't know if there was anything else for me to look out for when it comes to sensors, etc. The 16" winter tires are no doubt going to be higher profile than my 17s are now. Just didn't know if there was any easier way to measure it or anything else to look out for.