Hello,

I am in upstate NY where it snows a lot. I have been advised to put snow tires on my 05 XJ8L :-) Am wondering about the size, though. I currently have OEM 19" wheels.

1) My dealersuggested 17" wheels. And so does tirerack.com for that matter. The manager at a local tire store, however, is reluctant to put 17" wheels. He says that he would be more comfortable with 18" because that allows the vehicle to be a little higher which then will be better in case one hits a pothole or such. Thoughts? I did see that the 17" wheels are narrower than the 18" so, I think, that would be an additional benefit...

2) How would snowtires behave on the 19" wheels that I have?

3) The tire store issuggestingafter market wheels. How much do OEM wheels run? And, what about these - http://www.finishlinewheels.com/JAGUAR/XJ8/2005/A-59745U20/or http://www.finishlinewheels.com/JAGUAR/XJ8/2005/A-59744U20/or http://www.finishlinewheels.com/JAGUAR/XJ8/2005/A-59742U20/or http://www.finishlinewheels.com/JAGUAR/XJ8/2005/A-59743U20/.If these are okay, I could get these - if the OEM are a lot more than being quoted here (these appear to be refinished), and have the second set also with Jaguar wheels.Does anyoneknow if the finishline wheels have the cat? :-)

My current thinking is that if 17" wheels work and if finishline is indeed OEM and has the cat, I could get a set of 17" from finishline, and use that as my second set. Thoughts?

Thanks!

 

I thought the diameter of 17-19" were the same? I just bought 4 snow tires on Craigslist for my stock 18" wheels.

 

17" rims will work fine, the dealer who told you the car would ride higher is a complete idiot.. I would run FAR FAR away from him.

Call the TireRack and ask them to explain tire sizes to you.. I would ****** up a set of 17" or 18" rims off of eBay and buy the proper size tires for those rims.

The OE sizes for 17" rims are 235/55-17
and the OE sizes for 18" rims are 235/50-18

Both of these tires have the same outside diameter size, and will ride exactly the same way on your car..

 

Well as it turns out, the tire guy is more concerned about 17" rims fitting the wheel and not jamming the brake calipers. Stopped by last night to see the one 18" rim he had available, but I didn't like it. So he is going to check on 17" rims. He says until he is sure about them, he won't sell me 17" rims. I could get 17" from ebay/finishline and he would then mount tires on them, no problems. Still shopping :-)

Thanks for giving the sizes, kthrash. I did also check tirerack to understand sizes and concluded that all those sizes would bring the outside diameter to be the same.

Will report back what I end up doing.

 

What he said...any dealer telling you your car will ride "higher" should be avoided even if you have a flat tire and they have an air compressor.

The skinnier the tires (width wise) will be better for snow. Generally the bigger the rim size though the better the handling so you trade off a bit but it's also winter so you shouldn't need the handling. Look at the picture I attached so I can try to show you why the car won't get "higher."

 

Just noticed you posted before me...do you have belletire/discount tire in new york? You could also try tirerack to buy rims from them. The rims/tires come mounted if you want them that way. You could also pay someone else to put them on.

 

XJ8 comes stock with 17's, so how it rider higher?

 

Hey moses what are you asking? I don't quite understand...you asking it comes stock with 17's, so how does it ride higher?

If that was the question the car won't ride any higher as long as you go down in the thickness of the profile. The only way to change this is to increase the overall diameter of the tire meaning if it comes with a 225/45/17 stock if you went to a 225/45/18 the car would be taller because you went up a size in rim and the profile of the tire is the same. When you go bigger in rim size you have to go smaller in profile to keep the same overall diameter of the tire. If not you have to get your speedometer corrected otherwise you'll be traveling at a higher/lower mph and your speedometer will be collecting more mileage/less mileage and that's not good either.

Did that help?

 

Asalesperson is saying you can't put 17's on, yet the car comes stock with 17's... My point is the saleperson saying you shouldn't put 17's on has no idea...

I am aware of tire profiles and diameter of the wheel as mentioned earlier in the thread. Sorry if my post was not clear.... Should've looked at more before posting...

 

It was the tire sales guy who said that he was concerned about putting 17" on my car. 05 stock, if I am not mistaken, was 18". I have 19". I did tell him that stock on this car was 18". He was still a bit apprehensive about minus sizing the wheel 2". His concern, like I said earlier (https://www.jaguarforums.com/fb.asp?m=78489), was not that the car would ride higher, but that the brake calipers may be tight in a minus sized wheel. He has since found out that 17" wheels will work.

 

The only problems you would probably have is a rim that is too wide or has a different offset. Considering you have the xj8 and not the xjr the brakes would be the same on all xj's just by my unknowing assumption, but he obviously already knows that now.

 

I just had a set of Blizzaks installed on 18" Elbrus 102s from Tire Rack.

http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/Wheel...All&sort=Brand

The dealer threw in the tires. The wheels were very cheap at $125 each. With TPMS sensors, the total was still under $800. The car is stunning with them on.

 

Logged in after a long time and realized that I had not replied/posted what I finally did. It's never too late, is it? Well, the snow tires are already off for the season, but what I did was get 4 OEM 17" wheels from detroitwheel.com (finishline did not have a full set of 4). Got Blizzaks from a local tire store and the car was good to go. Lost a wheel cap coming out of the tire shop, so bought 1 plus another 4 from Welsh Enterprises. Now, both sets of wheels have their own center caps as well! The new set is black. Goes well with the black car :-)