How to find out your tyre size
For those new to the online tyre retail experience, the idea of trying to find out what tyre size you require – out of the hundreds that are available – can be daunting.
It may seem like a hard piece of information to work out, but it is in fact very easy. The best way to find out your tyre size is to go out to your car and look at the tyres that are already fitted. All the information you need is displayed on the side of the tyres (this part of the tyre is commonly called the sidewall).
At first glance the mixture of letters and numbers on the sidewall may look complicated, but in fact once you know what each part means it becomes very easy to read.
Using the following as an example, 205 50 R17 93 W, here is a breakdown of what each section means:
| Sidewall Marking | Explanation |
|---|---|
| 205: | This first section of the code tells you the width of the tyres in millimetres. |
| 50: | This lets you know the height of the tyre’s sidewall as a percentage of its width. So for this example, the height is 50% of 205mm. You may hear this being referred to as the 'profile' or 'aspect ratio'. |
| R17: | This tells you that the tyre is of a radial construction (the R) and what the diameter of the tyre's inner rim is in inches |
| 93: | This number gives you information regarding the maximum load that this tyre can handle - there is a special key and table which explains this number on our load rating section. |
| W: | This letter indicates the maximum speed that this tyre can handle. Like the load rating, we have more information on our speed rating page. |