As per my experience.....the ride will be a little harsher because the tire sidewalls are not as tall (or thick). And, an going to 22"..... you can kiss comfort goodbye.

Looks better better ride

Good luck on your decision.

 

Tires for 20" rims will likely be more expensive. I downsized my SX to 17" rims for winter as much cheaper; no appreciable appearance effect - bought alloy rims vs steel.
I tend to only see downsides with larger rims- harcher ride and more expensive.

 

Your ride will be compromised and the only remedy to balance that is to find a most comfortable 20" tires around. I heard that the SX stock 19" is also having a harsh ride and to my experience, even an 18" tires are harsh using the stock Khumo tires until I replace it with a cheap comfortable tires on it. Wallah my problem solve.!

For the appearance effect, I depends to the wheels you got. Try "Enkei SVX 20" Machined black" although a bit expensive, If I have a chance to grab a set, I will. The looks is more compatible and balance with good stance.

 

The 19" on the SX are a nice compromise b/w handling and comfort. I can tell you this one is a lot better (smoother) and quieter than the 17" on the 2011 EX I had, and handles better, and has less torque steer.

My daughter's Challenger has 20" wheels with low-profile tires (compared to the Sorento) and the ride is even better than the SUV - it's more about suspension, which is better on the newer models than the old.

 

Any time you go with a bigger wheel size, you most likely go with a smaller side wall profile or size.

Any time you go for a smaller profile/sidewall size, you give up a little comfort and smoothness for a rougher ride, but with a little better handling, a little more 'sportier' feel.

You might gain better cornering, a more sporty ride in the twisty turns, but on regular driving, highway driving, hitting potholes and bumps, it's going to detract from your comfort, noise level (quietness) and overall 'luxurious' feel of the vehicle. I used to go for looks over comfort, and maybe I'm just older, but I prefer comfort over 'looks' now any day, cause most days it's just driving to work, the store, not cruising around town etc.

I had a Cadillac with 75 series sidewall profiles, that was THE most comfortable ride I've ever had in my life, like driving around on your comfy couch all day. I wish I still had that .... and going with 40 - 50 series sidewalls, is very uncomfortable, rough, and makes you feel after a while like something is wrong with your car every time you hit a bump, are on not so smooth pavement etc.

But, to each his own, and you can like what you like, but, if you like a quiet, comfortable ride, smaller sidewalls is not the way to go in my opinion ...

 

Absolutely! :amen:

 

Does anyone have the specs for Sorento wheels? I've found a variety of them online so I don't know which to trust. The only constant seems to be 5x114.3 (4.5") lug pattern. The bore hole size seems to be somewhere around 67mm but I've seen other numbers. And the offset has been posted as anywhere from 32mm to 50mm. Stock Sorento EX wheel size seems to be 18x7.5.

If the bore is smaller than 70mm and the offset is closer to 50mm than 32mm then I could theoretically put Mustang 18x8 wheels on the Sorento.

 

Here you go

19" OEM Kumho Crugen
235/50R19 tires
19x7 OEM Wheel (black/machined for CAD)
5x114.3 (5.4) PCD
67.1 mm hub bore diameter
+50.1 offset

@topic: I'm also in the market for a 20" tires+wheels combo come spring time provided I get to sell my 19" OEMs. I might go with Fast Wheels due to cheaper pricing and not-so-heavy in weight.

 

I had the dimensions on my crushed computer, and lost everything. I remember that the offset is specified with H (and H is anything from 35 to 45 mm). I bought 18" wheels from a 2005 Kia Optima for my winter tires, and they fit perfectly.
If you can't find the bore dimensions, I can try to measure them once the weather gets a little better.

 

FYI: 67.1 mm hub bore diameter is standard HB for all Kia/Hyundai wheels. 2011 Kia Sorento has the same.

 

The centre bore on the Kia wheels is 67.1mm and most aftermarket wheels will come with a 71mm (give or take) centre bore, so you will need to get 'hub centric rings' so that the aftermarket wheel sits on the hub of the wheel correctly, and you don't mount it not entered and encounter wheel wobble, vibrations etc.

Easy to find at any wheel shop, aftermarket car parts place etc.

 

Yeah, I've been looking for hub centric rings but can't find the exact size. The Kia hub is 67.1mm and the Ford hub is 70.3mm. But nobody makes 67.1ID/70.3OD rings. I can find the 67.1ID rings but the outside would be 70.1 or 70.4.

Am I right in figuring the wheel bore will actually be 70.4 to fit over a Ford 70.3 hub without being a press-fit?

 

You can find tons of it in EBay..Try this example;

4 Aluminum Hub Centric Hubcentric Ring Rings 70 4mm to 67 1mm | eBay

 

So I should go with the 70.4 rather than 70.1? That would seem to be an interference fit (or at least press fit) to the Ford wheel made to fit over a 70.3 hub.

 

Remember we are talking about a .1mm difference here.

In real life, it's almost nothing

I'm using a 73.1mm OD 67mm ID hubcentric rings with my winter alloy wheels and even though the hub bore of the wheels are 73mm, a 1mm over fit just mighty fine.

 

.1 of a mm is not going to make a huge difference, and having rings that are within .1mm of the actual dimensions is not going to cause a disaster, and better than having no rings on there at all.

Try any performance parts store, shop that sells and installs tires and wheels, these places should have them on hand, or be able to order them in from their distributors for you.

Or, you can find them on Ebay.

 

Speedometer



You speedo will be off. 20 inchers rotate slower than 18s.

 

You speedo will be off. 20 inchers rotate slower than 18s.

When you change wheel size, you change your tire ratio size to keep the same overall diameter. That's why the same Kia from the factory comes with 17, 18, and 19 inch wheels, depending on trim level....same speedo. That's why the sidewall of tires get so small on big wheels...

example:
235/65R-17
235/60R-18
235/55R-19
These are the factory Kia tire sizes...all have the same diameter and rotation speed.

For a 20 inch, you would use a 235/50R-20 tire and all would be good.

 

these are 22's but you get the idea

 

changing to 20's might as well do 20x8 do a 245 or 255 tire stability in cornering will improve, an dont go less than 10mm offset.. steering will be affected esp w/ uneven roads.. also, be careful in choosing, check wheel weight must not be heavy acceleration braking will be affected
cheers

(see pics prior to this post)

 

It will ride terrible!

The taller the tire, the less rubber, the less rubber = rough ride.

I had the 19 inch. I sold those and put 17 Inch and new Michelin Tires.

Now the Sorento rides as smooth as silk and has a very rugged look.

 

Just google 'tire diameter calculator' and you can find a suitable tire size to use on a 20" wheel that will keep the overall diameter as close to possible to the original OEM wheel size, to keep your speedo as accurate as possible.

I have just put 20" x 8.5" wheels on my Sorento, I went with Yokohama Geolandar 275/45R20 tires, and the overall diameter is very close to OEM, a tiny bit taller (larger diameter) so my speedo is off by about 1.5 (when I'm going 60 on the guage it's actually going 61.5 or something, not terrible difference). The ride is very good, comfortable, bumps aren't that much worse than the OEM 235/60R18 wheels/tires, and nowhere near as harsh a ride as you'd get from a low profile performance setup of something like 245/35ZR20 etc. I'm surprised as to how good it feels even though I went up to a 20" wheel and down to a 45 series tire.

The biggest issues you face when upsizing tires/rims on the Sorento is clearance between the inside surface of the tire/rim and the lower control arm in the back, and in the front the clearance between the top of the tire and the bottom of the strut/spring assembly above it.

Similar sizes that keep your wheel close to OEM with a 20" wheel are 245/50R20 and 255/45R20. The wider you go in the tire (the 245 or 255, 275 mentioned above) the shorter you have to go in the aspect size or 'series' which is the 45, 50, etc.

I wouldn't go any shorter in the sidewall than a 45 series personally, the rims I got came with 245/45ZR20 tires, and I felt that even these felt like they were on the borderline of comfortable and rough ride, and I would definitely be worried about hitting potholes and damaging the wheels, and that's why I went with a 275/45R20 for the bigger sidewall, tires sticking out past the lip of the rim for more protection, less roll over in cornering too, especially with a heavier vehicle on these rims that the SUV/Sorento and similar vehicles are.

Just remember that the aspect ratio or 'series' size is in direct relationship to the cross section measurement, a 245/45R20 means that the sidewall height is 45% of the 245mm across the top of the tread, or a 275/45R20 means that the sidewall is 45% of 275mm, so that one would obviously have a taller sidewall at 45% of 275mm than the 45% of 245mm would.

Try something like this link to figure out what size you would want to move to:

Tire Size Calculator & Converter, Tire Size Conversion | Discount Tire

or

Tire Diameter And Circumference Calculator

Might help you out

 

^ A very good post for those who are still confused about upsizing and downsizing wheels/tires.

But for myself, what's really hard to "visually" measure is the wheel's offset.
Remember that with a 2015 SX having 19" OEM wheels, the offset is +50.1ET with the rims having a width of 7.5" only.

If you go upsize to 20" rims, I guess the least you can get for offset would be +40ET and no less. If you do, the tires will rub the fenders because having lesser offset pushes the wheels/tires inwards. So having said this, a 20x8.5 wheel must have a minumin of +40ET (best if you can get +45et). Going +25 or +30et is asking for problems.

My winter set right now have 235/60R18 Nokians with 20x8 wheels having an ET of +45 with no rubbing and very OEM-fit.

 

I think his wheels are +38 offset from what he said in the other thread. But yeah if anyone is curious about offsets, I always go to willtheyfit.com then you can play around with the numbers....

 

Offset of around +35 to +40 in an aftermarket wheel will fit on the Sorento.

My new 20" wheels are an 8.5" wide wheel with +38 offset, 275/45R20 wheels and there are no issues with tire rub either inside or with the fenders etc. As long as you're not increasing your overall wheel 'diameter' or only slightly (an inch at most) you won't run into fender rubbing, or contact with suspension parts, inner fender well etc.

You can google 'tire and wheel upsizing calculator' or similar and you will find calculators where you can input various things to determine if your wheels and tires you are looking at will fit your vehicle or cause you issues with clearance etc.

The factory kia wheels on my Sorento (18") are +50 offset, so the +38 offset wheels that I got (aftermarket 20" x 8.5" wheels do stick out from the vehicle a little bit, but depending on the tires you choose, you shouldn't run into clearance issues with 20" wheels and tires.

The tires that came on my 20" wheels were 245/45ZR20 tires and they didn't stick out as much past the edge of the wheels/rims as much as the newer tires I got installed on them, which are 275/45R20. The first number is the tread/width measurement, so 245 is 245mm, where 275 is 275mm across the top edge of the tire (across the treads, from sidewall to sidewall).

The 'aspect ratio' or 'series' is the second number, 45, 55, 60 etc. and that is the percentage of the first number, so a 275/45R20 is a sidewall that is 45% of the 275 number. A 235/60R18 has a sidewall or 'aspect' ratio that is 60% of the 235 number. a 245/45R20 has a sidewall that is 45% of 245. So each number affects everything else in the tire size, the wider you go in the cross measurement (the first number 275, 245, 255 etc.) the taller the sidewall will be (45% 50% 60% etc.) and the bigger both numbers are together, the 'taller' the tire will be, or the larger 'diameter' or overall diameter of the entire wheel & tire assembly will be, so you've got to choose numbers that will work when taking into consideration the overall width and height of the wheel & tire, compared to the vehicle and the distance between the wheel and tire, and the fenders, inner fenders, suspension parts like the bottom of the strut tower in front, and the control arms/suspension arms in the rear that go from the 'axle' towards the front of the vehicle.

275/45R20 on a 20x8.5" wheel with +38 offset work on my 2014 Sorento EX V6 AWD, and I've seen guys on here with 22" wheels and they work with the numbers they chose (tread width, aspect ratio, offset, wheel size etc.) so it is do-able, if you figure out the numbers properly and get the offset correct.

I for sure would not go with anything less than +35 offset because you will most likely run into clearance issues at that point, as well as the look won't be right, if you don't like wheels and tires sticking way out past the fenders, like an offroad jeep or lowrider type of set up. You can always tell guys that bought used rims and didn't know anything about offset or calculating a wheel & tire package that fits their vehicle properly when they're driving down the street with wheels and tires that stick WAY out past the fenders, wheels and tires that rub or hit the body or suspension etc. Doesn't look 'good' and definitely isn't safe either.

 

What's the best color for my '15 SX's wheels? I'm thinking of having them painted.

White? Bronze? Black?

 

Depends on color of sorento? I always liked black but everyone has black..... we were joking around today with our shop truck at work. It's white and we were joking around about painting the wheels white.... tint the tail lights smoked white instead of black like 70% of the trucks in Alberta. ...

 

I have been asked to comment on 20" Rims, I changed to 20" Niche Rims. The tires are 255/55R20. The current tires are the same make as what is standard on the KIA's sorry escapes me at the moment. The dealer warned me that I might feel effects on the steering since the new wheels are wider than the original. I Have felt very little effect on steering and no change to the speedometer that I test with a GPS before and after the change.

I am saving up for a new set of Pirelli Tires 255/45R20 as I am looking for a smother ride, better road holding and less contact with the wheel wells. I have had Pirelli tires on my cars before, they are rounded on the inside of the tread to stay away from the wheel wells and more square on the outside for better road holding. The higher cost is worth it in my opinion.

Withe the 255/55R20 I found it is a great look and soft ride but even just 5 adults the edge of the tire scuff the fender.

 

There's a few things here that I'm having trouble with...

If you went from the stock tire size of 235/55R19 to 255/55R20, it is not possible that your speedometer was unaffected. Your speedometer would read about 6% too slow - when it indicated 60 mph you would be going 63.6 mph.

Switching to 255/45R20 will make the speedometer much closer - only about 0.5% too fast. When it indicates 60 mph, you'll be going 59.7... hardly noticeable. But going from a 55 series to a 45 series won't soften the ride. Quite the opposite... you'll be shortening the sidewall by a full inch making the ride noticeably firmer. And the width will be exactly the same (still 3/4 inch wider than stock) so the only effect on fender contact would be from the difference in overall height. That means that tight turns causing contact without regard to load/suspension compression will still cause contact. In other words, if you experience contact with the inner fender, changing the aspect ratio from 55 to 45 but keeping the same section width will still cause contact with the inner fender.

 

Sorry, forgot to add this picture