Question for car mechanics

[RichMan]

Can I put 195/60r15 88t winter tires in place of 195/65r15 91t ones? Will they fit?

[Nova]

You shouldn't have any fitment issues as the tires are pretty close in size, and typically fitment issues would be caused by sizing up rather than down. The 195/60 are a slightly smaller diameter, so one thing to be aware of is your speedometer is going to be slightly inaccurate, when the car shows 100km/h I'd expect your GPS speed to be about 96 or 97km/h. 

[BadAngle41]

@RichMan I usually use this site when looking at new wheel/tire fitment. To @Nova's point the reduced sidewall ratio will mean a change in actual speed vs. speedo but it's minor.

https://www.willtheyfit.com/

[dualshowman]

@RichMan

Folks typically go with the same or taller sidewall for a winter tire. Also at issue here is that the 88 tire load index for the 195/60R15. If it were my vehicle, I would not go with a lower load index than whatever the stock tire load index may be. It's minor, yes, but winter rubber in winter conditions already has more work to do than an all-season tire in temperate, dry weather. Speedo error aside, you may find this size and load winter tire to feel pretty terrible. YMMV.

[ArdeFIN]

The load index on a tire tells you how much one wheel can be loaded on. Two tires for an axle to compare to your cars axle masses.  There is no need to overlay the load index, but going under the rated axle mass of a car would lead into legal trouble if an accident occurs due to different tires.

Atleast for winter tyres we use here in the northern Europe, the load index is defined by tyre manufacturer to hold the load in all "normal" driving environments. So if the LI88 is enough for a cars mass, then the LI91 will go as well too.

If the car would need LI91 from tire, LI88 would be illegal (atleast here) but problems might occur only when car is loaded to full load and driven hard and fast to give stress to the tire. In normal driving there might not be any problem ever. 

That all said, I wouldn't go for a smaller tyre (and check the load index too) if there wasn't a very good reason to do so. It'll be off from driving comfort (harder wheel from less sidewall height) and in cold it'll be even bigger difference (noticeable if you could compare to the original sized tire).

[RichMan]

Thanks for the insight gang