Can 205/50-17's do any damage?
 

I've had two sets of 205/50-17's on my '05 MCS. After putting me in these tires 2x, Discount finally informed me that these are not a standard size for my MINI. The first set were Yokohama's and I only got about 15K miles out of them and they wore extremely unevenly. I switched to a Michelin Sport A/S and my husband kept noticing a rubbing sound. When we took it back in, they told us that the 205/50-17 was not the right fit (so why did they sell them to us in the first place :confused:) Had them replace with the same tires in a 205/45-17, but am concerned about any damage that may have been done that we can't see yet. Any thoughts?

If you heard rubbing, you should look to see what rubbed in the wheel well. Might have done a little damage to the composite wheel well liner.

The Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus are 25" O.D. I've been running some 205/55-16 tires that are 24.9" O.D. and haven't had a problem.

It shouldnt have damaged any of the suspension or engine bits. If anthing was harmed it just the wheel liner, make sure it doesnt have any holes in it where there shouldnt be any and you are good to go.

Technically your odometer will read a bit lower than it really is...but that's a good thing :razz:

The rubbing won't have done any real damage...no worries there.

Thanks everyone, I will take a look at the wheel liner. I think the dealership noticed some rub marks on the struts (?), but said it wasn't anything to worry about. We just want to CYA with Discount. They swapped out the 50's for 45's for nothing which was decent of them since the 45's are more expensive, but they think that absolves them of any other issues. We just want to be sure we won't have issues down the road that lead back to having the wrong size tires on for 25K miles.