Changed from 205/45 to 205/50/16 Tyres

[Dexterous]

I was very close to getting rid of my vRS as the ride quality and rattles were doing my head in, always crashing over the slightest imperfection in the road.

Today I have just changed my tyres from Pirelli Pzero Neros to 205/50/16 Falken 452's and the ride quality is MUCH better than before and now seems to have much more grip over rough and uneven roads and they aren't even worn in yet! (only done 40 mile on them!)

.. and the best bit is they are only £55 each

[clidgevrs]

thanks for the heads up mate interesting find mate can anyone else comment on this?

[Dexterous]

If I get chance to wash the car today I'l take a pic, the tyres seems to fill the wheel arches more as well.

[sharkrider]

be aware that your speedo will be slightly out now... I'd check it with some GPS stuff....

[Fabia 12v]

Originally Posted by sharkrider

be aware that your speedo will be slightly out now... I'd check it with some GPS stuff....

Yup... you have now changed rolling radious of the wheel... car will also be slower too!

Just be awear

[Dexterous]

I know the speedo is going to be slightly out, tbh since VAG speedo's over read by so much its probably going to be more accurate. Will be checking it with GPS though.

[mannyo]

The speedo will be more than slightly out. Acording to the tyre size calculator you have added 2.5 inches to the tyre circumference and thats a huge amount.

[anonymouse]

Tyre calc.jpg


Speedo reads 70mph your actual speed will be 72.43 mph

[jasc1988]

Your right your speedo might actually be more accurate now

[sharkrider]

mmmm. there is a reason all speedo's have to read "optimistic" by law, and thats so the police can prosicute you, and you cannever say "my speedo only said 70!" I'd be very careful if it's underreading....... I always keep my speedo "at" the speed, and know its ok, and have some leaway, to know it was actually underreading, would drive me crazy!

[Wardy]

Were the tyres due for changing anyway? I would have been tempted to put the money into Koni FSDs myself, to improve the ride quality.

I'd imagine fuel consumption will increase now too, because you've added to the rolling radius of the wheel?

Steve

[Dexterous]

Yeah all the tyres were near the limit, only managed 7k out of the previous pzero's

[mathepac]

Originally Posted by Dexterous

I was very close to getting rid of my vRS as the ride quality and rattles were doing my head in, always crashing over the slightest imperfection in the road.

Today I have just changed my tyres from Pirelli Pzero Neros to 205/50/16 Falken 452's and the ride quality is MUCH better than before and now seems to have much more grip over rough and uneven roads and they aren't even worn in yet! (only done 40 mile on them!)

.. and the best bit is they are only £55 each

Just back from tyre shopping and a gentle little tour and I am a convert.

I bought 5 x Federal 205/50/16 SS-535's for the same reason as Dexterous and, while I still need to have a proper play and mess with tyre pressures, I am very impressed with the additional comfort and the reduction in crashing and banging over bumps and pot-holes - note reduction, NOT elimination.

The are W-I-D-E sob's and as a consequence, the pull to the left seems a little more pronounced, but this could be down to tyre pressures; I'll keep you posted after the week-end once things have bedded in nicely, and hopefully I'll get a chance to sat-nav the speedo and odo too.

As the tyres are so flipping W-I-D-E, close encounters of the kerb kind (even for blind-as-a-bat me) should be a thing of the past. They look nice & butch too.

A word of warning, as the car runs on coil-overs and is slammed, I checked clearance with wheel-arches before fitting, BUT silly me, I never checked the spare which now won't fit in the flipping wheel-well. So if anyone has a wheel-mount bracket off a Landy boot or similar, I have a home for it!

Price, for comparison's sake was 351 euro ex VAT , thats about £261 (yes I paid VAT, but at a different rate to the UK)

I've already contributed a "thanks" to Dexterous for the original post and here's another , Thanks bud for having the ehhh, equipment to take the plunge - fair play.

[sharkrider]

note: I had these federals last on thge fiat, they gripped fine, wet and dry, but the rumbling/vibrating/wheel bearing type noise id been into the garage for twice, came back as the technition saying, there's nothing wrong with your car, must be the tyres... changed them, and lo and behold, all the problems vanished! (there's a thread somewhere in general car chat, but too drunk and tired ( ) to look it up!

[mathepac]

Yes, thanks sharkrider, I saw that one, and decided to go ahead anyway as like most things in life and motoring, its a bit of a trade-off. I did notice the "wheel-bearings knackered" rumble at low speed on certain surfaces, but it didn't seem to be continuous. Hopefully, sonic booms and police sirens will kill it off.

Overall, as its still early days with this mod, I'm happy so far. If I need a big sucker of a sub and an amp in the back, then I might regard that as a plus.

Cheers, oh, and sleep well

[GixxerPete]

Originally Posted by mannyo

The speedo will be more than slightly out. Acording to the tyre size calculator you have added 2.5 inches to the tyre circumference and thats a huge amount.

Not really a huge amount. The circumference of the wheel and tyre is already 73.50 inches (approx, it's early!), so a 2.5 inch increase is only 3.4% - less of a difference than changing to 17s and fitting 205/40/17 tyres which is reasonably commonplace, so speedo difference and loss of performance should be negligible.

[Imperator]

What tyre sizes can you have on standard vRS 16"s WITHOUT changing the rolling radius?

[GixxerPete]

Originally Posted by Imperator

What tyre sizes can you have on standard vRS 16"s WITHOUT changing the rolling radius?

205/45/16

195/50/16 would be closer than 205/50/16, but not by a lot, and would sacrifice width.

The only other way to change tyre sizes is DOWN on the profile, and a lot wider, but this will just cause the car to tramline more, and possibly catch the tyres in the arches.

It's more commonplace to go for wider lower profile tyres when fitting a non OE size on OE wheels, for example on the Civic Type-R some people change from 205/45/17 to 215/40/17 to increase the tyre options.

[ClearwayDT]

Originally Posted by GixxerPete

Not really a huge amount. The circumference of the wheel and tyre is already 73.50 inches (approx, it's early!), so a 2.5 inch increase is only 3.4% - less of a difference than changing to 17s and fitting 205/40/17 tyres which is reasonably commonplace, so speedo difference and loss of performance should be negligible.

That's not right actually - The standard 205/45/16 tyres have a circumference of 73.1in, the 205/40/17 tyres are 73.7in (an increase of only 0.8%) and the 205/50/16 tyres are 75.6in (an increase of 3.5%).

Hope that helps.

[GixxerPete]

Originally Posted by ClearwayDT

That's not right actually - The standard 205/45/16 tyres have a circumference of 73.1in, the 205/40/17 tyres are 73.7in (an increase of only 0.8%) and the 205/50/16 tyres are 75.6in (an increase of 3.5%).

Hope that helps.

Depends on the tyres, my calculations were taken from the theoretical measurements. Tyre sizes vary a lot from make to make.

[GixxerPete]

And make aside, 3.5% isn't all that much really.

[Dexterous]

Cheers for the comments and info on the tyre sizes.

I checked it with TomTom sat nav the other day and its still under reading but only just, when at 70 on the speedo the sat nav is reading 69.

It seems the same at every speed, 30 is actually 29 etc..

Will have to be carefull with speed camera's now

[john_grant358]

Any pics mate?

[Dexterous]

I'l take a few pics for you today

[Ricko]

On my vRS with (new) standard tyres, according to TomTom when the speedo is at 70 the actual speed is only 64 !