15" tyres and wheels?

[Si Withington]

My wife has a 2008 1.9TDI Ibiza Sportrider. The car currently has 16" wheels with 205/45 R16 tyres.

I want to put some 15" winter wheels and tyres on it. As far as I can work out with my limited knowledge is that 195/55 R15 tyres are as close as I can get to the roll of the original tyres without affecting speedo readings, gearing etc. Am I right and will these be okay in relation to clearance under the wheel arch etc?

Also, looking at all the specs for the car online, the wheel centre bore needs to be 57.1 All the wheel options I can find have a centre bore of 57.0 I assume a tenth of a mm isn't going to cause me an issue?

So I'm looking at putting on are

Size 6 x 15, Bolt pattern 5 x 100.00 x 57.00, Offset 43.00

Any advice appreciated.

Many thanks

 

[RUM4MO]

Hi, maybe take a look on the mytyres website and stuff in your wife's car's info in the "steel wheels and tyres" section, there is a winter tyre option in there and it will offer you the best size of tyre - it will also give things like offset (ET). I used them to get steel wheels and winter tyres for wife's 2003MY Polo 1.4 and their sizes were correct. I used that site to check up on sizes for her current new Polo prior to buying alloys online and winter tyres locally.

Also, there is a tyre/wheel width rolling circumference comparator online, Google it maybe.

With the 2002>2009 Polo, the "correct" winter size was 175/?? X 14 I opted for 185/?? X 14.
For the 2009 > 2016 Polo, the "correct" winter size was 185/60 X 15 I opted for that size but probably wish that I had picked 195/?? X 15 - trouble was, all the official VW blurb said/suggested 185/60 X 15 as that is a standard size used within the Polo model range, I was initially thinking about the 195/?? X 15 as it would look a bit better as that car comes with 215/?? X 16 tyres (stupid vanity) the narrower the tyres, the better the advantage in snow.

Edit:- BTW, wife's new Polo SEL does need 15" wheels to clear the bigger front brakes, your wife's car only needs 14" wheels to clear the brakes - smaller wheel diameter usually means tyres will be cheaper.

Edit:- Edit:- I've always guessed that the "57.1" and "57" were the same size, just someone being lazy.

Right, I see that you have probably used that tyre site or one similar, so moving on to widths, 195/55 X 15 results in a -0.77% speedo reading error, 185/55 X 15 results in a +1.09% speedo error - so really the choice is up to you, the 185 should be cheaper, work better in deep snow, but look narrow, the 195 should be dearer, work probably well enough in deep snow and look better! Remember what I said, ie I chose the wider option for wife's previous car and it worked out okay, also really depends where you live and use the car - ie will you encounter deep snow often?

Another edit!!:- what size etc is the spare wheel? Use that as a guide to wheel size/width/offset? (my mistake, this "edit" should live above the last sentence)

Hopefully one last edit to this posting:- remember, if/when you replace this car, these wheels will not fit the next version of Ibiza unless you use 5mm spacers .

 

[Si Withington]

Hi and thanks for taking the time to reply.

Yes, I looked at MyTyres which gave me various options for the car. I then used willtheyfit.com and tiresize.com/converter to try and find an option that would have minimum impact on the roll/speedo reading etc.

This lead me to 195/55 15 being the closest option that I could get a decent selection of tyres (and therefore lower prices) for.

My biggest concern was going to be the 57 versus 57.1 centre bore, but I've actually realised that I've had this issue before on wheels for my old Skoda Estate and they fitted fine - I'd imagine that 0.1mm is equivalent to a layer of paint, so shouldn't be an issue!

We live in the Lakes, so we get occasional issues with snow, but it's more wet sleety snow melt and cold conditions. Winter tyres are definitely an advantage here.

Thanks again

Si

 

[Si Withington]

Re the car info pack etc: there is nothing in there on wheel sizes and tyres sizes. It's pretty generic stuff for the whole Ibiza range. There is definitely nothing on winter options.

 

[RUM4MO]

Yes, lack of advice on alternative wheel/tyre sizes especially for winter use is just not helpful, especially if like me, you plan to make life a bit safer while trying to comply with what your insurance company expect the car to have on at any time.

I've got an Audi S4 and it looks like Audi do make the effort to fit the correct (for that car) stickers with tyre sizes etc and pressure - I'm using the M+S wheel and tyre size stated on the door pillar, though if I look on their website, it seems that they try to rationalise tyre sizes for use in winter and specify a narrow wheel and narrow tyre, which while being in line with what you need for best grip in winter, disagrees with what is in the manual or on the door pillar. I just think that Audi are looking at what is easiest for dealers to hold in stock to cover the entire range.

Finally, there is talk on these forums that imply that VAG did not resubmit the new Fabia, Ibiza or Polo for type approval - maybe another money saving idea, so anything that is okay for previous models, stands for current models, strange?