The definitive tyre / wheel size thread

Here’s a couple of photos from my old A2

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Steve, Jan spotted this in Dursley yesterday!
 
Sorry for the question but where can I find more information about my wheels?
I just got a spare set of 18 inch 8j no other information can be found on them? They still need some work on them someone quoted me £230-ish price for a full refurbed. It's a not original as it's says. Tyres are 225/40/18.

I know it WHEEL be (sorry I couldn't resist) a pain to fit it but anyone else has done such a thing?
Does it even a good thing to run an A2 on an 18inch wheel?

Oh yeah how bad is the arch liner work if it's required? Is it easy at all or should I just forget to have the 18's on?

Thank you for any answer!
 
People are running 18s its not that unusual. However tyres as is will foul most likely but without details on the offset its hard to say by how much.

Tyres as is though are more likely to foul on the wheel arch not just the liner given the alloys are already 8j. If the offset is more than 40ish you are going to struggle i reckon.

I would though say there are more on here with greater knowledge than I :)
 
Hi, I'd like to extend my thanks for this thread. My Mrs A2 D2's Sports 17" were awful on our SW London roads with a 40 profile. Two of the alloys were buckled and cracked... I bought two off ebay just in case and refurbed them all. Four of them were shod with Maxxis AP2 All Season tyres 205/45 and despite the stiffer sidewalls associated with these tyres, the ride is far improved.
 
Hi lookinb at a set of A1 sport wheels will these fit my A2 SE . May have already asked this before but can’t find a reply. Think they are the same wheels I have seen on a blue A2 on this page. Thanks John
Hi, so what size are this A1 rims. As from pictures sent by damadgeruk and cedrick, they look great. Please let me know the size. Brgds
 
Hi, so what size are this A1 rims. As from pictures sent by damadgeruk and cedrick, they look great. Please let me know the size. Brgds
Wheels are 7Jx16 ET34 (p/n 8X0601025BB - 8X0601025G8Z8), OEM tyre is 215/45R16 though mine are due to be fitted with 205/45R16, I believe some are using the same in 50 profile.
 
Does the wider tyre effect cars performance like acceleration, speed, fuel consumption.
I am asking this, couse my winter tyre is original dimension - 175 60 15, on 6,5J 30ET, while summer tyres are 195 50 16, on 7j 31ET. The difference is quite substantial. Car accelerate slower, rides slower, and fuel consumption is abt 10% higher. While the grip and comfort are much better than when on winter tyres.
The summer rims are from TT mk2, and they are much heavier than winter rims "Monza Alessio".
Give me your opinions and experiences.
thanx and have a great sunday.
 
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Top Post Bret

Wow I only recently bought my 2004 1.4Tdi with cloth seats and love the car but just read your spec and can only imagine how nice that must be to drive, especially if handy size you take it down those narrow Italian town roads.
 
@kiklop123 most wheels are a compromise compared to pepperpots in my opinion. The A2 is light, wide tyres and heavy wheels cause the issues you mentioned. Most of us find the compromise we're happy with, I change wheels and tyres often for appearance though I'm fortunate enough to have several to experiment with.
Screenshot_2019-11-17-08-40-45-806_com.google.android.apps.photos.png
 
Does the wider tire effect cars performance like acceleration, speed, fuel consumption.
I am asking this, couse my winter tire is original dimension - 175 60 15, on 6,5J 30ET, while summer tires are 195 50 16, on 7j 31ET. The difference is quite substantial. Car accelerate slower, rides slower, and fuel consumption is abt 10% higher. While the grip and comfort are much better than when on winter tires.
The summer rims are from TT mk2, and they are much heavier than winter rims "Monza Alessio".
Give me your opinions and experiences.
hanx and have a great sunday.
Lots of factors to consider here weight of wheels is a big factor unsprung weight..take a light weight fly wheel on a race car set up engine will spin up quicker with less effort ...same with the wheels the new wheels I’m fitting are 6 kilo each so even with wider tyres they are going to be much lighter to spin up ..but then you have rolling resistance on the road (tyre to tarmac ) I’m not clever enough to work that one out no doubt there is an equation out their .. but in a nutshell your 175 60 50 will feel quicker ....
 
Hi all,

brilliant post however there is reference to snow chains on 15”only.

Has anyone tried snow socks? I have a merc auto and snow socks equipped (2 years ago when the weather was really bad), I put them on and they worked like a dream. I was driving past fwd and 4wd cars with ease, up hills and in 3inch deep snow. I’ve just bought some from my A2 185/50 R16 SE wheels which have been discounted at £25.23 for the two fronts including delivery, website below:

subcats=Y&pcode_from_q=Y&pshort=Y&pfull=Y&pname=Y&pkeywords=Y&search_performed=Y&width=185&profile=50&rim_size=R16&dispatch=products.search

They are normally about £70 however they have a branded version in a size thats not really common (incidentally the 16” SE wheels) so they are selling them off cheap. They are branded “Trendy” and turn up in a pink bag however the snow socks themselves are unbranded and not pink.

They are not a solution for winter driving, rather an emergency only solution however at £25.23 I think it’s worth it for the 2 maybe 3 days of snow some parts of the UK get a year. This works for me as I don’t have to buy replacement tyres and wheels and a substantially cheaper solution and if the weather was really bad I wouldn’t venture out

If you want to see pictures of my merc with them fitted, let me know.

Jeetesh
 
I thought so. The compromise between appearance and drive comfort.
However i like bigger wheels, cause they look so much better, no matter the negative effects.
Do you think that wheels vary in weight for same dimension. IMO lighter wheels should give better perforamce than havier ones, or am I wrong.
 
Lots of factors to consider here weight of wheels is a big factor unsprung weight..take a light weight fly wheel on a race car set up engine will spin up quicker with less effort ...same with the wheels the new wheels I’m fitting are 6 kilo each so even with wider tyres they are going to be much lighter to spin up ..but then you have rolling resistance on the road (tyre to tarmac ) I’m not clever enough to work that one out no doubt there is an equation out their .. but in a nutshell your 175 60 50 will feel quicker ....
Greywolfhound allready replied to my question. Thanx.
So what wheels are in category of lighter ones. TT 16" for sure not, cause they weight much much more than 6 kilos. Which wheels do you have?
 
I thought so. The compromise between appearance and drive comfort.
However i like bigger wheels, cause they look so much better, no matter the negative effects.
Do you think that wheels vary in weight for same dimension. IMO lighter wheels should give better perforamce than havier ones, or am I wrong.
I explained that in above post your correct in your thinking ? ??I have 16” Audi winter forged 7 j..there are some for sale in Bulgaria cq out e bay uk not that far away from you ...
 

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so a quick update to the starting post: those tyres on the list which should / do fit but are more than 3% larger in circumference than reference and are therefore potentially illegal - depending on your insurer, your country and some other stuff - are now highlighted. There are three: 205/45R17, at 104%, 225/35R18 at 104% and 205/50R16 at 103.5%.

- Bret
 
Easy - take the tyres off and fit 205/45 R17 or 215/40 R 17 tyres. There's no way of shoe-horning 225.45 tyres in

Cheers
Hi Mike,
I wonder if you could clarify audi wheels suitable for Audi A2, l have seen a few comments regarding Pepperpot alloys. Which ones fit correctly, what sizes are they & what size tyres should be used. I currently have the alloys used from new, the six spoke type, I have 185/50R 16V tyres fitted, I am about to replace them. Wondered if the Pepperpot wheels would be a better ride?

Mike
 
so a quick update to the starting post: those tyres on the list which should / do fit but are more than 3% larger in circumference than reference and are therefore potentially illegal - depending on your insurer, your country and some other stuff - are now highlighted. There are three: 205/45R17, at 104%, 225/35R18 at 104% and 205/50R16 at 103.5%.

- Bret
I’m not going to lose to much sleep on point five of one percent over and above my legal tyre size allowed that’s getting a bit anal for me ..at this rate I will be called an anarchist hell raiser .?
 
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for some of us, the rules are not negotiable, and yes, 0.1% too much is too much. Again, I can't fit springs without having TÜV approval for them on the car... that limits things an awful lot. That's just an example.

- Bret
 
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