Wider Wheels and 17", peoples thoughts and opinions?

A2Jay

Member
So having driven the A2 a fair bit the last few days I feel it could do with a bit more tyre on the road.

Obviously i'm not trying to turn it into a racing car or trying to drive it like one. But I do find on roundabouts the turn in is a little wobbly and tends to under steer a little bit.

Currently its got the Standard SE 16" wheels on it. Which I believe are 6j wheel. On 185 tyres.

Now i've got a set of 17" 7J wheels with 215/45/17 tyres. Michelin Primacies which came off my Toyota GT86. They're an ET48 though.

Would these look right / make the car track any better? I know the ride quality may deteriorate being wider and less profile. But I think i'd prefer to have the better feeling out of corners over comfort.

Just wonder what peoples thoughts are? The wheels may not even look any good. But if it solves the feeling of a bit understeery then I may look at getting some better wheels.

Anyone upgraded to 17" on a wider wheel and how it affects the ride?

Cheers Jay
 
Yes lots of us have and the sport models come with 7x17 wheels as standard.

I run 185/55/15 winter tyres during the winter months and dread puttingthem on, the handling is terrible with them on and can feel the sidewall of the tyre flex around corners.

During the summer I run 205/40/17 pirelli p-zeros and they are a world apart from the 15's.
 
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too big, too high ET, won't fit, sorry.

Do your ARBs first. The 185/50R16s are probably ancient, though, to be honest. I'd also suspect the dampers to be original, which won't help matters.

- Bret
 
Don't be sorry. I'm interested in peoples opinions.

I'm used to an extremely firm ride. my '86 has Coilovers 7kg springs and 225/40 tyres. Whilst I want to keep the A2 comfy and nicver for work! I don't mind a bit of ride derogation for a better handling car.

I think it's the sidewall flex that is most off putting at the moment. I need new front tyres so thought it might be easier / cheaper to go for wheels anyway. I know the ET isn't correct, but i've also got some expensive Eibach 20mm Spacers which I don't run anymore.

What is wrong with the original Dampers? the car has done 40,878miles. And they feel absolutely fine. Or is there an uprated spec damper?
 
So having driven the A2 a fair bit the last few days I feel it could do with a bit more tyre on the road.

Obviously i'm not trying to turn it into a racing car or trying to drive it like one. But I do find on roundabouts the turn in is a little wobbly and tends to under steer a little bit.

Currently its got the Standard SE 16" wheels on it. Which I believe are 6j wheel. On 185 tyres.

Now i've got a set of 17" 7J wheels with 215/45/17 tyres. Michelin Primacies which came off my Toyota GT86. They're an ET48 though.

Would these look right / make the car track any better? I know the ride quality may deteriorate being wider and less profile. But I think i'd prefer to have the better feeling out of corners over comfort.

Just wonder what peoples thoughts are? The wheels may not even look any good. But if it solves the feeling of a bit understeery then I may look at getting some better wheels.

Anyone upgraded to 17" on a wider wheel and how it affects the ride?

Cheers Jay

I have 8J 18s on mine and I am very happy with the ride and the improved steering feel on cornering.

With the 215 45 17s you are one inch larger in diameter than standard and this is almost double the difference that is seen as correct.

The standard recommendation is that you should not increase the diameter by more than 2.5%, with your proposed sizes you would be 4.7% larger.

Your speedo under reads anyway and this difference would compensate for that (plus a little) so this would not be a huge problem.

But your tyres would be almost an inch bigger (diameter) than mine are and believe me there is not much clearance on mine.

Add to that the larger ET and you might have rubbing problems.

So unless someone else on here has used 217 45 17s and found no problems, I would not opt for that size. 205 45 17s might be a better idea (and 205 is the recommended width for 7J wheels (7j is the same size as the 9 spoke sport alloys that are standard on he A2 sport. But they use 205 40 17s, you would be ok with 205 45 17s but I wouldn't recommend 215 45 17s.

Steve B
 
Ok will bare that in mind.

Toyota shipped the 7J wheels with 215. But I will look into going 205 / 40 if I need the change the tyres anyway.

Cheers
 
The spacers may or may not fit, I'd check to see if they go over the minor curve where the centre bore meets (for example) the drum. It's not a 90 degree angle, it's rounded.

True, ET48 should be pushed to 38 with a 10mm spacer. So yes, they may well fit with the spacers.

As far as the ride is concerned, I've just swapped to Bilstein B8s, added a rear ARB and find it an awesome upgrade. Running 195/50R15s on 7J wheels, I can now take traffic-light 90 degree corners at around 25mph. Lift, don't brake and - swoosh - there she goes. Fun. I'm unconvinced the A2 needs much more tyre than this, at least with a 1.4 and in the dry; the suspension change has made a massive difference to both the ride and roadholding.

- Bret
 
I have a Sport Tdi with a similar wheel/tyre set up to Bretti and a RARB but with Koni fsd's All round, I fitted stock SE springs on the rear and spiden springs on the front. Whilst my set up is slightly compromised by running Kleber all season tyres ( the car only covers about 6k miles annually now the OH uses it) on 'ex' Audi A1 wheels with 12mm spacers (to push them out in the interests of aesthetics - fill the arches better) it is in my view a damn good set up and gives almost Mini ( original, not the Beemer pastiche) levels of steering response and handling. Our local roads in West Yorkshire are some of the worst in the country so gives a reasonable ride too.
 
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