Tyre Advice

WildChild · Post by **WildChild** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 7:08 pm

I have 4x135 13" tyres with original hubs (painted aluminium silver)

Almost all my tyres are showing signs of wear, the front two are the worst, i'm going to get a full set of 4 new tyres for the car, can someone advise me as to what i should get?

My boss owns a Porche Specialist, the head technician i know well and has a spare pair 14" or 15" Golf GTI Racing Alloys which he says i can have for free..

it will cost me Â£112 for 4 Basic 13" 135's or i can spend Â£153 and get a set of 4 185 14 or 15"..

the car would look great with them on..

opinions please..

also can someone explain the tyre ratios ie: size, speed e.tc as i dont understand all this 6R/6J 205 185..

WildChild · Post by **WildChild** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 7:40 pm

Also, whats the biggest size of tyre / wheel i can fit onto the polo?

Mk2Adam · Post by **Mk2Adam** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 9:45 pm

any pics of the possible alloys mate? i don't know anything about mk1's really so wait for someone else to confirm but the mk2 + 3 can fit 185 width tyres in the arches, although it's generally not advised to go to 15" as they cause scrubage. if i got the golf alloys then i'd probably go for 165 or 175 purely because i think 185 is way to big for a lil mk1 (if the alloys are smaller than 6 inch then i'd go to 155 or something...plus the tyres are cheaper

you can use this tool to work out what tyre size is needed to get the same rolling circumferance of the wheel so the speedo isn't out etc...
http://www.1010tires.com/TireSizeCalculator.asp

i personally think steelies look cool on mk1's but upto you really, especially since i'm not certain about what alloys you mean.

GroovyCarrot · Post by **GroovyCarrot** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:44 pm

You don't really want to go above 14" on an early polo as you'll get scrubbing problems.. and it just looks silly on such a small car

Personally if I were you I'd want to keep such a pristine mk1 looking as VW intended, I think the original steelies look pretty cool. You could always just get some slightly wider tyres on the original wheels (my 145's were pretty scary grip-wise, I imagine 135's must be frightening!). Still, it's really up to you what you think will look good on the car.
Re the tyres markings, take this as an example:
165/65r13T
165 refers to the width of the contact surface in mm, obviously larger number = wider tyre.
65 is the profile ('height' from wheel rim to tyre contact surface), expressed as a percentage of the tyre width.
'r' means it's a radial construction, the alternative being 'x', cross ply construction, which you don't really see anymore. This is just how the steel/nylon bands within the tyre are arranged, radial construction gives must better handling charactoristics than x-ply.
T is the speed rating of the tyre, up to 118mph (see http://www.blackcircles.com/general/speedrating for other speed ratings).
Hope that helps..

ZOMBIE · Post by **ZOMBIE** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 12:17 pm

15s are a no no- 14'' rims with a 195/ 45 trust me! will cost alot but will look te don!!

WildChild · Post by **WildChild** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 5:58 pm

Ok thats great guys well thanks for the advice, i'll keep the steelie hubs on i have at the moment but get wider tyres because the grip on the road is quite frightning and it would make SO much difference when turning (the car feels like its about to roll..)

I need new tyres anyway, i'll just put some new tyres on my current steelies as i said what do you reckon i should get, because i definately want 145 or over.. and the price difference really isnt a bother..

Mk2Adam · Post by **Mk2Adam** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 7:49 pm

what width steelies have you got mate, just that theres a limit to how wide you can go, i seem to remember hearing a while back that mk1 wheels are something crazy like 4 inchs wide. i've got 145 on my mk2 and i can't wait to get wider so i'm guessing you won't gain much by going to 145....maybe 155 or 165 if you can fit them on your wheels.....you can always just get some wider steelies for cheap

and p.s make sure you buy your tyres online e.g www.mytyres.co.uk or www.blackcircles.co.uk, unless of course you've got friends in a tyre place

GroovyCarrot · Post by **GroovyCarrot** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 8:07 pm

I had 165/65r13 Uniroyal Rallye680's on my polo, they were excellent tyres, really grippy.. but then I had alloys with a reasonable bit of width to them, so you may be a bit more limited on mk1 steelies

WildChild · Post by **WildChild** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 8:42 am

How do i find out the width of my current steelies? (ie to find out what the maximum width of tyre would be on them..)

tupac2makaveli71 · Post by **tupac2makaveli71** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 1:33 pm

yeh i want to do that aswel, i have a mk2, and i didnt even know you could put wide tires before this thread! how do i know the widest i can put on, they are 13' steelies..thanks 4 the help, also how much would it cost per tire

Mk2Adam · Post by **Mk2Adam** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 2:57 pm

wildchild: it should have the rim width printed on the wheel somewhere, should say something like 4 or 4.5.

tupac: as your car is the same as mine your wheels should be 4.5" wide but i'd check just to be sure.

once you've both got your sizes use this calculator to find out the widest tyre you can fit on there http://www.alloywheels.com/tyrecalc.asp it's the middle 1 you need, although the bottom one is good for finding sizes that won't affect the overall size of the wheel.

i had a quick play and it looks like 165 tyres are the widest possible for a 4.5 wheel....but you've also gotta remember that it's not just about the width, you also want a lower profile tyre really so you don't get as much tyre roll, wider tyres can actually be bad if they're not carefully selected.

i decided it would be best to go for 14" wheels so theres less tyre to flex.

Mk2Adam · Post by **Mk2Adam** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 3:04 pm

tupac2makaveli71 wrote:also how much would it cost per tire

my last 145/80/13 tyre cost me Â£15 from a back alley tyre place....but i'm looking at paying around Â£130 for a full set of 165/65/14's when i get my alloys on.

you could get 4 Falken Sincera SN 828 165/70/13 for less than Â£100 from black circles

WildChild · Post by **WildChild** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 4:32 pm

4.5 Jx13

is what it reads on my steelies..

WildChild · Post by **WildChild** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 4:36 pm

once you've both got your sizes use this calculator to find out the widest tyre you can fit on there http://www.alloywheels.com/tyrecalc.asp it's the middle 1 you need, although the bottom one is good for finding sizes that won't affect the overall size of the wheel.

been on that site and i dont understand it at all.. lol

i've got "4.5 Jx13" written on my steelies..

how do i use that calculator to work it out?

GroovyCarrot · Post by **GroovyCarrot** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 5:53 pm

4.5Jx13 means 4.5" rim width, 13" diametre. Go to the second calculator on that page, fill in the following:
Width: 135
Profile: 80 (I presume, if the profile isn't marked on the tyre then it will be 80)
Rim: 13

Click show tyre sizes and it'll work out the best sizes to fit which will make a minimal impact to your speedometre speed (too small a tyre and your speedo will read high, too large a tyre and it'll read low).