Hi, thanks for reading

I have tried doing a search on here for the answer but no luck! So sorry if I'm repeating but I'm fed up now!

My car has just failed it's MOT :'( Wheel bearing on o/s and front discs and pads. Quoted £120 for the bearing and £180 for the discs and pads, fitted inc VAT etc. Sound alright, it's a good garage I've used for years. The brakes are almost 60k miles old now and the bearing has been creating a lot of noise and droan so will be nice not to have that.

Anyways, to the point my front tyres need replacing also, I currently have Pirelli P7's on each corner, all fitted about 20k ago. Rears have well over 50% left but both fronts need doing. The age old problem of the weird rare size of 205/50/17 has cropped up again, as a replacement the P7 is £150 per tyre!!!! Ouch indeed, so I asked about the Good Year Eagle F1 Asymmetric tyre in the commonly discussed 225/45/17 size, which has good reviews (I think? - http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Goodyear/Eagle-F1-Asymmetric.htm) and they are £99 each! A nice £100 saving. BUT will this have a detrimental effect on my car, having the 205/50's on the rear and 225/45's on the front. The tyre garage seemed to think it would and did not recommend it and also the MOT garage said it may effect the ECU and general handling etc of the car. I'm not sure if this is just scaremongering or honest advice.

So, I am sure someone on here must know the answer. Please either help me save lots of money or from damaging my lovely vRS! Has anyone else done this and had no problems etc? If you do think it is alright, would you suggest the Good Year is a good tyre or go for something else in the 225/45 size?

Thanks - Woody

I run 225 45 17 on mine all a round you should NOT have 2 different sizes on standard they come with 205s on hope this helps As far as brakes that is a good price as long as there not cheap stuff ask what pads there using??

Edited 19 January, 201115 yr by mountie66

Hi, thanks for reading

I have tried doing a search on here for the answer but no luck! So sorry if I'm repeating but I'm fed up now!

My car has just failed it's MOT :'( Wheel bearing on o/s and front discs and pads. Quoted £120 for the bearing and £180 for the discs and pads, fitted inc VAT etc. Sound alright, it's a good garage I've used for years. The brakes are almost 60k miles old now and the bearing has been creating a lot of noise and droan so will be nice not to have that.

Anyways, to the point my front tyres need replacing also, I currently have Pirelli P7's on each corner, all fitted about 20k ago. Rears have well over 50% left but both fronts need doing. The age old problem of the weird rare size of 205/50/17 has cropped up again, as a replacement the P7 is £150 per tyre!!!! Ouch indeed, so I asked about the Good Year Eagle F1 Asymmetric tyre in the commonly discussed 225/45/17 size, which has good reviews (I think? - http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Goodyear/Eagle-F1-Asymmetric.htm) and they are £99 each! A nice £100 saving. BUT will this have a detrimental effect on my car, having the 205/50's on the rear and 225/45's on the front. The tyre garage seemed to think it would and did not recommend it and also the MOT garage said it may effect the ECU and general handling etc of the car. I'm not sure if this is just scaremongering or honest advice.

So, I am sure someone on here must know the answer. Please either help me save lots of money or from damaging my lovely vRS! Has anyone else done this and had no problems etc? If you do think it is alright, would you suggest the Good Year is a good tyre or go for something else in the 225/45 size?

Thanks - Woody

go here http://www.etyres.co.uk/tyre-size-calculator.htm to compaire the roling radius of the sizes mentioned..... you will find the results are:

Difference in Diameter = -0.47%

Actual diameter change = -3mm

so there is absolultley nothing in it in RR difference, so it will not mess up your electronics at all.... they reccomend less than +/- 2.5% and it is only -0.47%

however, i would personally have the larger width on the back, and put the 205's on the front, and when they wear out change to 225's, thus making the car a bit more predictable, it could be quite oversteery with the narrower tyres on the back

As above 205's on the front and you'll be fine

+1 to putting the new wider tyres on the back.

As Fatty and Gareth say, put the wider tyres on the rear and you'll be ok. Putting the wider tyres on the front is actually illegal, and might be an MOT failure in itself.

I put F1 Asyms on my remapped Focus ST 2 and it did a nice job of putting down 265bhp + (in the dry) where the standard Conti 2's failed dismally. I rate them highly and put them on my previous Octy 2 VRS too. Lasted about 15k. Absolutely useless in snow though. +1 Wider tyres on the back not a problem , common on powerful RWD BMW's for example.

Edited 19 January, 201115 yr by modra_vrs

Putting the wider tyres on the front is actually illegal, and might be an MOT failure in itself.

If my classic car buying fantasies ever come to fruition, I may end up owning a Citroen DS one day. This had wider front tyres as standard.

I once has a Mini with 2 radials and 2 crossply tyres. It was illegal to put the radials on the front, and also not wise as I found out doing a complete 360 on a wet country road.

Ok, that sounds good. So the thread should've read "205/50/17 on front 225/45/17 on rear, a good idea?!"

So I'll get the garage to put the Pirelli P7's on the front and get some 225/45's on the rear. Have done a little research on here and also on http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/ which I think is a good little website. The Falken 452's seem quite popular on here but the Uniroyal Rainsport 2 tyre looks like a good if not better bet for the same sort of money (http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Uniroyal/Rainsport-2.htm). Again the Cooper Zeon CS6 looks good but quite rare. I'm leaning towards the Uniroyal for a good midrange or the Good Year Eagle F1 Asymmetric for a few more ££. But you are definitley 100% sure that it will be ok to do this...?!

Thanks for your replies, much appreciated.

Is there any reason its 205 then 225? Is 215 missed for a reason??? Just wondered thats all was some minutes of work wasted lol

Is there any reason its 205 then 225? Is 215 missed for a reason??? Just wondered thats all was some minutes of work wasted lol

Good point !!!

Not sure

But you are definitley 100% sure that it will be ok to do this...?!

If you are having different sized tyres front and rear with otherwise similar grip levels, then that'd be the way to do it.

The only risk you run by having different types of tyres front and rear is that the car may feel unsettled to how it would with the same type of tyre on all corners. This may only be an issue if you are particularly sensitive to the feel of a car, or if you are particular to really pressing on ;-) Ordinarily it should be OK.

You could just do the discs and pads yourself saving £100 in labour

You could just do the discs and pads yourself saving £100 in labour

I wish I could but I wouldn't know where to start mate! Unfortunately I only know the basics, this is far beyond my capabilities :(

I wish I could but I wouldn't know where to start mate! Unfortunately I only know the basics, this is far beyond my capabilities :(

where ya live i could show u

Just looked, it seems the 215/45/17 would be like half a mph at 30 and 1 at 60 rather than spot on or as good as when using 225/45/17

figures depend on where you look

http://www.willtheyfit.com/ say one thing

http://www.kouki.co....size-calculator say another (the other way lol)

but 215/35/17 seems to be cheaper from the guys i just got another of my 19s from.

Looks like 215/45/17s on my spydies ..... When its their turn to raid my wallet lol

i shall now leave you to your thread bud my pondering is done :thumbup::thumbup:

Edited 19 January, 201115 yr by Lloyd55vrs

where ya live i could show u

Bristol....not that far from South Yorkshire huh? Thanks for the offer tho dude :p

If your looking for some cheap 205/50/17's camskill are selling uniroyal rainsport2 in 89v for £77 each.... I've just had 4 fitted car feels like a million times better then it did with the old (dead) falcon/conti's on.

Tyre fitters shouldn't charge you more then £15 a corner to fit balance etc.

Tris

If my classic car buying fantasies ever come to fruition, I may end up owning a Citroen DS one day. This had wider front tyres as standard.

As did the early CXs. This was changed to same size all round after a change in the law which made running wider fronts than rears (with singles all round; trucks running wide fronts and standard rears on a dual-wheel axle are ok) illegal.

Blimey,after all that I managed to get some Uniroyal Rainsport 2's in 205/50/17/V size for £84 each fully fitted etc from Britannia tyres,Bristol in the end! Thanks to everyone for their help & advice tho....