steel rims for winter tyres

[thrope]

Hi all,

I'm living in Germany at the moment with my 2001 Fabia Estate (elegance). I was here last xmas and had to get the winter tyres, which to save money I just put on my alloys, switching back for the summer. This winter though I think I better get a set of steel rims.

So I have the tyres already from last winter good as new more or less - they are 185/60 R14 tyres. Evidently they were the right size for the alloys (not sure what size they are). Now I am looking for 14" steel rims to put these on, all the ones I find labelled as fitting fabia are

14", 5 hole, ET35, and say only for 165/60 or 175/60 tyres.

Is this strict? Can I get away with buying a Fabia steel rim like this:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Satz-Stahlfelgen-POLO-FABIA-IBIZA-5x14-ET35-NEU-/370500476512?pt=Auto_Felgen&hash=item56438c9e60

and putting my 185's on it?

I will need to do a TuV (German MOT) here in December so it needs to be not just safe but officially correct.

Or do I need to ditch the winter tyres I have and get some 165 to go on steel rims? If I found alloys I guess I could use the existing tyres.

Any advice appreciated, apologies if this is a duplicate (but I didn't find anything - don't imagine there is much interest in steel rims in the UK!)

[thrope]

Just check sizing and I think current alloys are ET43 and if I understand this is the measurement that affects how wide a tyre you can run.

I have now found some ET43 14" steel rims, so these should do the trick? (They just didn't show up in the fabia search I did first of all).

[JulieD]

The offset affects how far your wheel sits inside the arch, it is wheel width that affects the width of tyre you can fit. For a 185/60/14 tyre on a Fabia I the TUV approved wheel is 6J x 14, ET43

[Hungry Horace]

I'm living in Germany at the minute as well. If you look on your green log book papers ( can't remember if it's big or small part ) it will tell you what size wheels and tyres are approved for your vehicle. Choose the size from that or when you go for the TUV it will fail if sizes are not listed on the log book.