First Post! My Fabia is fitted with 205/45/16 wheels and 16" winter tyres seem to be almost non-existent. However, by changing rims and size, keeping the rolling radius within limits, I can use 195/50/15. Does anyone know of suitable 15" steel rims? If steel do I need to get steel bolts? Looking forward to some expert replies!

Here is a link to my post re tyre sizes

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/217351-oem-tyre-sizes-and-alternatives/

you might need to fit 195/55 R15...

First Post! My Fabia is fitted with 205/45/16 wheels and 16" winter tyres seem to be almost non-existent. However, by changing rims and size, keeping the rolling radius within limits, I can use 195/50/15. Does anyone know of suitable 15" steel rims? If steel do I need to get steel bolts? Looking forward to some expert replies!

Loads and loads of tyre info in here My link

The site's been reorganised and posting general queries in model specific sections is now frowned upon. But in the tyres section there is everything you coud ever hope to know about winter tyres

The oem size for 15 inch wheels in the mark 2 fabia is 195-55-15. 50 profile is for mark 1

What size steel wheels and tyres you can will depend on your exact model.

There should be a list of approved sizes in your fuel filler cap.

Most lower powered models can fit narrow tyres on 14" wheels, these are great in snow and are cheaper.

Go up to the TSi and bigger diesel and you have to go upto 15" wheels to clear the brakes.

Skoda sell a "Fits all normal models" winter tyre size of 185/55x15, is it the best size? No, but having one size maximises their profits. Look what tyre sizes you can fit and price them up on mytyres etc.

I believe the vRS needs 16" wheels as a minimum.

Cheers

Lee

The wife's Fabia Mk II vRS is shortly going onto 205/45/16 Goodyear GW3 Winters.

Sat in the Garage.

Out of curiosity, has anyone managed to find a way to fit Continental WinterContact TS830 to their Fabia Mk2 vRS?

To say i've been shocked with the lack of choice and difficulty of fitting winter tyres would be an understatement. First time I've looked for winter tyres as I'm now commuting 40 miles plus a day but I've never found it this hard to give money away before! I wonder if Auto Express realise it's not only consumers who are dragging their heels on winter tyres uptake in the UK.

Out of curiosity, has anyone managed to find a way to fit Continental WinterContact TS830 to their Fabia Mk2 vRS?

To say i've been shocked with the lack of choice and difficulty of fitting winter tyres would be an understatement. First time I've looked for winter tyres as I'm now commuting 40 miles plus a day but I've never found it this hard to give money away before! I wonder if Auto Express realise it's not only consumers who are dragging their heels on winter tyres uptake in the UK.

plenty choice round here with lots of advertising in the local press. Every man and his dog appears to be selling them this year. Is it because you have a particula tyre in mind or just general lack of availability?

plenty choice round here with lots of advertising in the local press. Every man and his dog appears to be selling them this year. Is it because you have a particula tyre in mind or just general lack of availability?

Our OE tyre size is 205 40 R17 and the only options i've found for us are Sunny, Wanli, Nexen and Roadstone; the last two as mentioned above are the same and I was looking for a premium brand as I have done 7.2k miles in just under 3 months so do tend to rack up the miles. It's even more dissappointing when going through 15, 16 and 18 inch wheel conversion options I only found a single 15" option which included my chosen tyre at pretty insane cost (£149 to £189 per tyre+rim). So was just querying if anyone else has had any luck?

My dissappointment was from my belief, as with yourself, that I'd have had no issues grabbing the tyres of my choice off the shelf.

Edited 30 October, 201114 yr by RobL

Our OE tyre size is 205 40 R17 and the only options i've found for us are Sunny, Wanli, Nexen and Roadstone; the last two as mentioned above are the same and I was looking for a premium brand as I have done 7.2k miles in just under 3 months so do tend to rack up the miles. It's even more dissappointing when going through 15, 16 and 18 inch wheel conversion options I only found a single 15" option which included my chosen tyre at pretty insane cost (£149 to £189 per tyre+rim). So was just querying if anyone else has had any luck?

My dissappointment was from my belief, as with yourself, that I'd have had no issues grabbing the tyres of my choice off the shelf.

Odd. My dad has a furby and he got some vredestein snowtracs from mytyres. Co. UK. I will see if I can find out what size he bought

Odd. My dad has a furby and he got some vredestein snowtracs from mytyres. Co. UK. I will see if I can find out what size he bought

Still living in hope someone will spot our chat and know of an affordable option for Continental WinterContact TS830 on the Fabia Mk2 vRS? Anyone? :(

Continental has some stock of winter tyres ring fenced for Vw dealers,i can have a look if they are available if you like?

Camskill is good, cheaper than mytyres but less stock.

They are BIG stockist of Toyo tyres, so i'm trying Toyo SnowProxes 185/60/14 on my modded Felicia 1.6 these only cost £42.60

My dad just wanted his fronts(despite my warning) and went for 175/65/13 Snowprox for his 1.3 felicia estate workhorse. only cost £38.60

don't have fabia's so can't comment on larger tyres, but try camskill

Still living in hope someone will spot our chat and know of an affordable option for Continental WinterContact TS830 on the Fabia Mk2 vRS? Anyone? :(

Have you seen a Wintercontact TS 830 coming in 205/40 R17? Because I haven't seen that anywhere, neither it's showing up on the continental's search tool on their own website conti tyre finder

So no point in waiting to find these I think. Other than that, I got 4 Nexens on 205/40 R17, sure they may be worse than the Contis, but I know how I should be driving on snow, and I will certainly be way below the limit that more expensive tyres start to make a difference compared to the nexens. My opinion is don't be paranoid that only the well-known brands provide adequate solutions. Driving as you would drive in dry conditions is unwise and would end up in unpleasant situations even if you had the best tyres in the world. Just my view on this...

Still living in hope someone will spot our chat and know of an affordable option for Continental WinterContact TS830 on the Fabia Mk2 vRS? Anyone? :(

more tyre gurus might spot you in the tyres thread if it's not happening here Loads of winter threads in there

I just bought four 185/60/15 Dunlop Winter Response tyres from Camskill, they worked out at approx £56 each, good value. They will replace the 215/45/16 that came on the new Polo until the weather improves next year. I'd already managed to buy a set of VW 15" steel rims to fit them to so I'm good to go with the VW.

Pirelli also do winters (Sotto Zero W210) in 205/40 R17. got mine from camskill

Pirelli also do winters (Sotto Zero W210) in 205/40 R17. got mine from camskill

Thanks for the replies. Quite interested in the Pirelli's, I'll give camskill a call.

Conits aren't avail in OE size, I just wondered if anyone had found a decently priced set for another set of rims. I guess they aren't widely available.

I'm close to giving up on finding winter tyres in 205/40/17 size. I looked on Camskill and couldn't see those Pirellis, Blackcircles haven't got any whatsoever, all ebay seems to have is the odd single (or pair) of second hand tyres.

I'm close to giving up on finding winter tyres in 205/40/17 size. I looked on Camskill and couldn't see those Pirellis, Blackcircles haven't got any whatsoever, all ebay seems to have is the odd single (or pair) of second hand tyres.

From what I can see though, mytyres still offers the Nexens which have been chosen by quite a few vRS owners, the Sunnies, Wanlis and Roadstones...

They are all definitely better than the best summer tyre+ESP.

Edited 1 November, 201114 yr by newbie69

They are all definitely better than the best summer tyre+ESP.

Well, there is some debate there, which is my issue with buying lower priced winter tyres. Auto Express have a winter tyre guide in their Oct 12-18th issue which compares the leading winter tyres with ContiSportContact 3. Whereas it is clearly pathetic on snow and ice when it comes dry and wet conditions under 7 degrees there is some debate.

On Straight Aquplanning it scored 111.4 and was ranked 1st above the 100 of the top Continental and 92 of the lowest Vredestein.

On Curved Aquaplanning it scored 108.9 and was ranked 1st above the 100 of the top Pirelli and 69 of the lowest Nankang. (Both of these results I consider quite important doing mostly motorway miles each year)

Wet Handling was 8th it scored 95.3, Michelin was 100 and it came just behind Vredestine 96.5; above Nangang and Kumho.

Wet Breaking was 10th scored 80.0, Continental was 100 and it came just behind Kumho at 84.4.

Dry Handling it scored 102.7 and was ranked 1st above the 100 of the top Vredestein and 98.7 of the lowest Pirelli.

Dry Breaking it scored 110.3 and was ranked 1st above the 100 of the top Vredestein and 95.5 of the lowest Michelin.

Rolling Resistance it was 8th (won't bother with the other details on that).

Snow breaking, snow traction, snow handling, snow slalom all terrible as expected. Personally though living in the North West of England, and content with driving very slowly on snow and ice as a general rule anyway, I think I'd only change for a tyre that will be comparable for normal driving conditions aswell as the extremes.

@ Newbie - Aha!! Well spotted. I might just invest in some. Nice one.

Edited 1 November, 201114 yr by Chadruharazzeb

Well, there is some debate there, which is my issue with buying lower priced winter tyres. Auto Express have a winter tyre guide in their Oct 12-18th issue which compares the leading winter tyres with ContiSportContact 3. Whereas it is clearly pathetic on snow and ice when it comes dry and wet conditions under 7 degrees there is some debate.

On Straight Aquplanning it scored 111.4 and was ranked 1st above the 100 of the top Continental and 92 of the lowest Vredestein.

On Curved Aquaplanning it scored 108.9 and was ranked 1st above the 100 of the top Pirelli and 69 of the lowest Nankang. (Both of these results I consider quite important doing mostly motorway miles each year)

Wet Handling was 8th it scored 95.3, Michelin was 100 and it came just behind Vredestine 96.5; above Nangang and Kumho.

Wet Breaking was 10th scored 80.0, Continental was 100 and it came just behind Kumho at 84.4.

Dry Handling it scored 102.7 and was ranked 1st above the 100 of the top Vredestein and 98.7 of the lowest Pirelli.

Dry Breaking it scored 110.3 and was ranked 1st above the 100 of the top Vredestein and 95.5 of the lowest Michelin.

Rolling Resistance it was 8th (won't bother with the other details on that).

Snow breaking, snow traction, snow handling, snow slalom all terrible as expected. Personally though living in the North West of England, and content with driving very slowly on snow and ice as a general rule anyway, I think I'd only change for a tyre that will be comparable for normal driving conditions aswell as the extremes.

I acknowledge that on "just rainy" conditions the Sportcontact may be better but this is not the point here I think. Where I live, I change the tyres only for the snow and ice. My Dunlops would manage ok if it was only rain but this is not the case. Apparently, anybody living somewhere with no snow or ice does not have to change their good summer tyres, I woulnd't neither. But we are talking performance on snow and ice and as you said, the best summer tyre seriously suffers on these areas. I had two very scary moments on icy roads with my last car with summers on that I wouldn't imagine having them again in my vRS so for me winters are a definitive choice.

Besides, these lower end tyres may not score top marks on rain, but they do perform pretty adequately, so again I'm covered.

I ran 235/45X17 Conti Sport 3's for the first half of last winter. Fair enough if it was just cold then they were OK but if it was below freezing and there was any sort of frost, snow or ice on the road they were lethal. I've never experienced anything as bad in wintery conditions and I'm old enough to have driven RWD Cortina's and Sierra's through very bad winters.

Going to work at 4.45am with temps below zero I'd be tip toe-ing about with the Conti's scrabbling for grip and the ESP light having a fit. On snow, the slightest incline would have the car grinding to a halt. On the slightly inclinded road to my house the Conti's made it 20 metres at that was it.

I purchased some 205/55x16 Pirelli Sottozero's so I could at least get home and the car drove up the road without a single flash of the ESP light. Braking was unbelieveable, I'd all on stopping at all with the Conti's but the Pirrelli winters pulled up like I was on tarmac.

Outside the harshest weather I found the Pirelli's fine, probably wouldn't handle a blast down a back road as well but felt sure footed and I always found the Conti's were subject to pulling badly and aquaplaning in standing water, the Pirelli's are far better but that may be down do the depper tread and narrower size.

My Conti Sport 3's will be coming off next week and I'll be putting the Pirelli's on. I know I'll feel a lot safer when the snow flake symbol is on the dash and I'm the first car on the road at 4.45am.

Cheers

Lee

I ran 235/45X17 Conti Sport 3's for the first half of last winter. Fair enough if it was just cold then they were OK but if it was below freezing and there was any sort of frost, snow or ice on the road they were lethal. I've never experienced anything as bad in wintery conditions and I'm old enough to have driven RWD Cortina's and Sierra's through very bad winters.

Going to work at 4.45am with temps below zero I'd be tip toe-ing about with the Conti's scrabbling for grip and the ESP light having a fit. On snow, the slightest incline would have the car grinding to a halt. On the slightly inclinded road to my house the Conti's made it 20 metres at that was it.

I purchased some 205/55x16 Pirelli Sottozero's so I could at least get home and the car drove up the road without a single flash of the ESP light. Braking was unbelieveable, I'd all on stopping at all with the Conti's but the Pirrelli winters pulled up like I was on tarmac.

Outside the harshest weather I found the Pirelli's fine, probably wouldn't handle a blast down a back road as well but felt sure footed and I always found the Conti's were subject to pulling badly and aquaplaning in standing water, the Pirelli's are far better but that may be down do the depper tread and narrower size.

My Conti Sport 3's will be coming off next week and I'll be putting the Pirelli's on. I know I'll feel a lot safer when the snow flake symbol is on the dash and I'm the first car on the road at 4.45am.

Cheers

Lee

That's exactly what my experiences are (more or less) so that is why I think RobL's post about rain tests is somewhat irrelevant to the winter tyres choice. A good summer tyre offers adequate performance in rain but this is not the true problem in severe winter.