So, I waited and waited for the temperature to fall so it was consistently below 7 degrees, but could wait no longer (patience has never been one of my strong points ) so I swapped the wheels over. Not complaining about the temp though, although the Alps look a little green so praying for a few massive dumps of the white stuff between now and Feb half-term.

The jacking points I fitted made it a doddle too.

Summer tyres are 225/50R17 and I went for 205/55R16 winters (as recommended by Skoda) even though I was sorely tempted by slightly taller 205/60/16s that are a much better match size wise to the originals.

They do look a little lost in the wheel arches:

A bit 'stark' untrimmed:

But better with VW half-caps (wasn't sure if they'd fit proprerly as wheels are from MyTyres, but they are a snug fit):

Just need to clean the summer alloys before stacking in the garage; all in all a reasonable productive Sunday - although other half would rather I'd built the chest of drawers we bought from Ikea last weekend

So, I waited and waited for the temperature to fall so it was consistently below 7 degrees, but could wait no longer (patience has never been one of my strong points ) so I swapped the wheels over. Not complaining about the temp though, although the Alps look a little green so praying for a few massive dumps of the white stuff between now and Feb half-term.

The jacking points I fitted made it a doddle too.

Summer tyres are 225/50R17 and I went for 205/55R16 winters (as recommended by Skoda) even though I was sorely tempted by slightly taller 205/60/16s that are a much better match size wise to the originals.

They do look a little lost in the wheel arches:

A bit 'stark' untrimmed:

But better with VW half-caps (wasn't sure if they'd fit proprerly as wheels are from MyTyres, but they are a snug fit):

Just need to clean the summer alloys before stacking in the garage; all in all a reasonable productive Sunday - although other half would rather I'd built the chest of drawers we bought from Ikea last weekend

Perfect timing, we had snow last night and it's snowing again this evening. We fitted the Nokians off my old octy to my wife's audi and the snow started falling :-)

we have a blizzard here in the lakes! just driven over the tops of the A66, and its about 4 inches of laid snow up there!

my winters worked great

Amazing what a difference they make isn't it?

Amazing what a difference they make isn't it?

indeed, everyone was in the slushy lane at 20 mph, i just drove past on the settled snow at 40 mph! lol... no drama at all...

The jacking points I fitted made it a doddle too.

Can you give us info on these jacking points?

Also where did you get the caps?

Can you give us info on these jacking points?

Also where did you get the caps?

Jacking points are mentioned here: http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/216962-jacking-up-an-octavia-scout/page__st__20, posts 15 and 23 are really worth reading.

Good info and pictures can be found here too: http://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=18186.0

The floorplan is the same on a Golf/A3/Octavia (and sure a few others) and the pics of the Golf showed exactly what the underside of my Octavia and other half's A3 looked like. I bought a set of Torx bits to help remove 2 Torx screws on a bit of trim on the underside when fitting the front jacking pads, but that was before I saw a tool in the spare wheel well that might have done the job for me!

The half caps were from a VW dealer, they are for a VW caddy (to fit 5x112 wheels) and they have 'Volkswagen' written in small letters round the edge; they are not for a VW Transporter which I believe is 5x120 and has a large VW in the centre.

Jacking points are mentioned here: http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/216962-jacking-up-an-octavia-scout/page__st__20, posts 15 and 23 are really worth reading.

Good info and pictures can be found here too: http://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=18186.0

The floorplan is the same on a Golf/A3/Octavia (and sure a few others) and the pics of the Golf showed exactly what the underside of my Octavia and other half's A3 looked like. I bought a set of Torx bits to help remove 2 Torx screws on a bit of trim on the underside when fitting the front jacking pads, but that was before I saw a tool in the spare wheel well that might have done the job for me!

The half caps were from a VW dealer, they are for a VW caddy (to fit 5x112 wheels) and they have 'Volkswagen' written in small letters round the edge; they are not for a VW Transporter which I believe is 5x120 and has a large VW in the centre.

VW Transporter, well T5 (I think), PCD is 5 x 112 - same as A4/A6 Passat B5 and Superb 1 - how do these discs fit the wheel - I'd guess by clipping over the wheel mounting bolt heads which are 5 x 100 - so are they fitting properly over the Fabia wheel bolt heads? Or have I picked some thing up wrong and that car has a PCD of 5 x 112? Ah, looking back to the OP I see that its an Octavia so is 112 PCD! (I thought that I had found a fix for someone with a Fabia with winter steelies - but not so)

Edited 5 December, 201114 yr by rum4mo

Make sure you tell Mr. Insurance man, as you now have non-standard (ie aftermarket) wheels on.

Al.

Make sure you tell Mr. Insurance man, as you now have non-standard (ie aftermarket) wheels on.

Al.

You are right I'd reckon, even if these wheels are identical to a steel wheel or that size that VAG would maybe fit to that car in another market, removes the risk of getting the "thumbs down" in the event of a claim. I've done nothing yet wrt this issue on my wife's Polo - maybe because when I took delivery of that car - factory fitted with 15" alloys, the typical same model getting sold out of a UK VW showroom would have had 14" steelies - though within 6 months an update would mean that the same model was sold with 14" alloys. Maybe she should take to the insurer just to "make sure" that being fitted with 14" steels is acceptable to them.