Hi all,

As per the introductions thread, my "new" 2006 Octavia VRS car came with winter tyres - "Hankook IceBear (Studless)". Obviously I won't be wanting to run these for much longer (although it did snow again at the weekend!) so I was wondering if anyone has any ideas what the favoured normal , mid-range road/summer tyres are for Octavia VRSs.

Ideally I don't want to be spending mroe than £100/corner after having just bought the car - I've seen Falken Ziex ZE-912, Avon ZZ3 and Toyo Proxes 4 for this sort of price at the moment (225/40/18). Any views on how any of these behave?

Thanks.

I had zz3 s on the front before I put winter wheels on ran them for about 3k and were as good as previous vredstiens and dunlops.

ZZ3's are great tyres, TP4 get good reviews also.

I've got ZZ3s on mine - excellent and well worth the £110 each that I paid for them.

Last Friday I had 4 new Falken Ziex ZE-912 fitted through Blackcircles, who were offering £10 off for 4 plus with 2.5% cashback from Quidco they worked out at about £90 a corner fitted. Done about 200 miles on them so far and I'm very impressed. They feel very sure footed and grippy, even when tanking along the M25 in torrential rain on Sunday. Best of all they are very quiet compared to the Conti SC3s and Dunlop SP Maxx which preceded them, and we all know how bad the vRS is for tyre noise. Time will tell how well they wear, but so far thumbs up.

Bob

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OK thanks for the replies, looks like either the Avons of Falkens so far. Camskill have the Falkens for £75 each (£311.96 for 4 delivered) which seems like a bargain.

You mention tyre noise - either I am used to much more than you, or my current winter tyres damp out a lot of it as mine seems very quiet inside at 60/70mph on the way to work.

OK thanks for the replies, looks like either the Avons of Falkens so far. Camskill have the Falkens for £75 each (£311.96 for 4 delivered) which seems like a bargain.

You mention tyre noise - either I am used to much more than you, or my current winter tyres damp out a lot of it as mine seems very quiet inside at 60/70mph on the way to work.

The winter tyres are a softer rubber compound, so maybe that accounts for yours being quieter if they are on the factory rims. I have just taken my winter wheels off, they were very quiet, but I put that down to them being 205/55 on 16 inch rims.

If you're looking at Camskill for ordering, in 225/40/18, I'd consider at the Hankook V12 Evo and Uniroyal Rainsport2 as well. Both are very good value for what they offer.

Personally I'd rather have one of these two, over the Avon/Falken suggestions. But I realise that tyre choice is quite a personal one

I am in the market for tyres. Similar price range to what your looking at, expect I wil go for Rainsport 2s. Old model now which still performs well. I thought about ZZ3s again but was not to keen on them on my Lotus. T1Rs are great but wear out to soon which for me ain't an option right now.

The winter tyres are a softer rubber compound, so maybe that accounts for yours being quieter if they are on the factory rims. I have just taken my winter wheels off, they were very quiet, but I put that down to them being 205/55 on 16 inch rims.

My winter tyres are on what I believe to be the standard alloys - 225/40/18, but I believe there's a lot of truth in what you're saying about the softness of the rubber absorbing some of the noise.

Yes I will probably be ordering from Camskill.

Next, don't suppose anyone knows of a decent tyre fitter around Oxford - Until recently when I was in Southampton I used to go to Mitcheldever but that's a bit of a stretch from here, especially just for fitting! Ahh, I see one of the first posters, rs939, you are in Northampton - I'm 1/2 way between Oxford and there so maybe you know of a decent tyre fitters?

Edited 7 March, 201214 yr by mr_roggger

I've just about worn out a full set of Falken 912's. I've managed to get over 30k out of a set with rotating back to front etc. I personally wouldn't go for them again! I'm no expert on tyres but I found the compound just too hard for our temperatures. When it rains I got a lot of understeer in corners and can spin the wheels on straight bits of road when accelerating at speeds like 50-60 - it’s not like I'm putting that much power down in a standard petrol vRS. In summer and its warm out they aren't that bad but how often do we get nice summer’s day?

Think I’ll go for Falken 452 next. They we're pretty good on my Fabia.

452's are miles better than 912's

I had 512's iirc which the 912 replaced and they were crap.

Too many numbers lol

That's numberwang!

452's were 'OK' when I ran them on a remapped vRS TFSI. Could get overwhelmed with agressive acceleration though, which didn't affect the F1 GSD3s I swapped them with at the time. But you get what you pay for; the F1s were £30-40 more a corner.

For the money though, the 452s weren't bad at all.

To update on this, I finally got round to getting some regular tyres fitted.

I chose Kumho KU37s as I haven't read anything bad about them and apparently they last longer than the Falkens discussed earlier. They were also a bargain at £61.80 each and will hopefully perform more akin the the mid range falkens rather than the budget Nangkang "Ditchfinders" etc. which are a little less in terms of cost.

Far too early to say what they're like other than certainly no more noisy than the IceBear (M&S) tyres, but they do have a nice little lip to prevent kerbing - not that I do this mind you, but the Hankook Icebears has precisely no lip meaning the wheel could have touched the kerb very easily.

On the look-out for a set of 18" VAG wheels now so that I don't keep having to pay £50/6 months to swap the tyres over - after an old set I can referb over the summer. Understandably, there seems to be many more VW and Audi wheels like this for sale, but I'm not sure I fully understand the wheel sizes and offset - what is the standard offset for the Skoda wheels I'm using (standard 18" Skoda ones for a 2006 VRS) and how is the rim width calculated - I have 225 tyres to go on, don't want to stretch them, so to me this is about 8.75", is that correct? I guess the centr hub caps I see on ebay can be swapped over so I can replace an audi badge with a Skoda badge etc. provided they're of the correct diameter.

Thanks.

Edited 30 April, 201214 yr by mr_roggger

That's numberwang!

LOL!

37!

I'm not sure I fully understand the wheel sizes and offset - what is the standard offset for the Skoda wheels I'm using (standard 18" Skoda ones for a 2006 VRS) and how is the rim width calculated - I have 225 tyres to go on, don't want to stretch them, so to me this is about 8.75", is that correct? I guess the centr hub caps I see on ebay can be swapped over so I can replace an audi badge with a Skoda badge etc. provided they're of the correct diameter.

Thanks.

Standard vRS wheels are either ET51 or 54, I forget which. You wouldn't have a problem running an 8J width wheel down to ET42 though, like I do (effectively they sit 10mm further out from the hub, but to me this looks better and improves the stance).

As you might have noticed, running 10mm spacers with standard wheels is fairly popular so it equates to the same thing - pushing the wheels further out into the arches.

So I'd stick with something along those lines. The majority of VAG wheels will be 8J width so stick with these. They work well with the Octy arches and run 225/40/18s well.

Centre caps you have to watch, as there's a few different sizes and styles used within the VAG empire! So it's worth asking about prior to purchase.

Hope this helps.

Yes it does thank you! I am wishing to stick with VAG wheels really, ideally Skoda ones but they seem to go for a fair amount even in poor condition when they come up hence thinking VW/Audi too, and I've seen different size centre caps for sale which hopefully addresses the issue of different diameters.

Audi/VW wheels are generally better value, you're right. I think simply because there are more of their cars about, more people changing wheels, and more choice of 2nd hand wheels

Just make sure you confirm on the 'PCD' - distance between the wheel bolt holes. So for the Octy2 you're looking for 5x112 - this again leaves you with loads of choice: Audi A4/A6/A8, Golf Mk5/6 (not Mk4), Audi A3 8P (Mk2) to give you a few examples. Just make sure you check the offset and wheel width, as mentioned earlier

Or if you find any sets, list the details or a link and someone will give you info about them :yes:

Thanks, will do. Knew the PCD was 5x112 but didn't realise the Golf Mk4 wasn't this!

@Wardy, are there any differences in position of the hub relative to suspension struts and wheel arches between a vRS and non-vRS, or across different non-vRS spec levels, assuming same vehicle mk? I've read a couple times that you run 8J et42 without problems and this seems to be close to the upper limit. Is there anything from an inherent geometry perspective that would prevent someone doing the same with a non-vRS? Not looking to anything like this myself, but being aware any manufacturing differences would go a long way to help understanding the limits

I'm certainly not aware of any change in the hub position, across the Octy2 range. That would be set across the range, I'm pretty sure of it. As mine isn't a vRS I think this would confirm it.

Running an 8J at ET42 or 45 is ideal for the Octy2, in my view. I certainly wouldn't go any lower than these figures. But this is my personal view, rather than a technical one as I know Golf Mk5 owners who run wheels with a lower offset - but I wouldn't want the wheels running any further out into the arches. And you may come into issues on full lock, or at the rear with the car fully laden.

As you're pretty local, feel free to get in touch if you want to have a look at my car and check details out. Or come along to one of the monthly North West meets - first Sunday of the month at the Stretton Fox (M56, J10). There's one on Sunday, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to be there.

Cheers,

Steve.

Thanks for that, good information. I bought a set of Audi 16x7J et 42 a couple of weeks ago, should be a safe purchase. Haven't got around to swaping them over yet, but they came with 6-7mm Uniroyal Rainsport 2 all round so I'm pretty happy. Thought about selling the steel wheels they replace, but think I'll invest in winter tyres later in the year.

Edited 3 May, 201214 yr by fidgec94

Only 5°C this morning. Summer tyres are not suitable below 7°C you know. :sun:

Edited 3 May, 201214 yr by gregoir