Does anyone have experience of fitting smaller alloy wheels - Skoda own brand or third-party - to a Fabia vRS hatch or estate (August 2011 first registered in my case)?

After 18 months with this car I'm really fed up with the very poor ride quality. As I do most of my local driving on the usual poorly-maintained UK roads, I also want wheels & tyres that are less prone to damage from potholes, cracks, etc too.

Skoda simply say "speak to your dealer" but they can't offer any constructive advice. A number of third-party sellers such as Demon Tweeks and Wheelbase appear to offer a wide choice of 15" and 16" alloys which take tyres with higher profiles than the OEM 17" with 40 ratio tyres.

This has now become something of a burning question. In the absence of finding a good solution I'm most likely to dispose of the car, regrettably.

Any comments or suggestions would be very welcome. Thanks!

Hi and welcome.

We have a Monte which runs the same size 17" alloys/tyres as the vRS, for winter we switch to 15" Skoda alloys and 195/55 R15 winter tyres.This combination copes well enough with the 'farm track' road surfaces of the East Riding.

Switch back to the 17" in the summer, although we would have preferred the 16" option that's available for the Monte in the rest of Europe but Skoda UK have a strange entrenched fetish for large alloys, which means many of it's UK customers are forced to suffer a poorer quality ride in the name of fashion :S

TP

Welcome to the Forum.

Simply buy Wheels and tyres suitable for the car, 16" or 15" if you want.

Correct Wheel Fittment,(offset/back spacing)

& tyres with the same Diameter/rolling circumference.(or pretty close)

195/55/15 might be OK for winter or if you get the correct and suitable summer tyres.

(195/45/16 i would not use them) 205/45/16 or 215/45/16 possibly with the correct rated tyres.

That needs to be tyres with, the Correct Speed & Load Rating for a vRS.

Best check that your Insurance Company is happy, but no reason why they should not be.

(make a Declaration of the change in writing.)

http://www.alloywheels.com

http://www.kouki.co....size-calculator

george

As said 195/55R15s on mine. As long as they're the correct speed and load rating insurance no problem.

The ride on mine is definitely better since the switch (the dashboard squeaking less is a bonus too :-))

Improved fuel economy also since narrower tyres. Just need to remember this if cornering spiritedly.

15's will just clear the front discs.

the ride comfort improves greatly with the bigger side walls as my winter tyres are a nice change over the stiff low pro's of the 17s.

i have 15 vw steelies and team dynamics light weight racing wheels. they only weigh 5kg so your fuel efficeny will increase if you get light tyres too.

As others have said, you can run smaller wheels down to 15"

Worth noting that wheels that fit a Mk1 Fabia (6Y) & Mk1 Octavia are the same stud pattern as the MKII Fabia & Roomster, 5x100 so that opens up the options for you.

Alloys and Steelies of the correct size come up for sale reasonably frequently in the FOR SALE section

Grateful for the input from posted replies #2 - #6, many thanks. M

Try Chris at CMWheels or Mark at BMAutosport. They have both been very helpful to me on the search for wheels on another car.

I'll be going down to 16's for next winter

Mike

aim going from 17s two 15s for a few mounths with sumthink that now one has done on a roomster

hopeing to put them on this week i will try to get sumone to put the photos on here

and welcome to the club