My 2013 Superb Elegance diesel estate has 18" alloy wheels with 225/40 tyres. Last week I suffered a puncture due to a pothole which required a replacement of the near side rear wheel at a cost of £180. I noticed that the spare was a 16" wheel and wondered whether I'd be better off replacing the 18" wheels with 16" ones like I had on my previous Superb and seemed to work well. Replacement costs for 16" tyres seem to be about half than the larger size, and seemed to ride very well on my previous car.

I wonder whether anyone has experience of converting a car supplied with 18" rims to run on 16" wheels, and if so which rims and tyres are recommended? I suppose it might make sense to use Skoda steel wheels from the 1.6 litre car, but there may be other solutions available.

Alan

Why don't you claim off your council for damages?

Check that your insurance company will allow the change first. Many won't!

I've written to the county council asking it to foot 80% of the cost (the car is 5000 miles old, so I've assumed the tyre was only 20% worn). We'll see what the outcome of that is.

Good point about checking with the insurance company, I'd rather assumed it would be okay to change to tyres from the 1.6 litre car, but I had not checked.

Alan

Before it's too late go back to the location and take some pictures, make sure you have a tape measure with you and measure the depth of the pot hole.

...just to bring this to a close. The county council did agree to pay for the damaged tyre, so all was well.

Alan

Blimey, almost 2 years later!

 

They covered the cost of the tyre, but what about the wheel?

 

It is possible to put 16" alloys on the Superb, as you mention the Greenline gets them from the factory, the spare wheel is 16" and the recommended winter wheel size is also 16".

 

The reason a smaller wheel can be used is because the sidewall or profile of the tyre is larger so the rolling radius remains almost the same as the 18" wheels with their lower profile tyres.

 

The higher profile tyre provides increased pot hole protection and a general improvement in ride comfort, albeit at the sacrifice of body roll through corners.

 

I have 17" alloys on my Superb, a nice compromise between protection / comfort and aesthetics.

 

I have however increased the profile from 45 to 50 for additional protection...

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/373406-can-i-fit-22550-r17-tyres-to-my-superb/

 

Hi Silver,

 

To be fair to Northamptonshire CC, it did settle for the tyre quite some time ago (it took about 3 months I think), I had just forgotten to add an update.

 

Thank you for the link as well. Whilst I don't like the 18" wheels much (too noisy, too easy to damage, replacement tyres are quite expensive) I think I might as well live with them now. They do look quite nice on the car and otherwise function perfectly well. What I may do is cast around for some 16" wheels (ideally steel, like the spare) and fit them with winter tyres. This winter looks like being so mild that there is no special rush at the moment. As long as I use the same size tyres as the spare it is hard to imagine that the insurance company would take exception.

 

Best wishes,

 

Alan

Edited 28 December, 201510 yr by Othen

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... I found these 16" steel wheels which look like just what I need. £250-£350 a set depending on which winter tyres are supplied, which sounds very good:

 

https://www.tyreleader.co.uk/steel-wheels/skoda/superb-combi/2-0tdi-20077

 

This seems to make sense for the winter, but I think I'll check with the insurer first. Does anyone have any experience of these?

 

Alan​