SEL wheels?

[patrick.waring]

I am about to get a nearly new Fabia 110 SE L, which is obviously very exciting.

However I want to take it to the Alps in a few weeks and need to fit winter certified tyes. My initial investigation shows that the car has 16" 7J alloys with low profile tyres and a 15" 6J steel spare.

For this particular use low profile wide tyres are inappropriate because of poor snow performance and high risk of wheel damage from kerbs hidden by snow, with the addition of an unmatched and ironically (in this case) superior spare. Sourcing suitable low profile tyres seems also to be problematic.

One obvious solution is to get a second set of steel wheels matching the spare and putting winter tyres on those. Any comments on the practicality of this or what follows are welcome.

I would be grateful if anyone can tell me of their experience in trying to do this sort of thing (I note from another thread to beware of brake caliper clearance on steels otherwise to spec)

Edited 2 December, 2015 by john999boy
Mod edited

[rum4mo]

Maybe I am one of the people blabbing on about fitting 15" alloys to cars with the ATE callipers and 288mm discs, if so, using "same as VAG" supply as a 15" spare steel wheel are fine, they should be as you have stated 15 X 6J H2 ET38 with the expected 57 or 57.1mm centre bore 100 X 5 PCD. These wheels can be fitted with 18/60 or 195/?? (winter) tyres.  The VAG alloys I fitted to a 1.2TSI 110PS SEL Polo were 15 X 6J H2 ET40 and they fit over the callipers okay - just, by that I mean there is no risk of anything including balance weights touching the callipers, but I would be exaggerating if I said the clearance was 8mm, it is more like 4mm!  One thing to consider, what is your average annual mileage, or maybe winter mileage, quality winter tyres are best used up by the end of their 5th season, and as I've discovered, Michelin Alpins, at least, seem to be good for quite high mileages.

 

Edit:- if your car has the FS111 callipers and 256mm discs, clearance is not a consideration with 15" wheels.

Edited 2 December, 2015 by rum4mo

[dadumtish]

hmm,  i planning to replace my 16 inchers on my SEL  with 15 inch alloys  wolfrace gb u1   6j 15 et 38      and 185 / 60 / r15 michelin cross climates .

mainly as i hate hate the noise  of the  tuarnza tyres ,  and i prefer all seasons .

 

but the SE can use the 110 hp engine , with bigger disks and calipers  on 15 inch wheels as standard  ,  so i cant see how the brakes would be a problem ? 

they must fit 15's ok  even on the larger brake size ? 

 

 

is it the offset  ET 40  thats the problem ,  ?    maybe et38  would be better ? 

[rum4mo]

If you are referring to what I posted, the ET40 was not my choice, it was just what the VAG alloys available on ebay were, some cars went out with ET38 - I can't say why both offsets were used with 6J 15" wheels.

 

The use of 15" with the ATE callipers with 288mm discs, I'd challenge you to find any cars on the road supplied from factory with the clearance that 15" alloys give over these brakes. Whither by accident or design, the normal clearance over the outside of the callipers tends to be at least 15>20mm when using factory fitted alloys.

 

With steel wheels, the material thickness is so much thinner so there is no issue using 15" wheels - as is proved by the supply of steel 15" spare wheels to the cars with these ATE callipers and 288mm discs.

 

Edit:- actually wrt the wheel/calliper clearance, I am still at the stage were I take a good look at every car I walk past to try to find some with similar clearance, if only to satisfy myself that "all is well"  - so far I've failed!

Edited 2 December, 2015 by rum4mo

[dadumtish]

hmm,  so id be better off getting skoda 15 alloys and not custom jobs ? 

[rum4mo]

I'd reckon that that would be a good idea, the thing is, there will be some aftermarket alloys that do fit, but until some users start to compile a list of "okay" ones, then sticking to OEM should be a safer bet.  I also think that is why most wheel/tyre places deliberately avoid offering an alloy wheel/tyre combo for these cars.  I thought about what wheels to buy for this car's winter tyres for a very long time, getting steels via Mytyres etc would have been easy and safe - I did that with her previous Polo which ran 15" alloys normally and 14" steels in winter, this time, I reckoned that I would change my strategy as we are both retired, so wife's car, which had been her tool to get to work, would be forced out in all conditions - not so now, so I chose to get VW alloys for winter use and use them for 6 months to run the winter tyres out of life by 5 winters - as opposed to only using them when the weather was really bad and having them harden up before running out of winter tread - the previous Polo's winter wheels/tyres were sold on after over 30K with 6.5mm tread, but by now getting a bit hard.  Only thing that I might have changed would be to pick a 195 tyre instead of a 185 - why, well maybe vanity, but also because that car normally uses 215 tyres so maybe the higher engine output deserves a wider than 185 tyre especially if being left on the car for 6 months a year - just my thoughts really before you commit yourself!  185 will give best winter snow performance and is cheaper - but, the 6J wheels will happily/safely take 195 section tyres.

[rum4mo]

The use of 15" with the ATE callipers with 288mm discs, I'd challenge you to find any cars on the road supplied from factory with the clearance that 15" alloys give over these brakes. Whither by accident or design, the normal clearance over the outside of the callipers tends to be at least 15>20mm when using factory fitted alloys.

 

With steel wheels, the material thickness is so much thinner so there is no issue using 15" wheels - as is proved by the supply of steel 15" spare wheels to the cars with these ATE callipers and 288mm discs.

 

Edit:- actually wrt the wheel/calliper clearance, I am still at the stage were I take a good look at every car I walk past to try to find some with similar clearance, if only to satisfy myself that "all is well"  - so far I've failed!

 

I might now remove that challenge as I've spotted what looked like a standard old SAAB 9-3, original version, saloon, with alloys on that resulted in that car having near enough the same clearance as wife's Polo SEL with its (winter) 15" alloys on!

[R22JGB]

Patrick.Waring, I have a set of wheels and tyres for sale in Classified ads, which would be suitable for your requirements, look for Winter wheels for sale.