I have thought that the suspension on my Octavia seems a bit harsh and, having searched the forum, it seems that I’m not alone.

My car is an ‘Elegance’ with 17” rims and 225/45x17 tyres and the beam axle rear suspension. Looking at the driver’s handbook, it says that the load rating for both 205/55x16 and 225/45x17 tyres is 91. However, it looks like the majority of 17” tyres that are available have a load rating of 94, as are the ones on my car. I think this could be contributing to the problem, along with the 45 profile on our potholed roads.

I’ve decided to go down a wheel size to 16”, as 16” tyres are much more available in 91 load rating, together with the 55 profile, I’m hoping for a more comfortable ride.

Has anyone else tried this?

Out of interest, what size wheels and tyres does the VRS have?

Doubt the difference bewteen 94 and 91 would make any real difference but the increased side wall will help. 205/55/16 against 225/45/17 side wall difference is about 3/4" more. I run 205/55/16 on my mk2. Mid range GT radial FE2 94V and its not bad plus good tyres in dry and wet. Son has 15" GT radial all season on his fabia and again good tyre in dry and wet

Alasdair

Edited yesterday at 06:551 day by Alasdair1

Worth doing a word search with Google or Briskoda.

On 27/08/2026 at 21:25, daveo138 said:

I have thought that the suspension on my Octavia seems a bit harsh and, having searched the forum, it seems that I’m not alone.

My car is an ‘Elegance’ with 17” rims and 225/45x17 tyres and the beam axle rear suspension. Looking at the driver’s handbook, it says that the load rating for both 205/55x16 and 225/45x17 tyres is 91. However, it looks like the majority of 17” tyres that are available have a load rating of 94, as are the ones on my car. I think this could be contributing to the problem, along with the 45 profile on our potholed roads.

I’ve decided to go down a wheel size to 16”, as 16” tyres are much more available in 91 load rating, together with the 55 profile, I’m hoping for a more comfortable ride.

Has anyone else tried this?

Out of interest, what size wheels and tyres does the VRS have?

I own a 20 plate 1.5tsi Octavia SEL dsg estate, it's my 3rd Octavia. I bought it a year ago, it came with 17s, as standard. I sourced 4 decent used late MK 3 facelift Octavia alloy wheels, fitted those for comfort. I've also fitted 4 all season tyres onto them, too.

I see a few positives from this, tyre choice is larger & tyres are cheaper, than the previous 17s. You would also gain on fuel economy, marginally, too.

Also comfort levels are marginally better, compared to running with 17s. You will notice a bit of a difference with comfort levels, hitting potholes, but it's not a massive difference, more of a subtle change.

I've done this on few other cars, previously, down graded their wheels to gain more comfort. Bit more pothole & kerb resilience, too.

I've also stuck with the 91 load ratings for 16s wheels from factory for my car. I'd never fit higher load ratings if not required.

I prefer higher spec trims, with lower spec wheels, mainly for comfort, not vanity.

I've also informed my insurance, there was no extra charge to my premiums.

Edited 22 hours ago22 hr by Phoenixboy

I meant to say I run 94v on mine as I used to take a fair load as its an estate. Its not much of an increase (about 50kg per tyre but it helped when car was fully loaded especially at rear. The GT radials are I think classed as comfort tyres and I found them better on rough roads etc. Handling is still pretty good but I wouldn't fit them to a VRS.

Alasdair

For maximum positive improvement in comfort at minimum complication, you could go down to 6J to 7J wide x 16in wheels and use 205/60/R16 profile tyres (Octavia Scout wheel/tyre size), they will fit without suspension changes and provide big improvement in comfort, speedo will be exact. Note you need narrower and smaller diameter rims as well as narrower tyres.

If you want to do more changes, as an example below is a setup for a 2016 Mk3 vRS that I own:

It rides on narrow 6J x 17" black "Crystal" winter alloys (that are actually approved even for 340mm petrol vRS brakes) with 205/55/R17 all weather tyres (Michelin CrossClimate 2). Rear springs have been uprated by 2 groups to 5Q0511115AF (currently Lesjofors 4285741), and the rear shocks to Bilstein Sport B6 B6 24-229890. Note by far the easiest way to install new springs and shocks on multilink is to take out (and replace) 3 outer bottom arm bolts each side rather than mess with spring compressors. Also note front assist radar needed to be adjusted upwards by 1/2 turn.

The 205/55/R17 tyre size is a Mk3 Scout tyre size. The higher springs together with slightly higher profile tyres make for about 1in higher ride height at front, and about 2in higher ride height at rear compared to stock vRS, I guess it'd be 1/2in over stock front and 1in higher back at rear when compared to Elegance.

After 70k+ miles, the setup offers comfort, durability and robustness, even on very poor quality roads, it also offers somewhat increased ground clearance. Behaviour on motorway is actually better than stock, both for stability and comfort. Cornering is still good, unless you want track driving .

Additional bonus is that when the car is full of luggage, it still has a good stance on autobahn which helps with air drag and fuel consumption, as well as stability at 120mph+ speeds (autobahn).

This is not the first time I made similar changes, on my previous Mk1 Superb TDI V6 I had B6s all round, sport front springs, and HD rear springs and the effect was similar, drove over 200k miles in that one, significant part of it on shockingly poor roads.

HTH

Thanks all.

I have acquired a set of 6.5 x 16” Octavia wheels, which I am now renovating.

I think I will be going with a set of 205/55x16” (91V) Michelin Cross Climates.