HI all.

winter is comming and i want to change tire to thinner ones.

195/65 R15 to 185/65 R14 or something like that, but i have doubts about technical possibilities to do it - will smaller wheels fit in (brake supports etc)?

Maybe somebody are using different size and can recomend fitting tires?

br,

bala nemate

Hi,

The Octavia can use 15" steel wheels from the VW golf probably mkV?- I use these on a 2.0 4x4 with 195 /65 15" winter tyres. Hope this helps!

Hi,

The Octavia can use 15" steel wheels from the VW golf probably mkV?- I use these on a 2.0 4x4 with 195 /65 15" winter tyres. Hope this helps!

They will be from a MkIV. The mkV hubs have a different PCD.

I think you might struggle to get 14 inch wheels over the front brakes. I suppose it depends which model you have?

I think you might struggle to get 14 inch wheels over the front brakes. I suppose it depends which model you have?

i'm not quite sure.

its octavia combi, i ordered it month ago.

br,

bn

Probably better to just order thinner tyres for your current wheels. Your suggested choice above means you'd get a much smaller rolling radius.

195/65 R15 = 317.25cm rolling radius

185/65 R14 = 298.05cm rolling radius.

That's a 6% difference, which will affect speedo readout quite a bit (i.e make it over read by 6%)

I believe you should see if there's a 185/65 R15 tyre aboiut, or possibly a 175/70 R15? Do you know how wide your 15" alloy is as standard? I reckon it might be 6.0J or 5.5J. I "think" a 175/70 R15 tyre shouldn't be too narrow for a 15" alloy.

you could always go for the 4 space saver wheels option

you could always go for the 4 space saver wheels option

oh yeh. thats a good point

Can you get any good road tyres for those space saver wheels, eg are they made to the same quality as standard tyres?

I have been researching into some low rolling resistance tyres, there is some good stuff out there. you need to keep the overall diameter the same, the octavia classic/base models have 15" steels, as mentioned probably same as golf, or the slx/other 15"alloys. you need to go to something like a 185/70r15 not a 65 to match the 195/65. Not sure if these are easy to come by. Better in every respect other than ultimate grip in the DRY these narrower tyres should be, as there is more weight per square cm it's not a liniar trade off for grip either, eg double the tyre width does NOT equal double grip, as there is now half the weight per cm of tyre. A guy in the USA drag raced a car on 185 tyres instead of huge ones, it was 10% slower! In drag racing that's a lot but when you think about it, something like double or tripple the width only gets you 10% more grip and possibly a lot LESS in the winter, wide tyres are mainly for show.

What CAN make a big difference is decent rubber, which often is standard on a fat tyre but cheap rubber from cheap tyres on narrow tyres. This may give an impression of much improved grip when moving bigger/wider, when in reality if the same make/rubber compound was used for the narrower tyre and they were tried back to back little difference would be felt.

Keep going and keep us updated!

Greg.

PS a smaller wheel has almost no advantages, like on a bicycle, big wheels are efficient and narrow tyres like a racing bike are efficient. Tiny bike wheels don't go well, neither does riding fat mountain bike tyres where you are literally peddling hard and a racing bike will coast past!