[sachinj12]

Originally Posted by ramkris

Hi,



Also, the maruti recommends using 185/70 s only with 5.5J rims which are not the stock ones. So dont want to take the risk on that as well.



Thanks

Using 185/70 R14 tyres on 5" rims only. No problems whatsoever. You can go ahead without worries.

[Dark_Light]

whats the problem guys i am using 195/60/r14 on my swift zxi on 5.5j stock alloys since the last 20k kms , have not faced any problems at all .

[ramkris]

Originally Posted by sachinj12

Using 185/70 R14 tyres on 5" rims only. No problems whatsoever. You can go ahead without worries.

I know a lot of people are doing the same, still I want to stick to being as stock as possible, so I would rather stick to 168/80s on stock rims.

Also, there will be a marginal fuel efficiency loss due to higher rolling resistance of a wider tyre. With my vehicle giving hardly 15-17 kmpl even on highways with service guys not being able to do anything about it, thats another reason to stick with the stock size.

So kindly suggest good aftermarket 165/80 R14s please.

Thanks

[Nikhilb2008]

Ramkris --- From your post it sounds like you drive on highways a fair bit.

Sticking to 165/80 R14 is inviting trouble. Think about how many people have met with accidents on our unsafe roads due to sudden incidents. A jackass running across the highway when you are doing 120kmph or a dog running across the road.

If you have some good quality rubber like Yoko, Conti or Michelin, you will have better braking ability. Your car will come to a stop quicker and in a more stable manner.

And the fuel efficiency will not reduce much. It will be so marginal, it wont even matter. You yourself said 15-17 kmpl. You see the variation of 2 kmpl? If you upsize, it wont make much of a difference. Anyway in normal driving, there will be a slight variation every time you tank up due to traffic and other factors.

Just think if your life is worth less than 0.5 kmpl.

[yzfrj]

195's gives FE of 17'ish in city on my dad's swift-D.
FE drop will be negligible IMO in a diesel anyways.

[arjunrudra]

Guys was driving along on the highway and suddenly with a huge sound the rear tyre bust open and there was some weird noise.
Then I found out that it was a puncture. I knew that something big had hit the tyre as the tyre was tubeless and small holes would be sealed immediately.
Changed to the spare and kept running. By the way my car is a month old swift with energy XM1+ tyres 185/70 R14.
Went to the tyre store and found this (see pictures) , he also told me that the tyre is now useless and have to get a new one. So anyways since the car is new bought a new tyre for 3.9 k .Te price is more than what I had bought the tyre for last month. He said the tax or something has been increased.

Generally tyres run over such rods but my luck it busted my tyre open.

[Nikhilb2008]

Woah!!! That's HUGE!!

You're lucky it happened when you were driving at lower speeds. Imagine what would have happened at high speed!

[kpzen]

Jeez... Arjun, The whole thing went inside the tire ?

Lucky nothing serious happened.

[ramkris]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

Ramkris --- From your post it sounds like you drive on highways a fair bit.

Sticking to 165/80 R14 is inviting trouble. Think about how many people have met with accidents on our unsafe roads due to sudden incidents. A jackass running across the highway when you are doing 120kmph or a dog running across the road.

If you have some good quality rubber like Yoko, Conti or Michelin, you will have better braking ability. Your car will come to a stop quicker and in a more stable manner.

And the fuel efficiency will not reduce much. It will be so marginal, it wont even matter. You yourself said 15-17 kmpl. You see the variation of 2 kmpl? If you upsize, it wont make much of a difference. Anyway in normal driving, there will be a slight variation every time you tank up due to traffic and other factors.

Just think if your life is worth less than 0.5 kmpl.

Well, First of all I understand the concerns by most of the experienced bhpians.

I had infact done enough thought before deciding to stick with the stock tyre size. Even though I drive mostly on highways I maintain a decent speed only around 100 kmph and occasionally go over 120 or so. In other words, I found the stock JKs to be sufficient for my type of driving.

Also, I feel maruti might have done enough testing/homework before deciding on the average indian conditions and its safety before deciding on the stock tyre size for India. I am not trying to downgrade the other enthusiast bhpians who had done tyre upgrade to go with larger tyre sizes, but I feel there must be some negatives with going with a larger tyre size right. For example,

1. Higher rolling resistance
2. lowered fuel economy
3. And most important part - the cost differential from stock tyre to the upsize
4. Will a good quality stock size tyre compared to a wider tyre the contact patch must be the same due the higher tyre pressure required on a lower profile tyre, negating most of the cornering/performance/braking aspects.
5. Ride comfort is better on a higher profile tyre due to the sidewall being bigger to take most of the impacts, with swift ride being on the harder side.

If it is life threatening infact as being said, then Maruti would obviously need to be summoned to do a rethink on its strategy on its stock tyre size, isnt it.

By presenting the above comments, I again would like to say I am not trying to degrade any of the bhpians, just to come up with a solution for my cause. Dont feel offended by this.

So now, are there still any recommendations for a better quality options for stock tyre size in a Swift Vdi. Or should I still go for an upsize.

Thanks for all your concerns / suggestions on this.

[SumitBahl]

^^
@ramkris

In the Swift ZXi model, you will find that maruti provides 185/70-R14 stock.

You cant go wrong with this size if company themselves are opting for this size.

[arjunrudra]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

Woah!!! That's HUGE!!

You're lucky it happened when you were driving at lower speeds. Imagine what would have happened at high speed!

I was actually doing a little over 100 and after the loud blow , Immediately the car swerved violently towards the right , but luckily because of the brakes was able to control it and bring down the speed immediately.
The tyre store in chennai attributed this to the tyre being michelin it did not bust open real wide.

Originally Posted by kpzen

Jeez... Arjun, The whole thing went inside the tire ?

Lucky nothing serious happened.

Yes lucky me. And yes the whole thing went into the tire. Still wondering how it went in instead of the tyre just running over it.

Originally Posted by SumitBahl

^^
@ramkris

In the Swift ZXi model, you will find that maruti provides 185/70-R14 stock.

You cant go wrong with this size if company themselves are opting for this size.

Yes I also upgraded to 185/70R14 . I chose the energy saver tyres and they really dont show any loss in mileage. As the XM1+ have very low rolling resistance. The grip level is also real good.

[ramkris]

Originally Posted by SumitBahl

^^
@ramkris

In the Swift ZXi model, you will find that maruti provides 185/70-R14 stock.

You cant go wrong with this size if company themselves are opting for this size.

Swift is even offered on 17 inch tyres on the swift sport version abroad, but with a different set of rim specs isnt it. Obviously there is a difference in the rim size between the Vdi rims and Zxi rims.

I guess from the responses I received, I feel there is no quality tyre in the aftermarket for the stock size. Is that right?

[sachinj12]

Originally Posted by ramkris

Swift is even offered on 17 inch tyres on the swift sport version abroad, but with a different set of rim specs isnt it. Obviously there is a difference in the rim size between the Vdi rims and Zxi rims.

I guess from the responses I received, I feel there is no quality tyre in the aftermarket for the stock size. Is that right?

Dude, you are worrying for no reason. As SumitBahl said, when MSIL is offering the tyre size, why are you so skeptical? Also if you had noticed the accessories sheet while purchasing, there was an option for tyre upsize. But nowhere they mentioned change of rims. Up size will be done on existing rims.

Go for 185/70 R14 without any second thought.

PS : Nikhil is a tyre dealer. You can safely go by his words.

PS 2: JK Tyres can never match BS/Yoko/Michelin. Period.

[Nikhilb2008]

You have a live example in the post below yours, Ramkris.

Arjun lost one tyre at 100kmph. He had 3 185/70 R14 Michelins which saved his life. I'm dead sure if those 3 tyres were 165/80 R14 JKs, he would have lost control of the car completely.

And out of the so called disadvantages you have listed, I will refute them one by one.

1). Higher rolling resistance --- True. But FE drop will be insignificant. I see people runnin 195 section tyres getting 17 kmpl comfortable!

2). FE is related to rolling resistance. I've answered this above.

3). Yes. 185/70 R14 will be more expensive. Yoko A drive will cost around 3200 which is a 1000/- more than the 165/80 R14 JK. However, 4000/- extra for a set of tyres which will last you for 45,000 kms is completely ok. How much money would you have spent on fuel over the same distance? How much do you think you would have spent on regular services?

Originally Posted by ramkris

4. Will a good quality stock size tyre compared to a wider tyre the contact patch must be the same due the higher tyre pressure required on a lower profile tyre, negating most of the cornering/performance/braking aspects.

Lower the tyre profile, the lower the pressure. So, I simply dont understand your logic here. It is completely flawed. Let's assume that you do run the lower profile tyre at a higher pressure, it will not cause such a massive difference as to negate the cornering/performance/braking aspects! That is the most ridiculous thing I've heard!!

Also, do remember that 185/70 R14 isnt really a lower profile. The sidewall height is almost IDENTICAL.

5). Ride quality:

Yet again you are completely wrong. The 185/70 R14 and the 165/80 R14 will have exactly the ride quality because the sidewall height is almost identical. I have a feeling your reading of tyre sizes is completely wrong. Please do understand what tyre sizes mean by going through The Car Maintenance Bibles . There, go to the tyre bible.

Also, a good quality tyre of 185/70 R14 will give such a massiv improvement on ride quality over the stock JK,s you will be shocked. Size isnt everything. Rubber compound is critical. And the Yokos, Michelins and Continentals come with superior rubber which give oyu a far superior ride quality.

Originally Posted by ramkris

If it is life threatening infact as being said, then Maruti would obviously need to be summoned to do a rethink on its strategy on its stock tyre size, isnt it.

Well, it isnt that the tyres are exploding killing people. It's not just Maruti. ALL car manufacturers in India give ridiculously skinny tyres just to inflate the fuel efficiency figures and to save money by sticking to a thin tyre.

See the ANHC. 118 bhp and a tyre width of just 175. Just 30 mm wider than what the 50bhp M800s come with.

[SumitBahl]

Originally Posted by ramkris

Swift is even offered on 17 inch tyres on the swift sport version abroad, but with a different set of rim specs isnt it. Obviously there is a difference in the rim size between the Vdi rims and Zxi rims.

I guess from the responses I received, I feel there is no quality tyre in the aftermarket for the stock size. Is that right?

MSIL provides different spec tyres on the same rims, same car and same setup.

Even the markings on the driver side in swift, that mention the suggested tyre pressure, have readings for both (165 and 185) tyre.

Swift sports is a different story altogether.

PS. I am on 195/60-R15 on DZire. I get a mix of 15-17 in city with a/c. I have even managed 18 kmpl in city without a/c and around 22 on highway.