Team-BHP - Skoda Laura : Tyre & wheel upgrade thread

Guys,

I'm new to this and have read a lot of posts regarding tyres and upsizing. The stock tyres are 205/55/16. I dont want to upsize the rims so I was thinking of 225/50/16. According to the tyre size calculators the circumference will then remain the same.

235/50/16 also seems pretty close in size. Whould these sized tyres jut out beyond the body of the car? What would you guys recommend? What could I expect to pay for 225/235 size tyres?

Do you think this will help highway handling enough to be worth the effort & cost?

What make tyres would you guys recommend? One of the reasons for the change is that the stock tyres are quite noisy and this has been confirmed by other Octavia II owners in other forums abroad. I'm hoping for a quieter ride.

Was thinking of Goodyear but hear I see a lot of recommendations for Yokohoma/Michellins etc. Frankly I have not seen these in any store in Bangalore - OTOH I have only been to standard MRF/Bridgestone etc. Maybe they will be available in JC road?

Will I get anything for the existing tyres which have done 10K km? How do I go about the sale the the existing tyres?

Sorry for so many questions but these have come after a lot of lurking and reading. Would be grateful for any help.

Although i dont have the Laura, i have the Octy and am using Michelin Pilot Preceda 2 on them for quite some time now.
I am using 205/60/R15 and i must say these are some great tires.
So i would definitely suggest Michelin PP2 with whatever size you want, 225/235. Although i am not sure if PP2 comes in those sizes. Inquire about it.You wont regret going for Michelin.

Deepak - 225/50 r16 is the correct upsize, for a more detailed list, you can have a look at this thread:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/tyre-...-your-car.html

I wouldn't recommend 235's on stock rims as the width of the rim might not be ideal to hold that tyre and in any case I think 225's are more than good enough for your car. Can you anyways check & post the width of the stock rim here?

As for the tyres I would stay away from GoodYear if you're looking at low road noise, better options would be:

Michelin Energy MXV8
Michelin Pilot Primacy
Yokohama A300

Thanks guys.

Amey, Raghava,

Any idea what the Michelins should cost? Approx? Will I get anything for 10K old Dunlops?

Raghava - 225 should be fine I think. Would I still need to check the rim size. How do I check that - its not in the manual at all.

Sorry - cant edit posts so I am posting again.

The rim calculator says that a 225/50/16 will fit a 6-7.5 * 16 rim. Now as far as I can see this is not mentioned on the outside of the rim - is it on the inside?

the tyre upgrade might not result in lower noise on the roads you travel.. it might improve on highways but maybe not on the city roads. it would be nice if there is a way to verify it before buying keeping the tyre pressure and roads same.

of course, i have no proof for what i have just said and i hope i am wrong. i am also interested in replacing my OEM bridgestones if your upgrade works out well.

meanwhile, you might want to download some MP3s instead :-)

Quote:

Originally Posted by deepakvrao (Post 538088)

Any idea what the Michelins should cost? Approx? Will I get anything for 10K old Dunlops?

I think the Michelin/Yoko's would cost somewhere around 6-7k per tyre. And you won't get much for the Dunlop's, maybe 1k per piece or more,depends totally on the dealer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by deepakvrao (Post 538088)

Raghava - 225 should be fine I think. Would I still need to check the rim size. How do I check that - its not in the manual at all.

The rim calculator says that a 225/50/16 will fit a 6-7.5 * 16 rim. Now as far as I can see this is not mentioned on the outside of the rim - is it on the inside?

The width is never mentioned on the outside of the rim, you have to remove the wheel and see as it is stamped on the back side. It should say something like 16x6J or 16x6.5J.

Since your car has only 4 alloys (I'm assuming here since Skoda usually gives only 4) you can't even take a look at the spare & guess, only way to do so is to take off one of your wheels.

Quote:

Originally Posted by androdev (Post 538231)

Well the only way of knowing whether a tyre will increase or decrease the road noise is to try it out in somebody else's car who has the same tyres. Tyre dealers do not allow for one to TD their tyres & then decide what to buy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by androdev (Post 538231)

Do you have tyre noise too? Bridgestones on my Lancer gave me tyre noise but only after about 25K km.

MP3s? I have about 250 ripped CDs - but all my own and ripped at high quality [EAC]. Cant stand the quality of downloaded music - not that you will be able to tell the difference in the Laura stereo ;)

i don't know.. i mean what do i compare the noise to? but ya.. it is more noisy than i would like it to be.. i am waiting for a couple more months to collect all the 'issues' and sort them out at one go. the left-side (passenger) side suspension is creaking (at random times).. this could be a potential nightmare. i haven't even got time to check the tyre pressure to see if it matches the recommended pressure.