Team-BHP - Maruti Suzuki Ritz : Tyre & wheel upgrade thread

I just upgraded my ritz from stock tyres to Yokohoma ES100 195/60 with 15" alloys and initial feedback goes this way -

Pros -
Amazing road grip and driving control
Long drives turned out to be a pleasure now
Less rolling noise
FE - Too early to gauge
Better appeal :-)

Cons-
Steering is little heavy compared to earlier
Ride comfort came down little bit on patchy roads buts not marginal as earlier.

Overall, i am happy with the upsize. Will try to post the pics soon

Hi Schaoudhary,

Sorry for the late post. I have Ritz Lxi & I upgraded its tyres to Yoko A Drive 185/70/R14 on the day one.

I too noticed that the tyre are slightly projected outwards. The only negative due to this is that the sidewalls of the car get dirty with mud etc thrown in by the tyres as the OEM mudguards are more for looks than any purpose.

Regards

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schoudhury (Post 2042410)

I recently changed my stock rims on my Ritz to Neo Dizzy Black Machined red Lip 14"X5.5" alloys,using the stock JK rubbers for the time being and have few quires for same .
1.What should be tyre pressure that i should maintain for the same for the same ?
2. Also i have noticed that the Tyre are slightly projected outwards, not sure if this normal or there is something that needs to be checked or adjusted .

Has any one else also noticed the same on their Ritz after the tyre or alloy upgrade .
Also when i change the rubbers to 185/70 R14 from the stock 165/80 R14 will it get more projected outwards.
I thought upgrading to ZXI size alloys was perfectly safe .
Please advise .

Quote:

Originally Posted by arronlol (Post 2139589)

Thats great arronlol .
It has been sometime you have upgraded,how is the car performing now and also any effect in FE.
Post some pics along with details og the alloys.

cheers

I like chucking my wifey's new Ritz Vxi around town, the car has a gem of an engine !

It is currently running on the stock JK Tornado 165/80/R14 tyres.

Coming now to a small observation.

I have observed (with the car parked / at standstill) that the car literally jiggles in the roll direction when pushed and released (sidewards direction at the top). This could lead to the slightly unsettled feeling in the roll direction while driving the car, particularly at low speeds, IMO.

When I looked down towards the tyres and suspension during this exercise, I observed that only the tyres were responsible for this jiggling motion in the roll direction, and not the suspension. This phenomenon reduced a lot when I increased the tyre pressures from the recommended 33 psi to 38 psi.

Requesting BHPians to comment as to which of the following could better address this problem :

1. Changing to lower profile tyres

2. Replacing the stock JK tyres with Michelin XM1+

Thanks in advance :)

I upgraded from 165/80 R15 JK Tornados to 185/70 R14 Michelin Energy XM1+.

Reason for upgrade:
Car (Ritz Diesel) would be difficult to control at more than 30-40 kmph on any curved roads. Strangely enough, it is perfectly easy to cut in and out on city traffic or take sharp turns (albeit at a slower speed). Where it got scary was taking sweeping curves like on a flyover or highway where you cant slow down easily.

Secondary objectives were better braking, grip and comfort, in that order.

So far I see the improvements as:
Noise - 20% improvement
Comfort on good roads - 20%

Comfort on average to bad roads - 5% (I am pretty disappointed with this since I have been reading all the hype about the improvement in ride quality. Maybe this has to do with me keeping the manufacturer's recommended tyre pressure Front 36, Rear 33 instead of lesser pressure, but that was the same pressure I used to keep on the JKs and the improvement has been only marginal. Also I do a lot of highway driving so cant really under-inflate the tyres, besides, the manufacturer's recommendation is there for a reason).

Braking distance - Around the same as before but less noise and skids less.
Marginal improvement in grip.
Steering slightly heavier at city speeds but not a problem.

Handling:
On a straight line, regular highway and city driving, I dont see any improvement from the JKs, which did a decent job.
Stability while doing curves, as described: Huge improvement from before, though the 'tall-boy' handling limits still need to be respected.

Overall conclusion: 90% of the improvement comes from the wider tyres (it is criminal of Maruti to not include them as stock :Frustrati). 10% perhaps due to Michelin XM1+. If I was to upgrade again and had the option of JKs or other cheaper tyres at the upgraded size, I would go for those. I feel that a lot of the credit that people who upgraded their tyres give to the make or brand of tyre, should really go to the improved tyre size when compared to stock.

@chncar, that was a very detailed report from you, thanks a lot !

As for my Ritz Vxi (with JK Tornado), I have only done city driving so far, on some good as well as bumpy tarred roads (total 500 kms).

For the last couple of days of my city driving (driving mostly alone), I have reduced my tyre pressures to 30 psi, and the ride feels a lot less bumpy, in fact the city ride quality feels excellent and plush at this pressure. The drawback is that I will not be able to cut corners at higher speeds, but since the bumpiness has eased out, I am not complaining :-)

I will definitely increase the tyre pressure to the recommended 33 psi for the couple of 1000 km highway runs coming up over the next few weeks :thumbs up

Murli,

I didn't change to alloys, I am using the stock rims. Aesthetics are not so important to me, besides I rarely see alloy choices by typical small car buyers that look good, so I decided to just upgrade the tyres. Having said that, I like the clean understated look of the Maruti Suzuki OEM alloys, however when I tried to ask the dealer for it he said its not available with him and didn't seem interested in getting it for me either.

If you are going for alloys one advantage is that you can get slightly wider rims that are perfectly matched to the wider tyres. I am sure the folks on the Alloy thread will be able to give you the right advice.

Nice thread, have booked a Ritz VDI yesterday and was looking at upsizing. I will come to know on Saturday what tyres my car has now - JK or Bridgestone.

- I heard on this forum JK is bad, but can the same be said about Bridgestone?
- Is the buy back price of Bridgestone better than JK? Would need this while haggling with the tyre folks?
- If I want to install alloys, do they buy back the steel rims too?
- Thinking if I should change 4 or 5. The spare is anyways going to be in the boot and the remaining 4 can be rotated periodically.
- Lastly, any recommended dealer for Michelins in Chennai? I am thinking of XM1+ 185/70 R14 as advised so often in this thread.

Sorry, for so many Questions. This is the first time I am buying a new car and I am confused as hell. please:

Hello.

I am taking a Ritz VDI today and the dealer suggested not to upsize the stock 165/80/14 to 185/70/14 quoting that the stock rim is not suitable to take the upsized tyres eventhough it will fit!!

Is he making a fool of me. Here I see many people who have changed to 185/70/14 on the stock rim itself. Can someone clarify and also explain if there is a diff. between the alloys in zxi and the stock rim in vdi/vxi. Are the alloys wider to take the 185 profile tyres?

Sathya

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sathya_sc (Post 2403854)

Stock 14" steel rims are 5J, they can safely take up to 185 width tyres with no problems. Plenty of people have upsized to 185 on the stock steel wheels with no issues. The 14" alloys are 5.5J and you can upsize to 195 width tyres if you wish. So dont worry, you ca safely upsize to 185/70 on your VDI. The dealer may just be misinformed. Cheers

Some number crunching on Ritz tyres/wheels:

India spec Ritz - Stock size 165/80 R14 Rolling Radius 309.8mm
EU spec Ritz - Stock size 185/60 R15 Rolling Radius 301.5mm (-8.3mm/-2.679% when compared to India spec)

The ideal upgrade is to go for the ZXi/ZDi spec wheels & tyres of 185/65 R15 which gives Rolling Radius 310.75 - a +0.95mm/+0.3% difference, which is negligible.

If you want to go wider on 14", use 185/70 R14. Rolling Radius 307.3mm (-2.5mm/-0.81%)
If you want to go wider than ZXi/ZDi spec on 15", go for 195/60 R15. Rolling Radius 307.5mm (-2.3mm/-0.74%)

Anything beyond 195 width tyre is not really warranted.