Sports suspension with 18' or 17' wheels

[mountainbiker]

I recently bought a 58 Mondeo Estate Titanium X, with sports suspension and 18' wheels, and I am finding the ride very harsh.

My dealer has offered to replace my 18' wheels for 17'.

Has anyone done this?

I would be grateful for any comments and observations if this change would help to give a better ride.

[BLUEOVAL09]

I recently bought a 58 Mondeo Estate Titanium X, with sports suspension and 18' wheels, and I am finding the ride very harsh.

My dealer has offered to replace my 18' wheels for 17'.

Has anyone done this?

I would be grateful for any comments and observations if this change would help to give a better ride.

The 17" rims will give a slightly better ride as the tyre wall would be bigger and therefore more flexible due to the smaller rim size (either 50 or 55 profile as opposed to a 40/45 profile), this is to keep the rolling circumference the same and keep the speedo accurate. the downside is that if you like to drive hard (as it's an estate i doubt it, but you never know) then the handling will suffer a bit, but for normal driving this won't be an issue, hope this helps :)

[harvyeg77]

Same issue here. Its tolerable, but at times just a little too stiff for my liking. the 18@ wheels are shod with 235/40 tyres. The 17" wheels have a 235/45. It will make a difference, but not huge. Some guys I have spoken too went the whole hog and dropped on 16" alloys shod with 215/55 tyres. This apparently does a good job of smoothing the ride ;-)

Harvey