Jump to content
Do Not Sell My Personal Information


replace low profile tyres to normal on mk6 fiesta


alanblue
 Share

Recommended Posts

hi guys. want to replace my low profile tyres with normal ones on my mk6 fiesta. i've got 16inch alloys. what would be the best way of doing it? some say i'd have to change the wheels as well as the tyres is that correct? the tyres at the moment are 195/45/r16. cheers

Link to comment
Share on other sites


If you make the tyre wall thicker, you increase the overall circumference of the wheel. This means it will throw the speedo out of calibration as it doesn't know it has the bigger tyres. If one tyre has a circumference of 750mm and another 900mm, you're going to travel further per revolution of the wheel. The speedo only knows that "x" revolutions of the driveshaft = "x" mph.

People therefore swap the wheels to smaller ones and fit thicker profile tyres to compensate. 195/45/r16 is the standard size on mk6 Fiesta the 16" alloys. If you went down to 15" you would need 195/50/r15 (provided they were Fiesta alloys, aftermarket ones may be wider so the 195 number will be different).

You can use this tyre size calculator to see if the tyres you plan on fitting will affect the circumference of the wheel.

Of course you could get the speedo recalibrated and keep your current alloys and have thicker tyres, but I'm not sure how easy it is to do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

57 minutes ago, Luke4efc said:

If you make the tyre wall thicker, you increase the overall circumference of the wheel. This means it will throw the speedo out of calibration as it doesn't know it has the bigger tyres. If one tyre has a circumference of 750mm and another 900mm, you're going to travel further per revolution of the wheel. The speedo only knows that "x" revolutions of the driveshaft = "x" mph.

People therefore swap the wheels to smaller ones and fit thicker profile tyres to compensate. 195/45/r16 is the standard size on mk6 Fiesta the 16" alloys. If you went down to 15" you would need 195/50/r15 (provided they were Fiesta alloys, aftermarket ones may be wider so the 195 number will be different).

You can use this tyre size calculator to see if the tyres you plan on fitting will affect the circumference of the wheel.

Of course you could get the speedo recalibrated and keep your current alloys and have thicker tyres, but I'm not sure how easy it is to do.

cheers luke. does the new tyre have to be 195? as this is the width of the wheel? could i fit 175/ 65/r16 and still keep my alloys?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The first number is the width of the tyre (in millimetres). This size is determined by the width of the alloy (I'm not getting into stretching tyres now). The only way this would change is if you got a different set of alloys that were a different width. You couldn't fit 175/65/r16 as it would mean stretching the tyre.

The second number is the profile of the tyre as a ratio to the width. (E.g. 195/50/r16 has a tyre profile that is 50% of the width (so 97.5mm). If you were to get larger profile tyres, (such as 195/65/r16) it would throw the speedo out as I said above.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, Luke4efc said:

The first number is the width of the tyre (in millimetres). This size is determined by the width of the alloy (I'm not getting into stretching tyres now). The only way this would change is if you got a different set of alloys that were a different width. You couldn't fit 175/65/r16 as it would mean stretching the tyre.

The second number is the profile of the tyre as a ratio to the width. (E.g. 195/50/r16 has a tyre profile that is 50% of the width (so 97.5mm). If you were to get larger profile tyres, (such as 195/65/r16) it would throw the speedo out as I said above.

yep i was thinking of getting 195/65/r16 so i could keep my aloys, but as you said, i'd need to get the speedo recalibrated to match the new size tyre. been looking at other mk6 fiestas on the road and it does seem people have the larger tyres on 16inch aloys. maybe they're not aware of the speedo difference or if they are aren't bothered that the speedo reads wrongly. not sure where i can get the recalibration done or how much it would cost though. as long as the larger tyre will fit my mk6 fiesta zetec without having to buy different sized alloys then i'm glad

Link to comment
Share on other sites


You also have to hope you don't run into clearance issues with the inner arches. You're talking nearly a 10% increase in tyre wall here (just over an inch), I doubt there's many other Fiestas with 16's on that will have 195/65/r16 compared to the standard 195/45/r16. Are you sure they are 16's and not 15's? The 15's always look like they have a huge tyre wall for some reason.

Usually people prefer to have lower profile tyres as they do look smarter, but obviously you compromise ride comfort and have a higher chance of kerbing the alloys/ damaging them on a pothole.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, Luke4efc said:

You also have to hope you don't run into clearance issues with the inner arches. You're talking nearly a 10% increase in tyre wall here (just over an inch), I doubt there's many other Fiestas with 16's on that will have 195/65/r16 compared to the standard 195/45/r16. Are you sure they are 16's and not 15's? The 15's always look like they have a huge tyre wall for some reason.

Usually people prefer to have lower profile tyres as they do look smarter, but obviously you compromise ride comfort and have a higher chance of kerbing the alloys/ damaging them on a pothole.

i suppose you could be right luke. didn't really look that closely to be honest just assumed they were 16s. they could well have been the smaller alloy with the bigger tyre although some where pretty close to the arches to be fair. i'll look into it further. if i wanted to use 195'65/ i'd proberbly be better using 14 alloys

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share




×
×
  • Create New...

Forums


News


Membership