Winter wheels

[Hobojim]

In all seriousness it is looking like I should be planning for winter boots. What are people's thoughts on winter tyres. I have never had a car with 18"s on it, should I be looking for a set of smaller alloys to put the chunkier rubber on? If so any recommendations? I'd like to keep something with vw centre caps on even if they are non oem.

Edit: 225/45 18R tyres are expensive! Cheapest I found on a quick search was £185 each!

Edit 2: black circles have them at 150 each.

[Bill_the_Bear]

Edit: 225/45 18R tyres are expensive! Cheapest I found on a quick search was £185 each!

What a rip off!

[mcmaddy]

no real point putting 18” winters on. kind of defeats the object really. 17” would be better and cheaper.

[firefly125]

Hi  agreed 17  inch alloys would seem sense , but wot if you have the pp option would 17 's still fit ?

[Bill_the_Bear]

Hi  agreed 17  inch alloys would seem sense , but wot if you have the pp option would 17 's still fit ?

No.  Not on the fronts at least... not sure about the rear.

[Hobojim]

Hi  agreed 17  inch alloys would seem sense , but wot if you have the pp option would 17 's still fit ?

No.  Not on the fronts at least... not sure about the rear.

I've done some googling and it appears you can get up to 335mm brakes under 17" alloys if you choose carefully. 344mm apparently fit under most alloys. So PP 340 mm discs should be ok as long as the callipers are not stupidly big.

Anyone know anything about the PP callipers over the standard ones?

[mcmaddy]

Would be interesting to see what VW offer you if you ask for a winter wheel package and you have the PP on your GTi. A british pound says they will say the 16" winter whell package will be fine hahaha

[DougL]

So what size wheels will go over a non power pack car's brakes?

[Ess_Three]

So what size wheels will go over a non power pack car's brakes?

16"

[Ess_Three]

no real point putting 18” winters on. kind of defeats the object really. 17” would be better and cheaper.

How so?

I run 18" winter tyres on both my Mk6 GTI and Mk5 GT TD...and manage just fine, in conditions where the standard tyres (Goodyear Eagle F1s) wouldn't get the cars off the driveway.

17" may give you more protection...but the point of winter tyres is the compound and tread design...not the size.