S3 Steel wheels/Winter tyres.

[gc1989]

Hi, I went onto mytyres.co.uk and they have a deal for steel wheels and winter tyres for the S3. The wheels are 205/55/16. Could this be right for fitting over the front brakes? Link below.

mytyres.co.uk - A Complete Set of Wheels: Steel wheels with winter tyres

 

[S3RYE]

errrrrrrr no!! 16? 205? if i was looking for a winter wheel it would still have to be 17+ and at least 225... surely running a 205 is a bit contradictive? e.g less grip?

 

[Christer]

I'm running studless 225/40/18 on my FWD Sportback. No issues, and it looks a lot better than steelies...

Did some plowing with my car the other day and I didn't get stuck once.

 

[icenutter]

On the mk5 golf GTI you can't fit normal thickness snowchains over the 17" and 18" wheels. So you can get 'winter wheels for Golf GTI' to quote directly from ETKA. These take 205/55r16 tyres. So on the Golf 16" wheels fit over the brakes. I'm not sure about R32/S3 brakes though.

There is probably a theoretical improvement in traction when driving on snow with narrower tyres, but I'm not entirely convinced.

 

[jungleman]

well if you look at rally cars, when they do the snow rallys they are all on mega skinny rubber, am pretty sure they know what they are doing so there must be a reason, prob something to do with increasing the pressure of the rubber on the contact patch giving better traction

 

[brough74]

Or what about so cheap alloys with gravel / snow tyres on ? Like a rally car uses. Been discussing this at work today lol

 

[Brett Butler]

I went on that link OP posted, and it does not list the S3 2-0 TFSI the latest S3, so those sizes are related to older S3's

 

[Ash187]

I'm running studless 225/40/18 on my FWD Sportback. No issues, and it looks a lot better than steelies...

Did some plowing with my car the other day and I didn't get stuck once.

you got a link to the tyres you have mate... i think i need a set for my A3

 

[Christer]

you got a link to the tyres you have mate... i think i need a set for my A3

I run these tyres!
Continental China -New: ContiVikingContact™ 5

 

[warren_S5]

Dumbass question, but is it safe to run winter tyres on one axle, and summers on the other? Was thinking of running winter tyres on the front for now.

Reason I ask is I have 2 Michelin Pilot Sport 2's which are down to 2mm on front wheels which need replacing, and the rears still have 5mm. I only use the 18's as winter rims, and use 19's in the summer, so I am due to fit these this week.

 

[icenutter]

It's one of those things that 'they' don't recommend. Like smoking; not recommended but lots of people do it!

In all seriousness; having winter tyres on the fronts is much better than no winter tyres, but if you have the cash it's worth getting two pairs.

 

[Alex C]

fat tyres vs skinny tyres

Think about it, do you want super fat tyres on the snow. Your effectively wearing snow shows like eskimos so you float on top of the snow... do you really want to float about on top of the snow??

Skinny tyres - cut into the snow, you are more likely to have contact with the tarmac with a higher normal force on the road, thus increaseing the friction

 

[beanoir]

Skinny tyres work better in the snow, it's a fact.

Look at how rally cars are set up for the snow stages for instance, they have tyres that sometimes look skinnier than the rim they on. Cookstein is spot on as to why skinnier tyres are better.

 

[Synchromesh]

Dumbass question, but is it safe to run winter tyres on one axle, and summers on the other? Was thinking of running winter tyres on the front for now.

Reason I ask is I have 2 Michelin Pilot Sport 2's which are down to 2mm on front wheels which need replacing, and the rears still have 5mm. I only use the 18's as winter rims, and use 19's in the summer, so I am due to fit these this week.

I believe that would seriously effect the handling of your car (in a bad way). You will be fine in normal conditions but if you start driving a bit sportier or need to make an emergency move you might end up goind all sideways



Could be fun on an empty parking lot though

On the mk5 golf GTI you can't fit normal thickness snowchains over the 17" and 18" wheels. So you can get 'winter wheels for Golf GTI' to quote directly from ETKA. These take 205/55r16 tyres. So on the Golf 16" wheels fit over the brakes. I'm not sure about R32/S3 brakes though.

There is probably a theoretical improvement in traction when driving on snow with narrower tyres, but I'm not entirely convinced.

Smaller wheels/tires will be much better on snow than the stock 225/40 18, they will however ruin the handling when it's not snowing. I believe that using a good winter tire (genre Dunlop SP Wintersport, Michelin Pilot Alpin) in the same size as the OEM ones (225 40 18) would be the best choiche on an S3 in this climate.

 

[audigex]

I'd probably use 4 winter tyres or none. The problem with two is that they increase understeer (rear only) or oversteer (front only)... neither are good, but the main problem I see is that the performance would change on each corner - giving false confidence. It's all well and good to say "It's snowing, I'd be mega careful anyway" but we drive so much on instinct that it's not worth it. If I can't drive without winter tyres, I probably won't drive it.