My Cheap LRR Tyres for 4 stud VAG cars

[sallen]

Hi there,

I have recently gone on fleabay and bought 4 BMW Mini wheels. They are the same rough offset, centre bore (0.9mm too small) and 4x100 bolt pattern as my Golf (MK3).

It seems that (in the UK at least) Mini owners are rushing to get alloys and thre are often sets of steel wheels going cheap. BMW also seems to fit the OEM wheels with good LRR tyres.

For £10, I got...

• 4 steel rims
• 3 Michelin Energy (Green X) tyres
• 1 Pirelli P3000 tyre

3 of the tyres are like new and 1 is about half worn.

I am replacing my (past owner's) alloys which are 185/60/14, with the 175/65/15 Mini wheels.

As I will be going 185/14 to 175/15 (and slightly taller) I am expecting...

• Lower frontal area
• Lower overall RR
• better comfort (tyre volume is bigger)
• a 5% reduction in cruising RPM

I will keep you all posted about any gains...

Just gotta fit them, now where did I put that dremmel?

Steve

[Vekke]

Hi,

I have 14" BMW E30 aluminium rims and they only weigth 6.3 kg a piece. Center hole 57.1 and ET fits perfecly... An the best tire size I have tried has been 175/80R14 for best fuel economy.

Anyway you should see at least that 5% change if your tires are taller. Remenber to add change to your odometer number also .

[sallen]

I love the E30 (my last car was an E30) Should've kept the wheels!

I have just worked out the difference between the rolling radius of the old and new wheels (with a tape measure while they were off the car) and 5% is pretty much spot on.

I averaged 56 mpg UK (46 US) on my last tank, but had lots of variables making it dodgy, such as using 2 types of fuel (bio and normal diesel) and changing the wheels toward the end of the tank.

Will be good to see if I get a gain in my next tank of around 5%...