Can he put R15s on a seat leon thats has R14s

ShatterProof

Friend of mine has an old banger he is getting rid of with 4 good tyres - R15's.

His wife has a Seat Leon which needs 4 new tyres - R14's

can he take the wheels from the old vw and put them on the Leon ? (assuming the holes match up and all that)

Viper_JB

You could but you'll ruin the handling of the car.

Jip

Unless she's racing the car I don't think she'll be bothered by a change in the handling by slightly bigger wheels, she won't even notice.

Gary ITR

Viper_JB wrote: »

You could but you'll ruin the handling of the car.

Going from 14 to 15 won't ruin the handling.

Provided the fitment is the same he'll be grand

JoeySully

there probably wont even be much of a change in the outside diamter either.

put both tyre sizes in here to compare them http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

If the difference is 2-3% either way you wont notice it.

sundodger5

depends on the rest of the tyre dimensions. can you give us the full tyre size of both the 15 and 14 inch wheels?

Make, model and year of the banger too, will save messing about. A simple yea or nea can then be returned

Esel

Viper_JB wrote: »

You could but you'll ruin the handling of the car.

I am intrigued by your post and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

ShatterProof

Seat leon has at the moment 165/60-14 and wants to put on 185/60-15 from vw bora
cheers

nc19

ShatterProof wrote: »

Seat leon has at the moment 165/60-14 and wants to put on 185/60-15 from vw bora
cheers

because the tyre is wider just make sure there is no rubbing on full lock and you should be ok

sundodger5

no no no. difference too big. gonna mess up the handling and throw the speedo out by 8-10%. you are allowed 2%.
have to say on a side note that the 165/60-14s are an odd size. thought they only had them on micra's for a while.

Melodeon

mighty mechanic wrote: »

ShatterProof wrote: »

Seat leon has at the moment 165/60-14 and wants to put on 185/60-15 from vw bora
cheers

because the tyre is wider just make sure there is no rubbing on full lock and you should be ok

Also, the rolling radius of the 'new' tyre will be almost 9% bigger, so the speedometer will read slow for any given 'real' speed.
Now, given that the majority of cars' speedometers read 'fast' by design from the factory (for various legal and liability reasons), it may be that the speedometer may now actually be pretty close to dead on, but if the driver is someone who trends to run right at the speed limit whenever possible, it would probably be worth checking 'real' speed against 'indicated' speed with a good GPS on a nice straight clear piece of road.

JoeySully

putting these on will make your car 1" higher off the ground. your speedometer will show 60 when you are doing 65.4. your odometer will also be out by i think ~9% so if you do 100 miles you will actually have done 109.

the correct 15" tyres fr your car would be 185/45.

EPM

It's a Stella spec Leon so. If it was a Mark 1 Signo it would have had 15's on it. Wont ruin the handling of the car at all.

I'd be more concerned about the speedo bit.

Tyre Size Calc here should give you everything you need

sundodger5

EPM wrote: »

It's a Stella spec Leon so. If it was a Mark 1 Signo it would have had 15's on it.

the 15 is not the problem its the size of 15. you have to stay within 2 % + or - of the original rolling circumference.
again just because they may fit dont make it right.

Melodeon

sundodger5 wrote: »

the 15 is not the problem its the size of 15. you have to stay within 2 % + or - of the original rolling circumference.
again just because they may fit dont make it right.

You don't HAVE to do anything, so long as you're aware of the compromises and are willing to live with them.

sundodger5

open to correction, but my understanding of the law regarding tyre fitment does have a mention of a 2% max difference regarding changing sizes, this as mentioned by other posters relates to speedo accuracy and handling.
if i can find the blurb i will post it.

vw4life

it should list the various tyre sizes that you can use in the owners manual

deaglan169

i have a leon sdi which came as standard with 195/65/16 the 65 part may be wrong but i went to 225/45/17 and i noticed a big change on handling as the back used to slide out and kind off bump around a corner if you were driving a bit hard but my speedo is a good bit out at 120kmph on the speedo my gps on a good flat straight road reads 115kmph this doesnt bother me as at least in reduces chance of being caught speeding

vw4life

vw4life wrote: »

it should list the various tyre sizes that you can use in the owners manual

Indeed, I'd hazard a guess the ones on the car at the moment are not listed.

ShatterProof

My bad,

actually has 165/65-14 on Seat loen and not 165/60-14 as previosly posted.
vw bora has 185/65-14.

Thanks for all the comments but in the end he sold the bora with the good tyres ( only way he'd get rid of it) and is buying new tyres fo the seat with the proceeds.

Cheers.