Different size tyres front & rear

Hyper

Hyper

Hyper

Soldato
Joined
2 Jul 2005
Posts
3,549
Location
Newcastle
Hi all,

As per title what are peoples thoughts on running different size tyres front and back. Ordered some new tyres for my Seat Ibiza MK4 (2003) only using my reg instead of checking the size currently on the car.

It turns out my front tyres are currently 185/65/14 and my rears are 185/60/14.

I ordered two new tyres to replace my front ones as they are getting low, using my reg on black circles and any other tyre website came back with 165/70/14 so I went ahead and ordered some (stupidly without checking my car).

So I would be running 165/70/14 on front and 185/60/14 on rear.

After a quick google it seems it shouldn't be a problem running different tyres front and back but I prefer to get an opinion from OcUK motors!

Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks, Sam
 
Should be fine.

One of my cars has 16" alloys on the back and 15" alloys on the front but it was designed that way.
 
Are you using the standard rims for the car, or are they factory option/aftermarket?

The size given for your reg will be the default size for the car with standard rims, e.g. my reg gives: 205/55 R16 when actually I've got optional 17 inch rims with a size of 215/45 R17, so the 16" would not fit at all!

In your case, the 165 is the width in mm, so they are 20mm narrower, meaning they may look a bit stretched on your wheels - on the "plus" side, you can get that rude boi tyre look :p
 
As far as I know they are the original alloys, they are genuine seat ones.

Suppose they could have been changed though over the years, maybe the car only came with wheel trims as standard.

I will always check next time on the car next time before I order them!
 
In terms of legalities and MOT you're fine with that. But it's not ideal, and may cause issues with ABS/TCS systems as the front wheel speed sensors will read different to the back.
 
Its just the basic Seat Ibiza which doesn't come with ABS as standard :o

One thing that surprised me after buying the car.
 
So from a safety point of view they will be okay?

After using some tyre comparison tools there is very little difference in size.
 
Heres a comparison height wise, not a lot in it.

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I know they will be 20mm wider.

I will send them back if I can't get away with them but its just the hassle.
Obviously if they were massively different, unsafe or illegal I wouldn't question it.
 
You will of course need to make your insurance company aware now you've noticed the difference. Mine are aware of non standard alloys and non standard tyres, the correct profile for mine bumps the price a huge chunk per corner.

They'll use anything against you to deny a claim :(
 
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