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MG MGF Technical - MGF 1997: Front tyres replacement

Goodyear Eagle 185/55 R15 are not longer available in my country. The Goodyear people offer instead the Eagle Excellence, BUT in 195/50 R15. They state that the band drawing is similar and that the change is minor and completely acceptable. I would like to get opinions about. Thanks. Mike
JM Vega-P.

I now use Toyo "Proxes T-1R" front and rear in the recommended sizes 185/55 and 205/50. You might find it cheaper to replace all four corners with Toyo as they are cheaper than Goodyear. Others in the group appear to find Toyo's a good alternative and I have to agree.

Jeff
J Lennon

Yep loving the Proxes on the back tyres. I definitely recommend them, the grip has made a world of difference to the ride and feel.

On a totally unrelated note, but I feel the need to "emote" to some other F'ers.. I had ordered some 185s for the front and was just about to get them fitted last week when a pedestrian jumped straight in front of the taxi in front of me.

One slightly mushed in bumper bar later, and with no way to get the bonnet open - for the spare and to get the wheel nut tool out - until Mr Crashy fixes it at $3300 AUD...

I am insured but there are no bumpers available in all of Australia!

So if anyone would like to express post me one for xmas. :(
A Steventon

There is an MGF wrecker in Adelaide, advertises on Ebay sometimes, Cheers Alan
ajmackew

Mike, 195s will be fine on the front. Lots of people in the UK use this size because they are more common and therefore cheaper that 185 tyres. It won't affect your speedo either since it's the rear wheels that drives this. I used to run 205s all round on 15" wheels and then 205s on the front and 215s on the rear on 17" wheels. I now run 195s on the front and 215s on the rear with 16" wheels.
David Clelland

Interesting.
I could get front tyres from Goodyear for my F, BUT in the future, when I need to replace the rear tyres there is no availability of 205/50 R15 !
JM Vega-P.

Mike, I appreciate that being located in South America you might not be able to get the correct size of tyres. There are three things that you need to consider if you change the size of the tyres -

1 - Handling
2 - Speedo reading
3 - will the tyres rub on the arches.

1. Changing to 195 tyres on the front and 215 tyres on the rear will not significantly change the handling characteristics of the car. As I said above I've run 185, 195 and 205 tyres on the front and 205 and 215 tyres on the rear.

2. It's the rear tyres that affect the speedo reading and you therefore need to keep the rolling radius as near to the original as possible. If you replace the 205/50 R15 tyres with 215/45 R15 tyres your speedo will be 1.96% different and when you are travelling at 70mph the speedo will be reading 68.63mph. If you keep the 50% tyre profile and go for 215/50 R15 tyres then you will have a difference of 1.71% over the original ones and your speedo will read 71.2mph when the car is travelling at 70mph. Bearing in mind that the speedo is always slightly out when running 205/50 R15 tyres and taking account that I used to run 215/40 R17 tyres on the rear and according to my GPS (checked with more than one) my speedo reading with these 17" tyres was spot on, fitting 215/50 R15 tyres will give a difference of 1.29% and a reading of 69.1mph when the car is travelling at 70mph. Have a look at the calculator at the bottom of this link - http://www.carbibles.com/tyre_bible_pg2.html

3. I have run 215 wide tyres in both 16" and 17" sizes on the back of my car so I would not think that you would have a problem with rubbing with this size on 15" wheels. if you do it's a simple job to get the rear arches rolled and that will certainly cure the problem. If you let your suspension drop too much you might find that the front wheels rub on the plastic wheel arch liners. If this happens get your suspension pumped up. I've run 185, 195 and 205 width tyres on the front without any problems, but as I said the suspension has to be at the correct height.

If I were you I'd go for 195/50 R15 tyres on the front and 215/50 R15 tyres on the rear. Hope this helps.
David Clelland

David, you're lucky having an accurate speedo - mine's the same asthe Autocar road test ie 10% fast. Impresses the passengers though. 215/40x16 on the back makes it a little bit worse!
Mike Cunningham

PS but the odometer is accurate!
Mike Cunningham

Mike, mine was spot on with the 17" wheels but is a little out with the 16" ones. When the time comes to buy new tyres I think that I'll move up a profile. That should make the speedo more accurate and also put a little more rubber between me and the road and make the ride more comfortable.
David Clelland

Thank you David and every other. Quite clear about allowed tyres for the F. The fact is that around here 15" rims are not very common. My wife´s SUV comes with 20" and my everyday Bimmer with 18". MGFs are not common either with only about a dozen in the whole country. Anyway, I have been offered Toyos T-1R in 195/50 and 205/50 R15 at U$S 830,00. Would you people consider these to be a good buy ?
Thanks again. Mike
JM Vega-P.

Excellent tyres Mike - I am running with the Toyos now.
Ted Newman

Mike, as Ted says Toyo Proxies are excellent tyres (dry and wet weather). I replaced my original Goodyears with Toyo Proxies T-1Ss and and I'm now running T-1Rs which replaced them. Some people say that they wear quickly, but I've always found that I get as many miles out of them as I did with the Goodyears. Remember to let them bed in for a few hundred miles before you use them in anger.
David Clelland

Thank you very much for your suport David and Ted. I will fit the Toyos after summer leave as the car is now running very low and have to pump the hydra units before. Then I let you know how she behaves -not too much anger possible with all the radars around-.
Best wishes for the New Year
Mike
JM Vega-P.

Just an Update:
Returning from summer vacation pumped up the hydra units and had the Toyos proxes fit on the F -195/50 R15 and 205/50 R15-. My initial feeling after just a few Ks is that the car drives great, much better than before -and also the Toyos looks very nice-
JM Vega-P.

This thread was discussed between 13/12/2009 and 27/01/2010

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