what wheels?

[highlander]

Width would most greatly affect it, rather than tyre diameter. Increasing either will still increase the size of the contact patch (the only four points where the car meets the road surface), thereby increasing grip on the corners.

Fatter tyres will increase the amount of grip on cornering - and, on the drive wheels, will increase the amount of traction (i.e. slightly better acceleration). This is why FR, MR and RR sports cars tend to have bigger, fatter tyres on the back than they do on the front. On FF cars (like the 406), there's no point in having mixed tyre sizes for front and rear tyres as the drive wheels are also the wheels for steering.

[FarmerPug]

steering feel though.

[highlander]

Fatter tyres would make more difference.

Being honest, I find the saloon (on 15in) and coupe (on 16in) not too different in terms of steering feel. The tyres on both are excellent. The Coupe has a wider stance and fatter tyres, and feels very good to drive. The saloon is using wheels from a 307, so the offset is different (the wheels sit further into the arches than maybe they should) and it also feels like it's cornering on a rail.

Not sure if the '99 1.8 Saloon and '02 2.2 Coupe use different power steering setups or not, but the steering wheel on the saloon feels heavier to turn than it does on the Coupe.

Basically, you won't find a "night-and-day" difference between 15 and 16 inch wheels. Maybe if you went nuts and got a set of big 18 inchers with big fat tyres on, you'd really notice it (though you'd have to watch in case the tyres were rubbing on your wheel arches).

Oh - also, when you fit your wheels, you might find a bit of vibration through the steering wheel - in which case, you want to get them balanced.

[Gary406]

£70 was the delivery quote I got. Do DHL collect? Can't really do Post Office as it's a total ar*se to try to get a set of alloy wheels & tyres in there - especially with my 3yr old "helping".

yes DHL collect .. £8.21 per wheel i would say ... whats the aprox weight of a wheel deflated ??

http://www.p4d.co.uk

i use these a lot and they are very good.

Just tried the details in that & it still said about £65 + VAT. Weight is roughly 20kg for a wheel & tyre.

ye i forgot wen i posted that he is in NI
i posted after that its about £16 + vat for 1 wheel

[Gary406]

im 195/65 15 at the moment, and one thing i wouldnt sacrifice is the amount of feel through the wheel, is there 15 inch hoggars, or what element of the tyres affects the feel is it the width or the size?

i have 205/60/15 tyres on mine (got them of a V6 model)
really you dont want to go less than the 60 part
if you do you start to get a rougher ride ,,
60 is my limit , i dont like 45 or 55
205 is the width of the tyre , you can put 205 tyres on your wheels if they have 195 on now, usually you can

i once had 205/40/17 on a vauxhall, could feel every bloody bump , awfull ride

[FarmerPug]

60 is the profile then?

[waue1978]

60 is the profile then?

It certainly is. I'll break it all down for you:

On a 215 / 55 x 16 - 215 is the width of the tyre tread in mm

16 is the diameter in inches (which you knew anyway)

55 is the profile (or aspect ratio). The 55 is so called because the profile is 55% of the width (55% of 215mm is 118.25mm). Your standard 195 / 65 x 15 would have a profile that is 65% of their 195mm width - 117mm.

I know from that it makes it look as though the 16s should be softer due to the extra mm & a bit, but you do tend to find that the proportional size differences between profile & width make the sidewalls that little bit more rigid giving a slightly firmer ride.

[waue1978]

Have finally got round to taking the pics. Posted them all here:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=13489

[FarmerPug]

does the corrosion on the hoggars happen commonly?

[waue1978]

It seeems to Highlander's don't look too bad, but I've seen 2 sets for sale on Ebay since I bought the last set & both had the same corrosion bubbles as I got on both the sets I bought. A friend also had a 53 plate coupe with just 45k on the clock & even they were starting to go. Don't think it's specific to Hoggars though as I nearly bought a set of Nautilus wheels not so long ago & was nearly heartbroken when I picked up the wheel by the spoke to find that the paint was starting to peel on them. If I'd bought them first I would have refurbed because they are so rare & look the nuts, but when I've already got 3 sets in need of work...

[FarmerPug]

these shitty alloys on my car havent rusted/bubbled its a shame that the nice looking alloy does that and the terrible one doesnt.

[waue1978]

True, but the Corails that you have carry a different danger. I did have a very clean set of those a while ago, but never got them fitted - main reason for that being that the spokes stick out quite a way beyond the edge of the tyres so are potentially very easy to curb & still end up ruined. Even taking that into account though, the Hoggars spokes stick out a little way - proof of this is on one of the wheels that I have fitted where there is nice little scrape on it. My honest favourite of the 406 wheels for pattern & design was the Opale alloys which were fitted to the early models - it's just a shame they didn't make them a bit larger.

The Nimrod style that you are looking at can also be called Ouragan, but do make sure when you find a set that you get the offset from the seller to make sure that you don't end up with a set from a 206. If they aren't sure how to find it, get them to send you all of the numbers that are on the alloys. Quite often you'll find that the offset will be stamped on the outside of the rim (on the reverse side) & would be CH4-** (** being the offset).

[FarmerPug]

ive never kerbed mine thankfully.

[plod]

I think out of the standard wheels the nimrods fitted to latter 406's suit the car best

[grasmere59]

I have the nimrod style fitted as standard to my Rapier but on the back of the wheel it says "ouragan",i suppose that is what the style name is?