Polo Dune/Cross Tyres

[28ash]

Hi,I have a 56 plate 1.4 TDI Dune,my wife drives it,but we are fed up with the harsh ride from the 40 profile tyres.Would fitting a higher profile tyre,like 50 say,make the ride better,and would it affect the MPG ???

[legendamongus]

You can't just increase the tyre profile. Yes, a thicker tyre has more rubber between the wheel and the road so therefore should be more compliant, but that extra thickness is going to increase the rolling radius of the wheel. This could cause the tyre to rub on the wheelarch when turning etc, but more importantly it's going to affect your speedometer reading. Not a good idea.

If you want to do this, you're better off changing the wheels for smaller ones and then fitting larger profile tyres. What size are the standard wheels anyway?

[28ash]

The standard wheels the Dune comes with are 17in,and the tyres are 215 40 17,on BBS alloys.They're nice,but was thinking of putting standard Polo wheels and tyres,whatever they are,maybe 16in ones.

[legendamongus]

I've got a Polo GTi with 16" wheels on 45 profile tyres and sport suspension. I don't find the ride too hard, but the Polo 9N3 came with alloys ranging from 14" to 16", so you've got a pretty big range to choose from...

Just a thought: are your tyre pressures correct? Overinflated tyres can cause a harder ride...

[28ash]

Yeah,checked the inflation,always do.It's not that,not being used to such a low profile tyre i suppose doesnt help lol.I'll get some nice Polo wheels and tyres for it,and I have a program here on my computer which tells you which profile to get so as to mimic the standard ones from the car,so the speedo reads the same,otherwise you could be going faster,or slower,than you think and not know it,handy little tool it is too ! Was just wondering about the MPG side of things really,as i'm sure the ride would be better with more rubber and air to cushion the ride.I'm also going to get Protune to sort out the ECU,so that will improve things a tad too !