Hey up everyone,

Well - it's happened again.

I headed over a little mini roundabout as I always do BUT I wasn't paying attention 100% as I was looking back and forth at my rear view mirror, well - I clipped a raised curb on the little traffic island which is about 10 foot from the mini round about, thought nothing of it - have done worse and tyres have survived without damaging the side walls BUT... not this time, about 100 yards up the road, no-where to pull over and all of sudden bang! - the tyre blew out - it must have took quite a knock but it didnt feel like a knock - felt more like a rub...

Anyhow - had to slow right down and drive about an 1/8 of a mile until I could pull over safely and fit the stupid space saver wheel.

This morning - i was up early, got the car up on a trolley jack and OEM jack, swapped the rears onto the front and put the good front on the back and the space saver on the back.

Now i need to tackle the alloy, its took some damage by having to crawl up the road to where i could pull over... think it will be ok for a new tyre but need a second opinion, dont want to refurb them - if all goes well tomorrow, im picking up another stilo thats not running, it has blades and 4 new tyres on them..

Anyhow, i do need to replace the tyre! and I wont be replacing one, i will more than likley be replacing two.

It had firestones on the front and Cooper Zeon CS6's on the rear (now on the front).

I need some pretty decent tyres and dont want to spend more than £75 a tyre.

Can anyone recommend any?

They will be going on the front so need to have decent grip in most conditions, bare in mind the car is 150hp / 330NM torque standard and it has been remapped, so yea i really need some grippy tyres

What's wrong with the Cooper Zeon CS6's? They're fine on my old beast... albeit 115bhp. You would then have a matching full set too.


Ralf S.

Ralf S. said:

What's wrong with the Cooper Zeon CS6's? They're fine on my old beast... albeit 115bhp. You would then have a matching full set too.


Ralf S.

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Its finding them from a reputable seller. They are no longer listed by cooper, good tyre by the way

Mate, if you can afford to splash out just a little bit extra Bridgestone RE050A are awesome - make sure it's RE050A and not RE050.

They will tear a hole in physics and definitely bend ya face.

dtimmins1985 said:

Its finding them from a reputable seller. They are no longer listed by cooper, good tyre by the way

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Aye! I just went outside to check. The replacement for the CS6 is the CS8. It doesn't look quite so saucy but they have them in the regular steelie-Stilo 195/65R15 sizes;

http://www.merityre.co.uk/tyre/19565r15-91v-coopr-zeon-cs8/3865650


Ralf S.

Artermis said:

Mate, if you can afford to splash out just a little bit extra Bridgestone RE050A are awesome - make sure it's RE050A and not RE050.

They will tear a hole in physics and definitely bend ya face.

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I will ask the tyre guy near me if he can get me prices, i work with his son and he does me very cheap prices - i could go for some cheap make tyres and get them for £30 brand new, as they are only on the back it wouldnt matter so much for driving round town.

At the moment, i have just paid deposit on new insurance policy, paid the last payment of the old one, bought another multijet for spares, paid the other bills and all the other ****e - now this! :bang:

I may just sling my mate £30 and replace one, then after July (when i get back from Portugal) - buy some nice shiney new Bridgestones or the Cooper CS8's

Ralf, agreed on the CS8's - they dont look as good.

One other thing, when speccing out my tyres, i have noticed that my wheels can take 215/45/16 tyres - thats got to be better than 205/55/16 - i mean they are 10mm wider (more grip) and 10mm lower in profile so thinner and more sporty looking..

Whats your thoughts on these guys? - would you go for the wider / lower profile tyre or stick with skinny / fatter profile tyres.

Im not too fussed about road noise, i dont go on the motorway much anymore so unless its the dead of night and im hooning (which i very rarley do) it wouldnt bother me.

dtimmins1985 said:

I will ask the tyre guy near me if he can get me prices, i work with his son and he does me very cheap prices - i could go for some cheap make tyres and get them for £30 brand new, as they are only on the back it wouldnt matter so much for driving round town.

At the moment, i have just paid deposit on new insurance policy, paid the last payment of the old one, bought another multijet for spares, paid the other bills and all the other ****e - now this! :bang:

I may just sling my mate £30 and replace one, then after July (when i get back from Portugal) - buy some nice shiney new Bridgestones or the Cooper CS8's

Ralf, agreed on the CS8's - they dont look as good.

One other thing, when speccing out my tyres, i have noticed that my wheels can take 215/45/16 tyres - thats got to be better than 205/55/16 - i mean they are 10mm wider (more grip) and 10mm lower in profile so thinner and more sporty looking..

Whats your thoughts on these guys? - would you go for the wider / lower profile tyre or stick with skinny / fatter profile tyres.

Im not too fussed about road noise, i dont go on the motorway much anymore so unless its the dead of night and im hooning (which i very rarley do) it wouldnt bother me.

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Ah mate you've made the classic error....

The 45 or 55 figure isn't a measurement, it's called the aspect ratio of the tyre. Its a ratio of the larger width measurement.

So a 205/55 tyre is actually 112.75mm tall. A 215/45 is 96.75mm tall.

That maybe doesn't sound massive difference wise but actually rolling diameter is going to be quite a bit, so it'll cock your gearing right up, speedo will be out of whack as a result too as you'll end up covering a shorter distance with each rotation if you go 215/45. Means fuel usage is up and everything.

I wonder if you've just noticed the two different tyre sizes available and not that these are for different rim sizes?

Fiat recommend a 215/45 tyre for a 17 inch rim

Where as they recommend a 205/55 tyre for a 16 inch rim.

Yea i did also notice this... what does your handbook state?

In my handbook there is wheels / tyres listed from 15" right up to 17" the 16" has two tyre options... 215/45 being one of them.

Ill stick with 205's for now lol.

id double check your speedo with a satnav or app and see how far out it is at the moment.
if i remember right my jtdm 150 is on the speedo reading high side with the std 215/45 17 by a fair few percent.(ie 70mph speedo 68mph sat nav 3% high)
when i tried some 225/50 17 (i think was at least about 5% larger rolling circumferance)anoyingly the speed was nearly spot on but the tyres rubbed in the arches.
link to thread with info
https://www.fiatforum.com/stilo/334102-225-tyres-215-alloys.html
is it a typo above stating 16" wheels ? should have been 17" on this spec ?

Sorry i was mistaken, picked up the car today and the blades are 17" plus theres only three on it and the alloy is a bit like a blafe but filled in and its a 17" too.

At the moment, my car has the wheels that you would see on the dynamic and they are 16"s

So fo i put the 4 17"s on and buy another blade and have them refurbed... this other car is also sat on yellow springs and is certainly stiffer when trying to press down the front end etc.

Might be lowered, pitty i dont have the tools to swap over the suspension...

dtimmins1985 said:

Sorry i was mistaken, picked up the car today and the blades are 17" plus theres only three on it and the alloy is a bit like a blafe but filled in and its a 17" too.

At the moment, my car has the wheels that you would see on the dynamic and they are 16"s

So fo i put the 4 17"s on and buy another blade and have them refurbed... this other car is also sat on yellow springs and is certainly stiffer when trying to press down the front end etc.

Might be lowered, pitty i dont have the tools to swap over the suspension...

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What tools you lacking mate, I can maybe lend a hand?

Artermis said:

What tools you lacking mate, I can maybe lend a hand?

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Spring compressers! Then i could utilise these yellow springs and shocks she is definitely lower

Ok so swapped over the wheels today, the black stilo still looks lower lol... is it possible to change out the whole shock and spring without using compressors... i would prefer to keep my shocks as they look newer and have covered 20k less miles than these ones on the black stilo... saying that... after a good clean they might look better and maybe upgraded... can't really tell by looking at them right now... it looks a mess and is full of dirt and cobwebs lol.

dtimmins1985 said:

Ok so swapped over the wheels today, the black stilo still looks lower lol... is it possible to change out the whole shock and spring without using compressors... i would prefer to keep my shocks as they look newer and have covered 20k less miles than these ones on the black stilo... saying that... after a good clean they might look better and maybe upgraded... can't really tell by looking at them right now... it looks a mess and is full of dirt and cobwebs lol.

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I have two different sets of spring compressors. You'll never change the spring over to a different shock without them. It's a fiddle but not a difficult job to do.

That said, visual inspection, if they ain't leaking they'll not be no different to any other shock.

I've not looked at rears but fronts are real easy to swap legs out provided you don't go taking springs off the shocks.