Winter tyres & steelies for R56

[onfirealot]

Hi all,

With winter coming up and aspirations of going up north for winter mountaineering, skiing, etc. I'm liking the idea of getting a set of steel wheels and winter tyres to see me through the winter season ahead. I've driven through pretty bad weather in Scotland and the Lakes a few times, but definitely wasn't happy in my summer tyres.

One thing I'm not sure about is tyre size relative to the wheel for the car (Mini Cooper 09 reg). As I seem to find conflicting 'advice', for example

Looking at a wheel size website for the Mini, it's the got the following spec for my car currently and the 'winter' version
Winter: 175/60 R16 86H 5.5Jx16 ET45
Normal: 195/55 R16 6.5Jx16 ET48

But when I've been looking around at getting steel wheels, websites seem to send me towards the following:

Steel Rims 5.5Jx15.0 ALCAR LK 4/100 ET 45

Then when looking towards tyre and wheel packages, I get the following with various speed ratings:

5½ x 15 4/100 175/65 R15 84T

Any advice, or point me in the right direction would be grateful as I'm at a loss as to which is the best fit.

Cheers

Edited by onfirealot on Tuesday 6th November 20:14

[steve-5snwi]

What model mini do you have ?

[E-bmw]

Admittedly mine is just the R53 but I just went with a set of standard 16" alloys & went down from 205 to 195 T rated 84s that I picked up virtually new. The full set cost under £150 on the bay of e.

[onfirealot]

steve-5snwi said:

What model mini do you have ?

Just a standard Mini Cooper R56.

[onfirealot]

E-bmw said:

Admittedly mine is just the R53 but I just went with a set of standard 16" alloys & went down from 205 to 195 T rated 84s that I picked up virtually new. The full set cost under £150 on the bay of e.

hmm ok, same width, but a the walls a little smaller? How'd you find them? Did you get them out in the snow and ice or just 'normal' winter conditions?

[steve-5snwi]

I run 16's during the winter on my MCS, given you don't have the S which runs slightly larger brakes you should be fine. Although you might just find a cheap set of used wheels on FB mini groups.

[Miglia 888]

No need to buy an additional set of wheels & new winter tyres, try some Michelin CrossClimate+ tyres on your existing wheels and save yourself £££s.

I've run them through two winters & summers on our Cooper SD, and they're good in the snow & ice in winter, good in the wet all year round, and good in the heat & dry of summer too.

Have a look at this video from Tyrereviews and judge for yourself if they're good enough in the snow for you:
https://youtu.be/YO0zyQh2l3M

Available sIzes here:
https://www.michelin.co.uk/tyres/michelin-crosscli...
Hth.

[sad61t]

I have the 15" steels on my R56 Cooper for Winter and 16" alloys for Summer; swapped them just last weekend.

Having two wheel sets is good as you can change them yourself; it takes about an hour with a decent trolley jack, and wrench (not the piece of junk on the boot). Torque wrench to do them up is good if you're intending on changing regularly. Of course, the pile of tires in the front room is not GF friendly.

Note the 15" will not fit over the larger JCW brakes.

[E-bmw]

onfirealot said:

E-bmw said:

Admittedly mine is just the R53 but I just went with a set of standard 16" alloys & went down from 205 to 195 T rated 84s that I picked up virtually new. The full set cost under £150 on the bay of e.

hmm ok, same width, but a the walls a little smaller? How'd you find them? Did you get them out in the snow and ice or just 'normal' winter conditions?

Absolutely fine, I did have them out in snow, although it wasn't bad or for far but no issues at all.

[onfirealot]

sad61t said:

I have the 15" steels on my R56 Cooper for Winter and 16" alloys for Summer; swapped them just last weekend.

Having two wheel sets is good as you can change them yourself; it takes about an hour with a decent trolley jack, and wrench (not the piece of junk on the boot). Torque wrench to do them up is good if you're intending on changing regularly. Of course, the pile of tires in the front room is not GF friendly.

Note the 15" will not fit over the larger JCW brakes.

Out of interest what size rims and tyres did you go for? This is bit that I'm really not sure on.

[sad61t]

onfirealot said:

Out of interest what size rims and tyres did you go for? This is bit that I'm really not sure on.

Rims: OEM MINI 15" x 5.5" 45mm offset (look like this)
Tyres: ContiWinterContact TS810S 175/65R15

Bought from the dealer at £110 a corner for wheel+tyre (fitting was £70 a set, I've done that once when I couldn't get the bolts out as they'd been torqued in by a gorilla during a service). There's a cap set needed too, that should be included.

The current MINI site (from a quick search) only lists the 5-hole F56 16" steel winters.