SMARTLY

Yes, I know. Not sure when I am down next - may be over Xmas.

Yes, 5 studs. Been looking on fleebay but not much doing in sets of four in 16 inch. I seem to remember reading that winter tyres ( or at least some makes ) only go up to 16 inch. It's just a precaution for if I get a job as if I'm sat at home then the car won't be going more than a few miles apart from picking my son up at Manchester Airport and taking him back to Heathrow at Xmas. It's -11 day and -12 night where he is and by next week will be -13 and -16 Snow is between 4 and 10 inches at the moment there.

I buy my tyres from ETB but the Kidderminster branch, maybe a drive over to Worcester next week as OEM will be fine. Thanks

OK - so the econetic comes with 15 inch wheels for economy, all the others apart from ST & RS come with 16 inch as standard. As mine has an option of sport pack this is why it has 17 inch wheels, sports suspension ( I didn't know that ) and privacy glass. So would sports suspension effect fitting of the wheels ( I guess it's coils and shocks )? If not then I can certainly go down to 16 inch.

Good thinking, but if it's a skinny then it may have different offsets I guess.

The tyre pressure sticker gives pressures for 15, 16 and 17 inch wheels - seems to be a generic one for all models.

Ah, OK. So that means I need to check first ( with Ford ) as to which wheels would fit. I am ( the non-paying ) owners club so will ask there first and seek some opinions.

OK, so here are the photos. Funny thing is it doesn't look so bad in the photos. Front offside that has additional wear on the inner part of tyre : Front nearside wear seems OK:

Excellent and timely post Tony. Funnily enough I was looking on eBay for steel wheels today for the Focus, just to see how much it would cost to equip it up with some winter tyres. Unfortunately ( a bit like Rich ), it seems a bit of an unknown over which wheels will fit. Seems that a 16 going down to 15 fouls the brakes, so mine a 17 going down to 16 or 15 I don't know. Presumably for these fouls to happen the brakes are different on the cars or is it the offset or something on the wheels? Not sure where reliable information can be obtained on this.

Unfortunately nearest WIM garage is miles away. I'll try and get a photo of both fronts to show the wear, it's a bit cold out this morning and car is nice and snug in the garage. Watch this space.

OK, then but it's not just one bar Tony it's the inner edge ( in photo above it's the left side about a third i.e. everything to the left of the left most groove ). Have I explained myself well? I know it's geometry, but it's geometry as opposed to tracking I need?

But somebody said no above.

Tyres were new on front when I bought it, so this is the first time I knew of this wear, done about 8k miles. So what can I do / get done to stop the wear on one side?

What was bothering me was that only the one tyre on the front had worn like that, so does that indicate toe incorrect on the one side?

OK, here's a picture of a used ZV5 ( not mine ): Starting from the right of the picture, mine is fine on the far right and through the three main grooves. Then the cross-thread on the left is where mine is worn significantly but only on the off-side front. As suggested above I'll get a tracking check done and see if it's the toe that's out on that side.

So what needs checking? From my earlier post:

Some horrific accidents there, especially in the tunnels There are some dead bodies for those of you that are upset by things like that, but most are in bags or covered with sheets.

Sideways & backwards

Think he means this post: http://www.wheels-inmotion.co.uk/forum/ind...p?showtopic=165

What a muppet

Is the arch liner plastic or that fabric stuff? If it's plastic you could try superglue, if it doesn't work no harm done as you won't see where it's been. If you can get to the back you could put something like araldite there along the crack then just something to stop it sticking against the metal behind it while it dries. A metal rivet should do the job on the grill and a spot of black paint if it's exposed to hide the metal colour.

It says I don't have permission.

Was going to put it in the tyre forum but I can't. When I bought the Focus it has two Avon ZV5's on the front and two budget China tyres on the back with plenty of tread. Despite the rears making a lot of noise between about 45 and 65 and having to take it a bit easy roundabouts it wasn't too bad. Didn't want to spend any money when there was probably still 6 or 7 mm tread on the rears. I've done about 9k miles on them since I've had the car. Anyway the week before last decided to bite the bullet and put Avon ZV5's on the back, tried google etc. and hadn't realised that Avon ZV5 were regarded as a performance tyre. Anyway best price I could get was £200 fitted locally ( 205 50 17 W ). The difference is amazing, absolutely no noise and the back is solid on wet roundabouts. Should have done it sooner

Nice one

As poster above says, you still need to look over your shoulder