What did you do to your Fiesta ST today ?

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Boots & pistons going in the 986 calipers with DialCalipers brackets. Don’t have time to make the calipers look pretty.

IMG_8114.jpeg

Need to notch the ducting backing plate a bit.

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New hubs/wheel bearings, inner/outer tie rods next on the list. Then onto the timing belt/wp…
 


SteveS

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Changed the oil Saturday afternoon and swapped the tires for winter. We've had 185/60-15 Yokohama Iceguard full snows since the car was new, but this year I decided to change it up with 195/55-15 All Weather Vredesteing Quatracs. We don't really get much winter here and so we spend most of the late fall through spring sliding away the tread from the full snows and not enjoying any meaningful grip in dry or wet conditions. So I thought the All Weather category of tire might suit better. Only about 170 miles on them so far, most of it a 160 mile round trip that was half on two lane roads. They ride smoother than the OEM size, a little noisier with a sort of low volume low frequency drone like a distant prop plane. Steering is far better than the pure snow tires and grip is too, though not as good as the summer tires, obviously. And they look suitably chunky. We shall see about the wet and snow performance when we get some of that kind of weather. IMG_20251115_171823_HDR.jpg IMG_20251115_171858_HDR.jpg
 


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Those are 15x6.5 Motegis (or what width)??

For some reason Vredestein's tires always look to be a taller side wall (in appearance) than what the stated size says, as those look like at least /60 series side walls.

I am looking for some 195/55-15 pure winter tires, but none of the 'major/premium' tire brands offer them anymore (just some Hankooks and even lesser Taiwanese/Chinese/etc. brands).

It's gotten so bad with the huge 'donk' rubber banders as OEM sizes lately that Conti will not even offer their new(er), supposedly 'improved' over the 7s, Viking Contact 8 in ANY 15" sizes (at least through Tire Rack, maybe in Europe/UK they do [dunno]).

Even Nokian (Hakkapeliitta), which used to cover many many smaller sizes in their winter lineup offers less and less in the 15" sizes.
 


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SteveS

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The Motegis are 15x6 MR116s. I think the look of the tire might be that they don't run the tread blocks very far onto the sidewall.

Yes, although there's quite a number of tires available in 195/55-15, including 200TWs, there are no winter tires that size at Tire Rack. Discount Tire shows a Toyo winter tire. You used to be able to get Viking Contact 7 and Michelin Xice in that size, but no more.
 


M-Sport fan

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The Motegis are 15x6 MR116s. I think the look of the tire might be that they don't run the tread blocks very far onto the sidewall.

Yes, although there's quite a number of tires available in 195/55-15, including 200TWs, there are no winter tires that size at Tire Rack. Discount Tire shows a Toyo winter tire. You used to be able to get Viking Contact 7 and Michelin Xice in that size, but no more.
Sadly, there are no Discount Tire stores anywhere even remotely close to where I am located, and ever since they bought out and merged with Tire Rack, I am at the mercy of whatever they stock for online sales from that whole company.

They tend to only stock larger sizes in most offerings, and skip many of the 'in between' smaller (15", 16") sizes we need to fit our platform, (even if the manufacturer actually makes those smaller sizes), and only offer what 'flies' off of their racks much quicker than they can replenish the depleted stock.

I will try Simple Tire and Giga Tire, as they seem to cater more to the smaller, less modern day rubber bander absolute trends, even in winter tires.
 




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