The MGF Register Forums

Advise wanted, which all weather tyres should i fit to my MGTF with 16 wheels?
car will only be used for road driving, so i do not need race tyres

Les, there are currently three threads running on tyres, details can be found there, however to answer your question, there are three recommended tyres the Toyo T1-R and the Falken 912 and 914 (the 914 being asymmetrical).

You will read how fussy these cars are with tyres so I would recommend a matching set front and rear, please do not mix as you may end up with handling problems.

Whatever you do, AVOID TOYO T1R at all costs!

MGCC & Toyo will tell you that if you fit 4 x Malaysian manufactured Toyos that all should be fine (see Feb edition of Safety Fast) but this is wrong!
I fitted 4 new Toyos & it has totally ruined the handling of my 2005 MGTF160. Go for Falken ZE914.

slippy wrote:Whatever you do, AVOID TOYO T1R at all costs!

MGCC & Toyo will tell you that if you fit 4 x Malaysian manufactured Toyos that all should be fine (see Feb edition of Safety Fast) but this is wrong!
I fitted 4 new Toyos & it has totally ruined the handling of my 2005 MGTF160. Go for Falken ZE914.

Really ?? I'm on my fifth set of T1-R's and I've nothing bad to say. They've performed well in hot (107 deg in Bosnia) cold - temperatures in the UK and Europe and across mountain passes, dry tracks around Europe and the awesome 1000 bends event in Germany and wet sort of everywhere. Never a scary moment or concern and a wear rate better than most (28K on the fronts and 20-21K on the rear).

Im talking about the new Malaysian compound Toyos though Adrian.
I have had 3 sets of the old spec tyres & thought they were fantastic, thats why I had no hesitation in buying new Toyos to replace my GSD2s when MGCC recommended them. New Toyos are absolutely terrible & what makes things worse is the supplier JJC Race & Rally, MGCC & Toyo themselves are doing nothing about it.

I even swapped tyres with my son briefly, he has a 2004 MGTF135 with new (November) Falkens on, instantly my car behaved as it should & the poor handling transferred to his car. As it is my sons daily driver I swapped the wheels back but I just wanted to prove to myself the the car wasnt at fault.

Understood now Stuart, thanks for the advice.

Hi all,

Just got new Toyo`s on the rear, and now the car is undrivable, to say the least, it`s
scares the sh.. out of me. The front are also Toyo, done 25000 km, min. 50% tread left,
but this is so bad, i don`t even want to drive the car at a speed over 80 km/h. All
4 are made in Japan, so i start to give up. What can i do? Can`t change tyres every week.

Kjeld

Kjeld Andersen wrote:Hi all,

Just got new Toyo`s on the rear, and now the car is undrivable, to say the least, it`s
scares the sh.. out of me. The front are also Toyo, done 25000 km, min. 50% tread left,
but this is so bad, i don`t even want to drive the car at a speed over 80 km/h. All
4 are made in Japan, so i start to give up. What can i do? Can`t change tyres every week.

Kjeld

Exactly.....
And if you tell Toyo of this problem, they will tell you that you need to buy new tyres for the front & it cures the problem...please dont be fooled, IT DOESN'T.
This is why Im trying to get across to people, dont buy Toyos. They take your money & then do nothing about it.

Hi Slippy,

Had them on before, allways had trouble with the handling of the car, taken it
to Tech-Speed, got their dampers in, complient washers, tracking, and now this.
As i said, close to giving up, even with Yokohams, the car was dancing under me, don`t
know where it would go NeXT, so has any one a idea of what to do, sure it can`t be
right you have to change all 4 each time, so is it the Falkens to go for, or just
dump the car and say the MGF/TF is a horrible handling car?.

Kjeld

My TF handled perfectly well untill the Toyos were fitted & when I test fitted my sons Falkens it drove perfectly. My sons 135 with the Falkens drives great too. My handling issues are 110% down to the rubbish tyres.
Just a thought, have you checked ther wheel bearings?

Hi Again,

No, i have not checked the weel bearings, but the car has been strange to drive
in all the 13 years i have owned it, but now, bad has gone to worse.
Will have a check on the bearings, and let you know. Have a feeling it
just the car in all, DOORRRGGGHHH

Kjeld

Hi Kjeld, how are you keeping? It's been a while!

What checks have been done so far in respect to the handling? Are you over in the UK at all for MG Live/ MGF20?

Thanks for all the advice, just a bit of info bought the car with 15 wheels and HiFly tyres fitted ( I'Ve never heard of them either) probably the cheapest tyre you can get for the TF but they hold the road great, I would like to upgrade to the 16 wheels so i can fit the red brake calipers

The Chinese imported budget tyres have had some bad press which is unfair, personally I will try anything after some homework. Our jag needed new set of tyres just after we bought it due to the typical x type geo problems, did some homework and bought a set of threeA tyres, m&s rated,extra load with higher speed rate than standard,225/45/17, cost me £145 for the set. What did I expect? Noise?, hard to ballance? Poor grip in wet? No to all of that, don't know how long they will last but so far I have no complaints. On previous vehicles iv tryed linglong which I would also use again. Some might diss the idea of budgets on a mg but a friend has some accelera on hit tf, he has no complaints,he knows he might have a bit less grip than the firestones I have on my f but he drives within their limits.

Lesharvey :- From everything I've read on this post and others (and on the MGOC ), I'd think twice about "upgrading" to 16" wheels. Seems a TF on 16" wheels has all sorts of horror stories regarding suitable tyres . . . if nothing else it appears you're confined to one brand only ?
By comparison my "F" and your "TF" ~ both on 15" rims ~ seem to be oblivious to what tyres go on them ? My car ~ like yours ~ came complete with mickey-mouse-never-heard-of-them budget tyres including two totally different brands on the front compared to the back ! But it sticks to the road like glue, goes round corners as if it's on rails and I've had it up to *** mph without a hint of any issues. Which Tyres (your thread title) . . . it seems with 15" wheels any-old tyre at any-old price can be fitted with confidence, the complete opposite of what happens with 16" wheels.
In light of that fitting 16" wheels would be a "downgrade" wouldn't it ? What would you gain ?

Reading all these post is very confusing, on my Abingdon with 16'' wheels I have a brand new pair of Toyos, Malaysian type on the rear and a pair of virtually unused Goodyears on the front, the old rear tyres were badly worn which left the handling a bit odd, the new tyres have cured all that and now its fine. I have been on some fast motoway trips as well as throwing it aroung country lanes. I am no racing driver but I would know a bad handling car if I was driving one.
Do these tyres show up other shortcomings in the suspension due to wear?

They dont seem to be a problem on the MGF. Im sure the issue is with the 16" 215 tyres on the rear of a TF.

As we are going to be needing new tyres for the 75th am looking at the Falkens in 216/40/16 ............................ just need to gather some funds to pay for them. Probably have to get two then another two in a couple of weeks.

For what it is worth, my standard Wedgewood SE F has Event WL905 tyres on the original 16" rims. Tyre size is 215/40/16 all round and they're made in China. The car came to me with them, I have no issues with them. I run them at the handbook pressures of 24 front 28 back. This is contrary to the workshop manual which says 36 back.

In all the discussions about tyres I see very little about pressures, what do other folk use?

Gordon

Both my F's with 16" wheels run standard pressures and both have the correct XL type tyres.