Tyres

Bruiser · 2025-11-06T02:09:03+00:00

In market shortly for tyres 185x70x14 for the 245. Was wanting Michelin but none in Australia currently with possible shipment in 2026! Can anyone recommend...

ramrod

If it’s a wagon, it needs 195-75-14.

Sedans take 185-70-14.

Bruiser

Yes correct sorry. That lowers the choices.

jamesinc

They are very oldschool sizes these days so options are limited.

You could run a 205/70R14 instead, there's a bit more market variety in that size and it will fit your 245 fine.

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940Person

I have been very impressed with the Nankang na-1 tyres on my 145, albeit in a 15" variant. About 6,000km so far in all conditions. They have lots of sizes.

https://nankangtyres.com.au/tyre/na-1/

They also have other models if you're doing some rugged driving and need very strong sidewalls.

GreenGL

940Person

How'd you find them in the wet? I'm considering these tyres for one of my cars.

Forg

Don’t worry about tyre noise in a 240, there’s enough other noise going-on that you’d need to buy a set of Cooper tyres carved from basalt before you could even hear the tyres at all.

940Person

GreenGL

We drove from Batemans bay to Melbourne along the coast road in some heavy rain a few weeks ago. Seemed to stop and steer pretty good through the twisties.

I have found they will aquaplane a bit at highway speed through standing water.

Overall at least as good in the wet as the Bridgestone serenitys on my 940. I would expect the Nankangs to wear faster as the treadwear rating is much lower.

dmc

I fitted Michelin XV Energy somethings to the old 244 and they are fantastic. Hold well, don't slide through corners like the old ones did and stop when they need to.

Regarding size, the ideal size is a 70 profile, which was not available in a Michelin or Pirelli anything at the time. The 65 was readily available and well priced. 185/65/14 went on and work a treat, the speedo is out about 8% and technically it will have more acceleration and a touch less fuel economy - though I cannot tell. It feels faster as it goes around corners much better now :-)

I always recommend the quality in a tyre, they play a major part of the comfort and safety of driving. If you can find the 70 series it would probably be worth waiting for to keep the suspension geometry all perfect, though these are 30-50 year old cars with worn everything, a slight change in the tyre profile will not change much.

Roinik

FWIW, sedans have a 3.9:1 ratio and wagons retained the earlier 4.1:1 ratio.

ramrod

Roinik

That is not the case.

The instrument cluster gearing for the speedometer is the difference. Due to the large variation in the tyre size between sedan and wagon, the internal gearing has to be altered to keep the reading accurate.

The rear axle ratio remains constant whether you have a sedan or wagon. It’s whether you had an automatic or manual where the rear axle ratio changes.

Roinik

ramrod I'll argue the difference up until the early 1980s.

Spac

ramrod
Even when the cars were relatively new, the speedos weren’t super accurate.
They haven’t gotten better with age.

In an era of free GPS phone apps, I would choose the tyres that make me safest, over trying to maintain accuracy of the 32++ year old speedo.

ramrod

Roinik

You may be right when it comes to the earlier cars. I have more experience dealing with the ones that have overdrive transmissions especially 1984-1993, in those years the axle ratio is dependent on the automatic or manual selection.

Forg

Later years had a speedo which took pulses directly from the diff-housing, but on the axle itself, didn't they?
I don't know when the changeover happened, it's tempting to think 1986 because that's when so much else changed, but the introduction of so many changes were incremental over the years that I wouldn't bet my life on that. I do know the '82 cluster I have uses a speedo cable & the '87 cluster I have uses a pulsed input to the speedo.

So by whenever-the-new-speedo-arrived, there was no speedo-gearing to worry about, it was directly related to axle speed on any car regardless of diff or gearbox. I'm about ... 95% sure tyres were the same size regardless of sedan or wagon by the '86 facelift, so that was no longer a factor.

carnut222

Forg Yep - 1986 is when the speedometer changed to electronic signal off the diff tone ring. Also note that in about 1992 (or thereabouts) the number of "pulses" on the tone ring changed, so the speedometers from the 86-91 cars are different than the 92-93 cars. Note I don't know the exact breakpoint, but the face of the speedometer has a k-xxxx number on it…that indicates the number of pulses per km IIRC. The late cars had a lot more pulses per km, which I think coincided with the required sensitivity/number of pulses for ABS or something…not 100% clear on why they changed.

ramrod

Spac

The point is more about the trip and odometer and maintaining their accuracy.

The speed reading is 6-10% optimistic on all of the electronic clusters. It’s built in from new. I was able to calibrate this to being accurate through resistors.

For those that track their fuel consumption, having the tyre size recommended on the placard in the fuel door is a must. As well as the fact that I cringe whenever I see a wagon using sedan tyres, people think they’re all the same and they’re not.

Rant completed.

Major Ledfoot

I'd make my tyre choice based on the performance of the tyre, and no worry about the speedo reading.

Just as long as you're aware of the difference - if any - between true speed and the speedo reading.

As Spac wrote, free GPS phone apps are commonplace nowadays to check this.

Forg

Potentially useful (but possibly not) to the OP ... apparently MyCar, the artist previously known as K-Mart Tyre & Auto, is having 50% sales this week. Probably on common sizes, but still might be worth checking out.