French Mot failure: 1.9 wheels o!n my 1.6CTi

[lagonda 42]

Been going to the same Controle Technique (French MoT) station here in France for 10 years, never a problem before. This year though, he has failed my CTi because it isn't fitted with "185/60 x 14 (82H)" tyres. It is fitted with Michelin PS3 195/50 x 15 82V tyres, as my 1.6 CTi was fitted with 1.9 wheels from way before 2003, when I bought the car. 

 

I have never had any issues driving the car with these wheels and tyres. The car did come with a 1.6 wheel as the spare, and as the tyre was new, I did drive the car with a 1.6 wheel on one side at the front, and 1.9 the other ... the rolling radii were identical, and I experienced no untoward issues, no brake imbalance, no handling problems, etc. until the tyre needed replacing, when I bought a fifth 1.9 wheel to fit.

 

It has been suggested that the offset might be the issue, can anyone comment on that, or indeed offer helpful comment?

 

Whilst the CTi has base model suspension (not GTi), the hubs themselves are the thicker GTi pattern. The tyres do not stick out beyound the arches, and they don't rub on the inner arches on full lock. Ironically, as an aside, I bought a new pair of complete hub carrier/wheel bearing/hub assemblies recently. No trouble fitting ... until I found the brake disc wouldn't go on ... hitting the caliper mounting bolt bosses. Yes ... what I've bought are base model hub assemblies, fine apart from the hubs ... which are seriously thinner!

 

Laurence

[SRDT 233]

195/50R15 82 should be fine:

https://www.tnpf.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/CoDim-T-2021.pdf

 

You said that the tyres do not stick out beyond the arches but that's usually pretty close with 1.6 hubs and 1.9 wheels.

BDW to use the base model hubs you need 1.9 discs, that's what Peugeot did with the 205 Dturbo : regular hubs, 1.9 discs and 1.6 calipers.

[Leslie green 162]

Time to find a different controle technique where there are less idiots !

[lagonda 42]

Hi Baptiste,

 Interesting! I will need to check, but if that means I can use the hub assemblies I've bought without swapping hubs, buying 1.9 discs would not be unwelcome as the present discs are fairly worn. 

 

 The only problem is that although it would resolve the argument technically, I rather doubt it will satisfy the CT tester ... indeed he may even deem it another illegal modification!

 

Many thanks indeed for that link, hopefully he will accept that.

 

Hi Leslie,

 

  Quite, always an option, but it would mean another €72 outlay for another entire test instead of the very much smaller re-test fee. One concern also is, would a different CT station check online to see previous failures, and simply follow "my" tester's idiocy? Baptiste, perhaps you can comment on that point!

 

  Laurence

Edited Wednesday at 10:41 PM by lagonda
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