I’ve just had some new boots fitted to my 2004 Ford Focus 1.8 (Dunlop Sport Blue Response) and the garage have fitted H-rated tyres, whereas the ones that were taken off were V-rated. I asked the guy about it and he said it will be fine, and that’s all he said.

I know Hs are rated up to 130mph, but I’ve heard you shouldn’t put on less than the manufacturer stipulates. I’ve done a search and can’t find an official speed rating for my car. Will they be fine?

As I understand it, as long as the speed rating of the tyre is higher than the max speed of the car you’re fine.
Ill guess the max speed of a 1.8 focus isn’t above 130. That’s fords quoted top speed for the car, not what it’ll do now.

To low a speed rateing can invalidate insurance.

I wouldn’t worry too much, as said they are rated faster than the car will go.

I think technically you are supposed to use the same as or better than what the manufacturer recommends, but if that’s not very clear, an insurance company would have a hard time saying they were inappropriate tyres if the speed rating is above the top speed of the car. And that would only be an argument in a very high speed collision.

Load rating could come into play, but the focus is hardly a tank, so again probably irrelevant.

I wouldn’t worry.

Anecdotally I’ve often ended up buying tyres that are over specced in terms of speed rating as they can end up cheaper sometimes.

The law says your tyres should have a speed rating that meets or exceeds the maximum rated speed of the vehicle.
(Regardless of what the manufacturer fitted)

Parkers will tell you you what that is, but at a guess anything above S would be fine.

The law says your tyres should have a speed rating that meets or exceeds the maximum rated speed of the vehicle.

Parkers says 123mph, whereas the H tyres are rated up to 130mph, so I guess they fit. I understood that Ford specified over the requirement by a greater margin, but I might be wrong.

What are the speed rating the manufacturer recommends? They just buy tyres in a job lot so you might get one speed rating on one style of alloy wheels, but if, on the same car you were to spec a different set of alloy wheels you would probably get a different speed rating. Some tyre fitters won’t fit a speed rating less than what was on there before, or so some have said to me, but that is probably a policy of that particular outlet, maybe a legal backside covering thing rather than a real regulation.

The more worrying thing to me is the age of the tyre that is fitted. Sometimes you might buy a ‘brand new’ tyre that could be years old as its been sat on a shelf in a distributors warehouse somewhere for years. There is a date stamp on the tyre and a survey carried out a few years ago on ‘brand new’ tyres showed that some were over a year old and some even older. And age and exposure to oxygen and UV light quite quickly degrades tyres and ultimately weakens them. So your 130mph speed rating will be against a box-fresh tyre. A tyre that is a year old or more will not be as structurally sound.

Having said all that i’m pretty sure you won’t die though.

What are the speed rating the manufacturer recommends?

I can’t seem to find that anywhere.

I’ve just had some new boots fitted to my 2004 Ford Focus 1.8 … …the ones that were taken off were V-rated.

I doubt these are the original tyres…

I doubt these are the original tyres…

Nope, but I’d have thought that usually it would be best practice to put on the same rated tyres that were on previously.

Nothing wrong with going higher, as I mentioned above, sometimes higher rated ones are cheaper, tyre prices can be weird.

Run some comparisons on black circles or a similar site for the same tyre, sometimes v is cheaper than having, sometimes w is cheaper than v.

Probably due to stock levels /availability demand for a particular speed rating over another in a particular size. Or maybe they bump up the prices on h rated ones because it’s a more common specification? That’s the cynic in me coming out.

Nope, but I’d have thought that usually it would be best practice to put on the same rated tyres that were on previously.

So if they were Z, or Q?
Why not just phone Ford and find out?

Our Civic is now fitted with lower rated tyres. It has optional bigger wheels on it, so the size is suited to a sports car and are therefore rated ‘Y’, or 186mph.

Identical Civics with standard/smaller ‘non sport’ wheels come with ‘V’ 149mph tyres.

It got fitted with V’s as I couldn’t get an all Season tyre in that size/rating.

mikey, punch your reg into blackcircles to find the speed rating. Michelin website reckons its between H V and W depending on your wheel size, which I suspect means H would be OK but the larger wheels sizes just happen to come as higher ratings as they are sportier sizes.

I wouldn’t worry my car should be on H’s I run V’s as there are normally about 25% cheaper.
I don’t know about your focus but some of the later ones you could have 3 different tyre sizes on the same model one was on 16’s the other two on 17’s but one of the 17’s was as extra load the other standard these were the same model cars and the same model year.

I did look on blackcircles and it says 195/55 H or 195/60 V: Mine are 195/60 but they’ve put on Hs, instead of Vs.

@matty
Hi is a lower rating than V, so if it should be V then H is too low.

I’ve spoken to my insurance company and they’ve sent me a letter saying H-rated tyres are fine.

Seeing as its pretty hard to get a winter tyre above H rating this seems to be a bit of law that isn’t enforced. It probably dates back to when many cars had top speeds below the national Limit or before we had a limit on motorways, now it’s outdated . If an insurer used speed ratings to deny a claim and are challenged in court I wonder how it would go. I wouldn’t wish to be that person though. ( Driver of a car needing w rating but uses winter tyres rated h, as all are)

If an insurer used speed ratings to deny a claim and are challenged in court I wonder how it would go.

IANAL but I would think they’d have to demonstrate taking the tyre beyond its limits was the cause or major contributor to the claim, so I think it would only be worth argument in an accident involving speeds of 130mph or more?

If that car can’t physicaly do 130, I’d argue that H rated tyres or better are a perfectly reasonable choice.

IANAL but I would think they’d have to demonstrate taking the tyre beyond its limits was the cause or major contributor to the claim, so I think it would only be worth argument in an accident involving speeds of 130mph or more?

I know.what you mean, but not convinced it’s right.

The law says that the tyre speed rating needs to be equal or higher than the max rated speed of the car.
If not then the car isn’t Road legal.

That would be a fairly easy way to invalidate your insurance.
(not the third party bit, but certainly the bit that covers your losses)

What nealglover said.

My concern was that the original specs of the car on Ford’s website say the car has a top speed of 123mph. I’ve never taken it close to that, and I doubt it could make that, especially now. However, that’s not really the point. The point is that if I had a tyre failure, the insurers could turn around and say the tyres are not suitable for the original spec. of the car, which is why it was a case of either get approval from my Insurance company or get the tyre shop to replace them with the proper tyres, which I am pretty sure are V-rated for that size of tyre.

Having said that, the guy on the phone at the Insurers was pretty taken aback at the question and had to go away to check with their underwriters, so maybe it is something that is never enforced. Can never be too careful, though.

That’s what I was trying to say, probably badly, car top speed is 123, h tyres rated for 130, so no problem? presumably they wouldn’t be able to argue the tyres were unsuitable, as they clearly exceed the cars specification?

I could get messy with a claim if the car could do 140mph, but if a crash occurred at 30mph, but would the argument hold up as you weren’t driving beyond the tyres limit?
Not that I’d advocate doing that, it’s crazy but it’s an interesting ‘what if’.

I could get messy with a claim if the car could do 140mph, but if a crash occurred at 30mph, but would the argument hold up as you weren’t driving beyond the tyres limit?

Wouldn’t matter about not driving at the cars limit if the car wasn’t Road legal. It’s not Road legal at any speed.

A tyre that is a year old or more will not be as structurally sound.

Do you replace your tyres every year regardless of wear? Nobody else does and there aren’t tyres exploding all over the place.

Also, many cars are fitted with space saver spares that have a lower speed rating than the regular tyres. Manufacturers don’t require that the spare tyres are replaced every 12 months, so there clearly isn’t any major degradation in their structural soundness just from sitting there.

Michelin recommends precautionary replacement after 10 years.

Aging tyres is a real problem on trailers and the like but rarely on cars. Keep winter tyres in a dark place though when not on the car, and even then at 5 years or so the rubber isn’t soft and grippy any more.
It’s often the outer sidewall that suffers as its in the light most. A regular application of tyre gel will help reduce the UV degradation.

It’s often the outer sidewall that suffers as its in the light most.

I suspect rubbing up against curbs when parking does a lot more damage than exposure to light.

UV degradation. My comments assume male drivers (hence parking ability

Pfft You’ll be fine I’ve got four (thoroughly kirbed and trashed) Audi RS 18″ 40mm’s on our T4, I don’t even know what PSI they should be we just put MAX in…it’ll be fine it’s just a car, you shouldn’t be driving over 60mph anyway unless you’re on a track.

I don’t even know what PSI they should be we just put MAX in

Your tyres will wear better and last longer with the correct pressure for the weight of the car and they’ll grip better in an emergency.

It’s a 10min job every month or so and it’ll also give you a an opportunity to notice any damage that could affect safety, bulges, rips in the side walls etc. and decent quality 18″ tyres are not cheap, so why shorten thier life span?

http://www.continental-tyres.co.uk/car/technology/tyre-knowledge/tirelexicon-3-0/tirelexikon-3-1

T4’s and T5’s fitted with car alloys (and car tyres) are probably the biggest offenders of illegal tyres (due to load rating rather than speed rating)

Not only is the tyre likely to be overloaded, the wheel itself could be as well!