Second set of wheels with winter tyres

[ricksmith]

Ok I'll wait for your update.

[guest4078]

The '56 reg 1.2 with steel wheels had 'em. The '05 1.4 with alloys also had them. I will take off a wheel tomorrow on the hybrid and have a look at what is underneath the alloys on that.

[culzean]

The 47mm grease caps don't fit, they look as though they should be 49 or even 50 mm.  Trouble is the bore inside the hub is tapered and I could only get so far down with my digital caliper jaws.  Was worried that if I got them too big on the diameter they would not knock in far enough.  At the top of the bore they rattle about 2mm, and at the bottom about 0.5mm -  but the end of the cap hits the bottom of the bore - and it never gets tight enough to hold in on its own -  I suppose I could seal them in with silicon 

what I may do is get some good quality wheel trims for the steel winter wheels and hope they keep most of the water and stuff out.

[guest4324]

I have Semperit Speed Grip 2 175/65x15 winter tyres on steel wheels. I've had them on other cars as well and have been very impressed. I fit wheel trims which imo look quite good (see my gallery photos) and I've never had any problems with bearings on any car since I've lived here (15 years).
The TCS, which is the Swiss breakdown service, test summer and winter tyres in various sizes and you can get a good idea of what's good or not good. DO stay away from the cheapest tyres. I've attached the link, it's in German but you can see which are worth buying and if you want any translations just ask me. http://www.tcs.ch/de/test-sicherheit/testberichte/reifen/winterreifen.php

[culzean]

I suppose I could seal them in with silicon 

When I eventually fitted my wifes Nokian winter tyres a couple of weeks ago I use some good quality silicon 'engineering' sealant (gasket grade - which I already had) to hold in the 47mm front wheel grease caps and they hold in just fine,  surprisingly the rear hubs already had ' knock in' grease caps fitted - so best to check both ends of the car.

Checked out the level of grip with Nokians on a frosty road yesterday and braked hard,  ABS only cut in a couple of times and car came to a halt in record time - wheels didn't spin when pulling away either.   I tried the same in my Civic with Michelin ES summers on and it was a different story altogether.