Berlingo 14" steel wheels - are they all the same?

[Northman]

My Mk 2 Multispace is fitted with 15" wheels.

I'm looking for a set of 14" wheels to fit 175/70 R14 winter tyres to.

Mk 1 Multispaces and some Mk 2 Multispaces came with 14" wheels and 175/70 R14 tyres. I'm assuming therefore that the wheels were exactly the same.

I think (but am not sure) that Berlingo vans (Mk1 & Mk2) had 14" wheels and took 175/65 R14 tyres.

Hence I am not certain that 14" wheels from a van are the same as 14" wheels from a Multispace of the same era.

Does anyone know?

[Chris]

Hi Northman, try the two links below, they should help.

The first post in this thread: http://www.berlingoforum.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=251 has an excellent link. Enter your VIN and it will show you the parts fitted to your car. A quick Google of the part number is likely to throw up some answers. Failing that, ask a member with a van to put their VIN number in, and compare results.


This link should be useful as well
Wheel compatibility

Please let us know what you find out. It could well be of interest to others.

Cheers

[Northman]

Thanks, Chris.

I've tried the first link, and, as you say, it is excellent. I asked the supplier of the wheels for the VIN number of the vehicle they came from, but the VIN number didn't work on that site - though the VIN number for both my current and previous Berlingos worked fine. He assures me that I will have no problems. (I get the impression that there were a variety of 14" van wheels, some of which are the same as 14" Multispace wheels. And for all I know, all may be compatible.)

I'm not sure that the 2nd link tells me anything conclusive, but maybe that's just because I can't understand it!

[Chris]

Are you still expecting snow round your way? Down here in the sunny south, I'm about to take my winter tyres off!

Is there much of a difference in price for the tyres? I bought 15" ones for £250 all in in December which have been brilliant.

[Northman]

No, I'm not expecting snow, because I'm an optimist!

But then I wasn't expecting it last week, and we got it, and conditions were quite nasty on some roads around Inverness. I didn't encounter any really nasty conditions myself, but I did drive over 100 miles one evening / night where there was snow on the roads, and was glad of my winter tyres. My Berlingo, with its summer tyres, was sitting at home.

I don't think there is much difference in price between 175/70 R14s and 185/65 R15s. I looked into it a few weeks ago, and while I can't remember the figures, there wasn't much in it.

[Northman]

I have now purchased 4 steel wheels (14") off a Berlingo van from a scrapyard (or 'vehicle dismantler' if you prefer) and had 175/70 R14 winter tyres put on them. There was no problem at all.

I might add that I did seek advice from various sources.

The scrapyard said "They'll be fine".

The parts man at a Citroen main dealer said "You'd really need to know the VIN number of the donor and recipient vehicles to be sure."

I contacted Citroen UK, even though the main dealer parts man had told me not to bother. They said "We really wouldn't recommend putting 14" wheels on a Mk 2 Berlingo with a 1.6 HDi 92 engine." They were unable to explain why 14" wheels were OK for a Mk 2 Berlingo with a 1.6 HDi 75 engine - and indeed are standard equipment for such Berlingos - but not OK for Berlingos with the HDi 92 engine. The gent on the telephone suspected that it was because of the greater power of the HDi engine. I strongly suspected that not only were there no engineers at Citroen UK HQ, but that nobody there knew anything more than me. Clearly, however, they were concerned about litigation and decided that the safest course of action in order to cover themselves was to say "We wouldn't recommend that you do that." We live in sad times.

[pch]

I tell ya this bloody country is becomin a real joke..... no one anywhere no`s anything about anything, we pay these morons good money for what? Where did we go wrong. Why do we put up with it, youth today seem to except it and my other half tell me I`m a grumpy old man
Think I got every reason to be ....
Anyone else agree.....?????

[Chris]

It would seem that the more "powerful" Berlingos were fitted with 15" wheels and 185 width tyres to keep these mighty beasts on the road. In practice I very much doubt that it is going to make any noticeable difference in normal driving, as both 65 and 70 aspect tyres are quite tall.

Where there might be an issue and a "sign of the times" comes down to insurance and modifying the car (in the insurers eyes) with something that the manufacturer didn't fit or doesn't approve of, for that model. It is worth checking with your insurer that they are happy with your changes.

[Northman]

I checked with my insurer a couple of months ago. They said it was fine.