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79BritishRacingGreen

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Hello, all. I'm from Rome, NY USA and have been placed in charge of maintenance and upkeep for my wife's 1979 MG Midget. She's had the car since she was 16 (1991) when it was purchased with about 15,000 miles in nearly perfect shape. It now has about 32,000 miles. It's kept garaged and is driven occasionally in the summer and shown. I don't really have to improve anything, just keep it nice.

I have a strong background in the newer watercooled VW's and have done all repairs and maintenance on both of my watercooleds but the British car world is a new one to me. The Midget is a lot of fun in a way I've experienced in no other automobile, and I'd like to learn more about it.

There were a few things that were neglected, seemingly out of ignorance for maintenance, like brake fluid never being changed, but I'm getting there on some of these things.

I think the first thing I need to pay attention to this summer are the tires. It has Michelin XZX 145SR13 tires on it that are dry rotting and cracking on the sidewalls, I'm guessing from years of storage and Armor-All. A friend who runs a "foreign and sports car" shop told me he thought they were supposed to be the 155SR13 size. I saw a '73 Midget in his shop with that size. They looked more correct for the car.

So, I guess I'm wondering if anyone can confirm that 155SR13 is the correct size, and what brand and type of tire the car would have come on? I need to find a place to buy tires that are as correct for the car as I can find, since the main intention is to keep things as original as possible.

Thanks much!
John Gates

[ 06-13-2003: Message edited by: 79BritishRacingGreen ]</p>
 
hello and welcome. according to my Midget owners handbook the correct tyre is 145SR13 radials. don't know what the original brand was though.

what VW do you have, I just got a watercooled Vanagon Syncro

[ 06-13-2003: Message edited by: XLY 245G ]</p>
 
Thanks much for the reply!

Yes, it's odd, I found reference on here to a tire page for Midgets that lists a whole slew of different tires that are 155 width. My wife insists that the 145SR13s are what came on the car from the factory. I hadn't even thought about going to the user's manual for some reason; it's practically useless for some of our newer cars.

I guess another question is, if I can't find a vintage tire replica, what's the closest modern size? 155/80-R13?

Clearly, I could get something that would fit in either 145 or 155 width, but my wife and I are both concerned with keeping the car as close to original as possible.

Regarding the VW's, my toy is a 1985 Scirocco (work in progress, been in the family since new) and a '97 Jetta GLX daily driver I purchased new and have maintained obsessively. The Scirocco's nothing special like many of the LBC's but there are fewer and fewer of them around now... Be nice about the kraut comments!
 
Hello and Welcome.
i live in vermont maybe not far?
i also have a 79 midge...on the front of this car are a set of 145's Vredestein sr 13's
i was also wondreing if these were original tires
car had 67k when i got it and these tires are still ok ive done about 1200 miles on them....plan to replace them soon....
thirsty.gif
 
Hello, welcome aboard! I too have watercooleds, a '93 Passat GLX wagon and an '01 Passat 1.8T. On the lookout for a nice Golf or Rabbit for my youngest
grin.gif


I have a 1980 MGB, 25,400 from new, and I agree that finding the correct size tyres is tough.
 
Silent, Rome, NY is near Syracuse, sort of between Albany and Rochester. Close to VT, but not right next door. My wife has mentioned taking road trips when we get the Midget in good enough shape we can trust it. Any gatherings in the New England area?

As far as your question about original tires, I'm not sure, but it did occur to us this weekend that the spare is also a Michelin XZX 145SR13, and unless all five tires were replaced (unlikely, I would think) that's probably what came on our car?
 
that would tend to make sense...i have heard that those michelin were stock....dont remember where i read that. i was just wondering about my weird branded tyres...
Been keeping my eyes opn for gathering in and around new england...but havent come up with much yet....
 
I think the original tires were whatever were in stock the day they mounted them. I have seen new Spridgets over the years with Dunlops, Semperits, Michelins, and Continentals on them, but I think the Michelins were the most common.
I've got an old set of originals here, and they are Michelin X, 145SR13 ZX.
Bugeye58

[ 06-16-2003: Message edited by: Bugeye58 ]</p>
 
This is probably old news to many, but I found the following in an archived TR-4 mailing list:

I just got off the phone with a major Michelin distributor in in the NE. He called his Michelin contact to check on the status of the tires.

There are none available now. Michelin still owns the molds and is not planning on selling them to Coker in the immediate future. They plan to make another run of the tires... but no date was commited.

So if you want them... go to the Michelin website and give them feeback.

I had been hoping that Coker would have had something they just hadn't listed, but it appears not. I'm having a rough time finding any tire manufacturer that actually makes 145mm width tires besides the Yokohamas that someone kindly pointed me to. Does anyone show their car? Would we lose points for putting 155's on? There's a lot more to pick from in 155. Maybe I will just buy the Yokos, but the closer I can get to the OE XZX 145's, the better.
 
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