Upgraded my wheels and now car feels really sketchy to drive - HELP!!!

Hi everyone. My names James aka Staz and I’m new to the forum. I have a 2003 Passat 1.9 PDTDi 130 SE Estate which was purchased in September of this year. The car came I believe as standard with 15" alloys, the tyre specification on the standard alloys is 205 / 60 / 15, and I thought that these looked ridiculously small for a car so chunky so I went onto eBay and purchased some different wheels. The alloys I purchased are genuine VW and are 17" with 225 / 45 / 17 tyres fitted and 7J in width. The guy I bought them off did say that they were off another Passat around the age of mine but I have never seen them before. I looked on google image and I could only find similar wheels on a Passat W8 which is the same shape but has a great big 4.0 V8 engine and is 4WD to my knowledge.

I did notice that the wheels were a lot heavier than the standard alloys but now the car drives awful!!! On nice even road services the car drives fine but as soon as you hit slightly uneven tarmac it feels like the wheels are loose and it's as if you are fighting to keep it in a straight line. The ride now feels very hard and bumpy too. I appreciate that going to larger wider lower profile wheels would change things slightly but I have no confidence with the car at speeds anymore when driving along B roads etc. and it feels very clumsy around town roads. The new wheels fitted on the hubs perfectly and had the same PCD as the old wheels which is 5x 112. I also made sure the bolts were torqued up correctly when I changed them and had them balanced. Have I gone for to wider a tyre do you think?

YOUR HELP PLEASE!!!

Best wishes

Staz

Hi Staz.
I bought a 1.9tdis two months ago, took it for a test drive first and asked the dealer to get the suspension and steering checked out as it was very jittery (all ok). It is fitted with 225/45/17 and I must admit they are very heavy, now I am used to the handling I think it is superb, but it did take a while. I am putting about 34psi in front and back as I carry a lot of tools in the boot (not an estate as yours is) and tyre wear looks fine. I think wide low-profile tyres are always going to be poor on uneven surfaces but should be great on B roads, maybe the extra cornering forces are showing up wear in your steering or suspension that was unnoticable before on bog standards.

Hi Caldirun

Thank you for replying. Well it sounds like you had exactly the same concern so it must just be wider lower profile wheels make the handling feel more twitchy. Hopefully I will get used to it!

Staz

I have ordered something similar for mine.

Hi

Perhaps it just because it's a big heavy car with single arm rear suspension . My friend who is a great mechanic drove it the other day and commented that perhaps the rear shocks need replacing. The car has only covered 70k but this may be a valid point. It's a shame really as I'm really not enjoying the drive now. I love the solid build quality and the look of the car but driving it feels a little sluggish and unresponsive. I find the steering a little bland too, not what I would call a pointy car if you know what I mean.

Staz