18" Wheels on a mkV GTTDI

**Paul_mkV_golf** · 31-01-2007,06:42 PM

Been wanting to spruce up the wheels on my Golf for a while now- it's currently on the standard issue 16" Imola wheels- just wondering from your experience if the ride quality suffers much when going to 18" lower profile wheels/tyres? Are there any particulat manufacturers anyone can recommend- there's a few companies seem to do VW replica wheels on ebay for a lot less than vw charge.

Plus- is there any thing else in the way of modifications has to made when fitting 18" wheels- e.g. does the speedo still display the correct speed? Not too sure myself...

Any thoughts...
cheers
Paul

**ian** · 01-02-2007,11:04 AM

hi

i had these 18's put on my mk 4 gt tdi 150 with avon rubbers wraped around them, no problems at all.

18's.jpg

you can feel it more if you drive in lorry lanes or on the inside lane of a motor way (not very often) where the lorry's have groved the road.

i get much better traction with these on than my old 16's

bigger wheels are fractionally slower off the mark but better top end.

dont worry about the speedo, its only a fraction out too, not really worth adjusting.
the down side is that the tyres are more expensive, (worth it though)

**Paul_mkV_golf** · 02-02-2007,06:10 PM

Cheers for the info- seen quite a few mk4s with the big wheel treatment. Well worth the money, going to trawl the web for inspiration!

**ian** · 02-02-2007,09:45 PM

what sort of golf do you have ??

by the pic it looks like one of the newer mk 5's ???

just noticed your location, geordies rule !!

**devonutopia** · 02-02-2007,10:26 PM

I think it's a Mk5 140PS 2.0 TDI. Dad had one, and it had the same 16" Imolas. The ride on that was fairly soft, but responsive. Now he has a new GTI one, with 17" wheels, which is harder, but that could be the GTI suspension too. I would say suspension plays more part in the ride than the wheels, so if you remain with stock dampers, 18s probably will make little difference.

When I went from 14" steels to 17" alloys, first thing I noticed was the car wanting to follow the profile of the road. Under braking, if the road sloped left or right it would try and go that way, and quite hard sometimes. You may also notice mpg/speedo reading changes, if the 18" wheels change the rolling radius much from the 16" - check tyre combos.

16" uses 205/55 R16, 18" uses 225/40 R18. According to an online tyre calculator, the 18" combo is 1% bigger, so very marginal speedo "error". Most overrad as stock anyway. My current front tyre choice is around 4% bigger than my 14" steels, and my speedo is still a good 3% under GPS real speed.

Finally - Just DO IT! Looks the dog's danglies!

**ian** · 03-02-2007,01:10 PM

nice motor mate, done anything with the engine ??

**ian** · 03-02-2007,02:27 PM

sounds good, what you got planned ??

**Paul_mkV_golf** · 03-02-2007,06:12 PM

Cheers for all the comments, think 18s are the way to go- was thinking about some mk5 R32 replicas

Think they'd set it off quite nicely! Anyone had experience of any of the alloy companies that advertise on e-bay eg http://www.wheel-base.co.uk/ ?

Had the car nearly a year & still loving it- even at 140ps it seems mega quick

- esp when I came from peugeot 106!! Just starting to think need to make a few changes here and there- wouldn't mind some body kit- nothing chav thou- just subtle!