QUOTE (melmac @ Feb 23 2010, 04:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Hi All,

does anyone know what the wheel size would be standard (factory fitted?) for the MK4 GT TDI golf?

I currently have 18 inch alloy's on, see picture. A few different people have suggested to me that if I moved down to 16inch alloys, my ride comfort would improve, with better handling, perfomance and fuel economy, and also there would be a decrease in road noise.

Has anyone here have any thoughts?

16's were standard on the 150pd.

Are the wheels you have now replicas? probably heavy buggers so,if you went to 15's or 16' your economy would improve but it would only be a few mpg's nothing to write home about,are you getting bad economy at the moment? might be something else at fault.

Your ride comfort would improve but frankly that's girl talk,if you wanted good ride comfort buy a citreon

Performance won't improve greatly,the wheels will be a bit easier to turn but you won't be knocking 1sec off your 0-60 time or anything.As for handling the only situation where the smaller narrower 15 or 16" wheels would be an advantage is in snow!

Road noise should decrease but if you put cheap tyres on 16" wheels you would still get bad road noise,good tyres on 18" wheels will be grand and road noise won't be a problem.

What problems are you finding with the car that you are not happy with the set up on 18's? heavy reps with crap tyres would make a car drive a lot worse and could ruin the experience for you.

 

Hi Shane,

Thanks for the reply. Today I went to Dublin to get the car remapped with Joe at Chipped-Ireland. It was my first chance to really open it up on good roads. Well, the road noise is terrible, I was so surprised that it was that bad, becuase it seems to be fine around 60mph, but once I hit 70mph and over, it's just awful. Also at 70mph a vibration comes into the steering wheel, just a balance issue I hope.

Maybe it just depends on the amount of driving you are doing and the roads you are doing the driving on!! And yeah, lol, maybe comfort talk is for girls, but, I really don't think I will be happy with the harshness of the ride and the road noise when I start doing more mileage next month. Did a search on google and a few people have suggested that 18inch alloys on a mkiv chassis are not great. That 17 inch alloys are much better.

The tyres on mine are kumho tyres, not too sure of which model they are, will check later and let you know. I understand that getting cheap tyres will cause road noise. I just can't imagine that the previous owner would put OZ alloys on and not get good tyres, and Kumho seem to be a pretty good tyre manufacturer.

I was told that they were genuine OZ alloys, how do I tell if they are or not?

Ah, maybe it's just me been grumpy after the smooth, quiet ride I had with the volvo.

 

Im not convinced on the agrument against 18's on the mk4 the Anni,R32,Leon cupra R etc all came with 18's as standard,but these are all lightweight oem 18'' wheels,if yours are genuine OZ's you will be grand - easy to check just take one off and look for the OZ stamp and part number on the rear.

Kumho would be considered a decent tyre maybe not high end but by no means crap,what thread is left on them? it could be just a case of you being used to a quiter cabin in the volvo which could be better insulated,i have no experience of being inside volvos at all.

 

Stick with the 18's

Get the wheels balanced and car tracked, I've had 18's on both my cars and dont notice road noise at all? Alot of it is the roads your on, most cars unless a roadboat are noisey at 70+mph

 

Ok, thanks guys. Still thinking about the switch back to 17 inch alloys though.

Found out today that my alloys are genuine OZ alloys.

 

Is the insulation missing from under your bonnet.

 

I think it's all there, will have to have a close look tomorrow.

 

18's can get a bit annoying after a while especially with the roads falling apart and massive potholes all over the place

but it's a small price to pay for looking cool

A nice set of OEM 17's should be fine and the car should sit fine stance wise too but I wouldn't run anything smaller than 17's on the front of a mapped 150 or you'll have traction "issues"

Considering your wheels are genuine OZ I'm sure you could do a deal with someone who wants to trade up to 18's too, maybe stick up an ad in the parts wanted or wheels for sale sections.

 

Well, Today I just stopped in a garage to check the tyre pressures. Now some of you are probably laughing at me and saying why didn't you do that already?

Lol, well, I only have the car a week, so I presumed tyre pressures would be ok, and, it's just after an NCT too, so I was positive that tyre pressures would be fine.

So, I checked the tyre pressure and found that fronts were to set to just over 3.0 bar (43psi) and the rears were just under 3.0 bar. I left them at that, because I wasn't too sure if this was right or wrong. Now after doing a little research, I find that the correct pressures should be around the 2.3 bar for front and 2.1 bar for rears. Well something around them values anyway.

So, hopefully, this was some of the problem with road noise!!

going to check in a different garage tomorrow, just in case the the tyre pressure gauge at the garage tonight was broken.

 

Faaaaaak thats high? Mine are 2.1 and 2 front and rear?

Just noticed your reg too, G71, nice reg that, popular also!

 

Had to get new plates today. So now it's 03 - G - 71.

It failed the NCT this morning, that's why I had to change them.

Yeah, the pressure seemed mad high, but, will check and make sure it wasn't a faulty gauge,

 

QUOTE (melmac @ Feb 27 2010, 09:50 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Had to get new plates today. So now it's 03 - G - 71.

It failed the NCT this morning, that's why I had to change them.

Yeah, the pressure seemed mad high, but, will check and make sure it wasn't a faulty gauge,

tyre pressure,s should be checked when tyre,s are cold, pulling into a service station after a run isint the ideal way to get accurate pressure readings.

 

Well the garage is only about a mile away from me, so it hardly had time to get very warm!!

 

Well checked the tyre pressure in a different garage today, and still at 3.0 bar, so let some air out until the fronts were at 2.4 bar and the rears at 2.1 bar.

Much better!! Noise much reduced and harsness gone out of the ride.

It's great!!!!

 

Glad to hear its sorted dude! Now you've no excuse to get rid of the wheels

 

knew i recognised that car from somewhere

http://www.carzone.ie/search/Volkswagen/Go...rt?channel=CARS

Nice car, you beat me to it. Rang to enquire about it a week ago to be told it was sold shortly after it went up on there. Why is it back up again for sale from the same garage..? (ad last updated 3 days ago)

ps, what are you remapping the 150 to?

 

lol, sorry about that Al2cane. I bought the car the very day I test drove it. I had missed out on a couple of nice cars previous because I took a few days to think about them. This time, I didn't make that mistake

I got it remapped to 192Bhp with 320ft/lb torque. It makes a huge difference to the quality of the drive.

 

QUOTE (melmac @ Mar 2 2010, 03:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>lol, sorry about that Al2cane. I bought the car the very day I test drove it. I had missed out on a couple of nice cars previous because I took a few days to think about them. This time, I didn't make that mistake

I got it remapped to 192Bhp with 320ft/lb torque. It makes a huge difference to the quality of the drive.

Oof, some difference I'd say.

Yea, similar story here, missed out on a couple of nice golfs by only a day, and had to pass on one that needed a good bit of TLC(€€€) from carelessness by the owner. Think I'll up my budget and head over to the UK for something.

I'll keep an eye on here and see what you do with her. If I see ya about at any of the meets or that, I'll give ya a shout for a spin and see what I missed out on