should I switch to 15 inch wheels?

jdulle

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Joined
Feb 4, 2017
Location
Ithaca, NY
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96 B4, 97 B4
I am wondering if most B4 owners have switched over to 15 inch wheels by now. I am noticing it is hard to get a high quality 14 inch tire any more. On my last b4 it had 15 inch wheels, I should have studied the set up more closely because I liked it. I bought some H rated Bridgestone Ecopias that were nice tires and fuel efficient too. I would like to hear peoples opinions about wheel options, and whether I should do a conversion to 5 lug. I do not need wide wheels like the VR6, just would like 195/60r15 or so.
 

Mongler98

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Mar 23, 2011
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COLORADO (SE of Denver)
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98 Jetta TDI AHU 1.9L (944 TDI swap in progress) I moved so now i got nothing but an AHU in a garage on a pallet.
buy wheels at clearance, decent design, not race or rice, get them in any size 16-18" The price difference on tires will pay off in 2 tire chages. Got my 17x8's got 205s on them with a fender roll. price was 90 a wheel and 95 a tire and i can go soft or hard, race or all seasons vs the 130-150 for 14's or 15's. go with Michelin tires or something better than brigstone. surf around on tirerack.com and figure out what you want. dont cheep out on quality of tire. use the rating system. you want 8.0+ across the bard on performance things like cold, rain, traction, etc. changing the wheels can easily save you money and get you better tires for less. Play around with it.
 

Abacus

That helpful B4 guy
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Relocated from Maine to Dewey, AZ
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I have never had an issue finding decent 14" tires anywhere. I run General Altimax Arctic in the winter and love them, but the Bizzaks were good too. For summer there were plenty of choices. I now run 14" for winter and 16" for summer and there are plenty of choices there too.

For the wagon I have 15" for summer and winter (2 sets) due to the big brakes and do not notice a difference between them and the 14". The 16's are different because they are lower profile and very sticky, so the car sticks to the road like glue. It's a lot of fun to drive with the Koni's as well, corners like it's on rails with no body roll. The wagon with the 15's is more of a plush touring car.
 

Mongler98

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Mar 23, 2011
Location
COLORADO (SE of Denver)
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98 Jetta TDI AHU 1.9L (944 TDI swap in progress) I moved so now i got nothing but an AHU in a garage on a pallet.
finding them vs paying half the price on the tire and 10x better tires available.
 

Abacus

That helpful B4 guy
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Relocated from Maine to Dewey, AZ
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I used to get them from the junk yard and Craigslist, so I'm no stranger to low budget tires, and it pays to shop around. .

But the 'better tire' thing is too subjective. Factor in the cost of wheels and any savings are only realized over a long time. Now if there is a reason to do it, like bigger brakes or tighter handling, I can see the trade off, but for the average driver that's not enough incentive to switch.
 

jdulle

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Joined
Feb 4, 2017
Location
Ithaca, NY
TDI
96 B4, 97 B4
Yes I'm thinking it might be worth just sticking with the 14 inch wheels. The tires on there now aren't too bad, and lots of tread left, so I will probably run them for a while. Maybe when they wear out I will go to bigger brakes and go to 15s. Thank you.
 

Mongler98

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Mar 23, 2011
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COLORADO (SE of Denver)
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98 Jetta TDI AHU 1.9L (944 TDI swap in progress) I moved so now i got nothing but an AHU in a garage on a pallet.
anyone who called decent tires decent has never driven with a high performance tire like summer, or winter not some all season crap. the only all seasons i touch are Michelin XLT's i get 155K miles on a set and the are epic for all seasons. go get some summer tires that have a 7 or higher on rain driving conditions and then you can say how much better driving, stopping, cornering is.
 

jdulle

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Feb 4, 2017
Location
Ithaca, NY
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96 B4, 97 B4
It would be nice to run something like hi end michelins on there. I think in 14s I can only get the defender. The tires on there have lots of tread left, but they are noisy, and I think at least one loses air. I am going to watch them to see if it is worth replacing a couple of them. Every time I buy a car it seems like I get really crappy tires with lots of tread left, and I can't just throw them away.
 

Abacus

That helpful B4 guy
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Location
Relocated from Maine to Dewey, AZ
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anyone who called decent tires decent has never driven with a high performance tire like summer, or winter not some all season crap. the only all seasons i touch are Michelin XLT's i get 155K miles on a set and the are epic for all seasons. go get some summer tires that have a 7 or higher on rain driving conditions and then you can say how much better driving, stopping, cornering is.
Such assumptions...perhaps toning down the arrogant attitude would be helpful.
 

Steve Addy

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Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
Such assumptions...perhaps toning down the arrogant attitude would be helpful.
I have a friend at the JY who keeps an eye out for tires for me. When I need tires I let him know and he keeps an eye out for a near new set for me.

I've gotten very good used tires this way. Also I've gone to 15" wheels.

Steve
 

Abacus

That helpful B4 guy
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Location
Relocated from Maine to Dewey, AZ
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The 15" 4 x 100 wheels were available in Canada and on Corrado's in the US.

I found this is a good reference and use it when I'm in the junkyard looking for spares. Just keep in mind the 57.1mm center bore. If the center bore is larger you can get spacers to take up the difference (I bought mine from Tirerack.com). If it's smaller they'll have to be milled but it's not an issue for a decent machine shop and doesn't cost a ton. The Passat likes a backspacing of et-35 to -38, which is not to be confused with the Jetta's -45 that will set the wheels inside quite a bit. Too far inside and the car will handle funny. I learned that the hard way.
 

Ol'Rattler

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Jul 3, 2007
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PNA
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2006 BRM Jetta
anyone who called decent tires decent has never driven with a high performance tire like summer, or winter not some all season crap. the only all seasons i touch are Michelin XLT's i get 155K miles on a set and the are epic for all seasons. go get some summer tires that have a 7 or higher on rain driving conditions and then you can say how much better driving, stopping, cornering is.
That's great except Michelin does not make an XLT tire. 155K miles (sounds impossible) on a tire would mean that it's traction is inferior to a tire with lower tread wear rating. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Tire_Quality_Grading#Treadwear

On our old Cavalier, the factory tires were so hard they would confuse the ABS and lock up when ever it rained if they were on the back and a mid quality tire was on the front. At 100K miles, they still had plenty of tread on them.
 

Mongler98

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Joined
Mar 23, 2011
Location
COLORADO (SE of Denver)
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98 Jetta TDI AHU 1.9L (944 TDI swap in progress) I moved so now i got nothing but an AHU in a garage on a pallet.
That's great except Michelin does not make an XLT tire. 155K miles (sounds impossible) on a tire would mean that it's traction is inferior to a tire with lower tread wear rating. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Tire_Quality_Grading#Treadwear
On our old Cavalier, the factory tires were so hard they would confuse the ABS and lock up when ever it rained if they were on the back and a mid quality tire was on the front. At 100K miles, they still had plenty of tread on them.
not on my vw, on my escape. sure enough 155K miles on the first set, 2nd set were replaced at wear bars at 271 miles, now has a 3rd set on them. I made a mistake. My dyslexia kicking in. LTX* Michelin Premier 235/70r16

its about the harness of the rubber used, the amount of tread on them, and the alignment.
 

Steve Addy

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Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
Steve Addy,
Did you just add a 5 lug spacer to go to 15 inch wheels?
I maintained the 4x100 suspension setup, the wheels I purchased are 15x6.5 Mille Miglia with reasonable offset, I think ET was 38. I also have some Borbet 15" with ET 35 but haven't had those on the wagon yet.

I didn't use any spacers on the front but because the rear track is so much narrower than the front I added a .25" stub axle spacer to push the wheels out just slightly. Looking back now I would have preferred to have .50" rear stub spacers but that's water under the bridge now, the .25" ones look fine.

As Abacus said, in Canada the early 90's Passat, Corrado and some Golf/Jetta were available with factory 15" wheels in the 4x100 bolt pattern. We never got those here in the US but in Europe you could get just about anything you wanted. There are factory wheels in Europe we never had access to here in the US unfortunately. I would like to have a set of the Syncro factory forged alloy wheels but they are few and far between and as such the price is always very high on those, more than I'm willing to spend for them. In Europe the AFN tdi powered B4 cars all came with the 5x100 'Plus' suspension.

Steve
 
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jdulle

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2017
Location
Ithaca, NY
TDI
96 B4, 97 B4
Yeah, its too bad we didn't get those 15 inch 4lugs. I suppose to save money I will just stick with the 14s for now until the tires on there are shot.
 

RoseBud68

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Dec 16, 2016
Location
PSL FL
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'99 mk3 Jetta 1.9
You can find 15 inch wheels in 4x100, no need to upgrade your suspension to go 5x100.
Found these wheels at my local pick and pull. hub center is 64.1 so bought some hub center rings 57.1/64.1 worked great.

 

lisab4

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2013
Location
Belgium
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1996 Passat B4 1.9 TDI
I run Pirelli on mine. Should check what type. I used to run cheap tires, but I found I had 10 times more grip with Pirelli tyres!
 

ToddA1

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'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
On a B4, you can go with some pretty aggressive offsets. I'd bet you could get close to et0 and still tuck the rears.

I'm running 20mm(?) spacers on the rear and think it puts the Corrado steelies at around et18 and I still have plenty of tuck.

-Todd
 

jdulle

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Feb 4, 2017
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Ithaca, NY
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96 B4, 97 B4
I saw some 15 inch Saab alloys on a 9000 (I think a 93-95 (guess). They were 4 bolt. I will have to check if they would fit.
ToddA1- I don't know anything about offsets, so you're speaking a foreign language to me...the spacers in the rear would be an easy way to go to 15 inch wheels x 5 lug, right? What is et0?
 

Steve Addy

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Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
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97 Mk3
Saab 4x bolt pattern wheels from the 900 series are 4x108 so they won't fit on the VW, and that doesn't address the center bore either, which needs to be 57.1 on VW's of our vintage either through manufacture or with hub rings.

ET is the offset of the mounting face from wheel centerline. An ET of 0 would mean that half the wheel width was inboard and half the wheel was outboard of the mounting surface. A wheel like this is considered low offset.

An ET38 wheel means that the mounting face is 38mm outboard of centerline or positive offset. Factory wheels for these cars tend to run in the range of 38mm to 43mm depending on model and wheel.

Unless you already have a 5x100 suspension on your car adding spacers in the rear will not give you 5x unless they have adapters to do so. That also will not solve your problem in the front with converting to 5x100.

The conversion in the rear is already rather simple, just switch to the rotors from the GLX models and viola you have 5x100 bolt pattern. You will still need to add spacers to the rear if you aren't happy with the wheel track back there.

In the front the conversion is more complicated, it requires replacing the bearing carriers, control arms tie rod ends etc. There are threads on here that cover that process if you're interested in that.

Steve
 

ToddA1

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'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
^^^ what Steve, said...^^^

If you're doing it for cosmetic purposes only, you can install redrilled front hubs. If you're in need of front bearings, it would be a no brainer.

Some wheels do look better in 5x100, such as 5 spoked wheels. Not really sure what you're after...

-Todd
 

jdulle

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Joined
Feb 4, 2017
Location
Ithaca, NY
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96 B4, 97 B4
So I am looking for wheels that are mostly covered, not with spokes, for fuel economy. There seems to be more low rolling resistance tires available in the 15 inch size, though if I go to 185/65r14 there are LRR tires available in that size. I also liked the ride a little better with the 195/60r15 tires I had on my old B4. It made the top gear a hair higher, too. I wonder if it also had a VR6 front end. I know the wheels were steelies, I am guessing they were from a ALH golf or jetta. I think they were 5 lug, they were definitely VW, because the hubcaps had the vw logo.
Being thrifty, I will probably just go with 14s until the tires wear out. I think both front bearings are good, the rears make a little noise.
 

bikeprof

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Sep 2, 2005
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Pagosa Springs, Colorado(YEAH!)
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1996 Passat B4 Variant white, 1996 Town & Country 3.8 LXI
195/65/15 tires n wheels bumping up to 205/65/15’s once my Variant gets back on the road...

Bestest I can say is that 15’s WILL lower the RPM on highway ?
 

TDIL3dad

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Jan 21, 2012
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N. VA
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96 B4, 96 B4V project
I went through the trouble of a complete suspension upgrade to the "Plus" suspension and used the 15" OEM bottle caps that came off the donor B4 GLX. The combination of the "Plus" heavier suspension and VR6 stock brakes makes for noticeably better handling and braking.

 
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jdulle

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Joined
Feb 4, 2017
Location
Ithaca, NY
TDI
96 B4, 97 B4
I like the look of the vr6 wheels and I bet it handles better. I don’t think I am up for that much work right now. I might get some Saturn wheels, to lower the rpms a bit.
 
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