Advantages 15 or 17 Rims?

[Tisey06]

I have not made my mind yet whether I should change my stock wheels from 15 to a 17, besides the beautiful look of a 17 alloy, what are the other advantages about getting taller rims? what about fuel wise? accurate speedometer?


Robert

 

[david_594]

If you use the proper size tire the speedometer will be accurate. The advantage to OEM 16, 17, or 18" rims is that they let you run wider tires which can give you added grip. This will of course come at the cost of fuel economy.

 

[chittychittybangbang]

Fuel economy and power will probably go down. My personal preference on your car is a dia of 16" when keeping the stock diamater. 17" would give a harder ride but it may be acceptable depending on the person. Once you go larger, the tires get thin and the ride is harsher. Weight also increases since thin tires have stiffer sidewalls (heavier) and it moves weight to a longer moment.

Think of it like this: imagine putting 10 lbs 15" down your arm. Try to hold it. Now put 14 lbs 17" down your arm. More force is required, right? Even if you keep the overall wheel/tire diameter the same, it's still like putting 13lbs 16" down your arm since the weight shift is toward the outer diameter. It will probably reduce fuel economy and power, it might stay the same.

Now if your 17" is a few pounds lighter than the stock wheel, or you like a harder ride, then I say go for it, but most people don't feel like spending the $$$ on light wheels.

 

[TDIinTexas]

I've owned 2 jetta's, a 2003 with 15's and a 2002 with the 17's. I can't say much about the fuel differences because the 2003 was a gasser... But there is a big difference in the ride quality between the two rim sizes. Chittychitty is right in saying that the thinner tires give a harsher ride, and it is quite noticable. Not only is it a more rigid feel, there is quite abit more road noise that comes along with them. I like the look of the 17's and wouldn't trade them, but still remember the days of quite, smooth rides on long trips and miss them. It really depends on what you're after, smooth nice ride, or flashy nice corner handling ride....

 

[andreigbs]

i too would opt for the 16" oem alloys instead. find a nice set of GTI wheels on the Vortex and you'll be good to go.

 

[TDIRyan]

I run 18's on my 02.

The ride is quite a bit harsher, but I'm used to aport suspensions, not this floppy stock suspension on this thing anyways. The mileage is about 3MPG difference between my 15's and 18's. The 18's do look better, and I like them. You just have to watch for potholes more when driving around town. I have 3 bent rims now and I'm very careful about where I drive. 17's won't be as bad, but they are easier to bend than 15's!

 

[MayorDJQ]

Don't forget that low profile 17 inchers are going to cost quite a bit more than 15" tires.

 

[Intech]

i too would opt for the 16" oem alloys instead. find a nice set of GTI wheels on the Vortex and you'll be good to go.[/quote

]

I wanted to stay with the 15" Raves I had, but found out that I couldn't get the tires I wanted in 15" anymore, so I went to 16". Found a set on Vortex and now I use the 15" for Winter tires, and the 16" for the Summer set. The ride is the same for both, but the handling is dramatically better for the 16's. However, I did loose about 6 mpg with the 16's. I felt the trade off for safety was well worth it. I commute over 100 miles every day, over a variety of roads, so both comfort and safety were issues for me.

 

[andreigbs]

good choice. the 16s do run nicer and look better, but i only noticed a 1-2 mpg drop. i think the biggest factor is your choice of tires. i went with the michelin exalto a/s. what did you get?

 

[DieselOx]

My golf came with 17" fat fives (Audi TT). Both rear wheel bearings were shot, and every moving part in the front end was worn out (debateable as to cause, but the harder ride didn't help). If you want wider tires, you might move the center of effort from between the rear wheel bearings (which are close together; fronts too? I haven't seen them yet), putting too much force on one bearing. Consider ceramic bearings, or get used to swaping them every 20 to 40k miles.

I'm just waiting for the fronts to start to whine.

 

[scurvy]

I just found a good deal on a set of 15" Avus rims to replace the stock 16" steelies on the NB. Now, why would I DARE to go down a rim size? Well, a number of reasons:

- 195/65R15 tires are almost always cheaper than 205/55R16 tires for the same make/model of tire
- Narrower tires may increase fuel economy slightly and certainly help traction in snow or ice
- The new overall tire circumference is only 0.4% larger than the previous
tires, making the speedometer slightly more accurate
- Taller tires help cushion bumps right where they happen, before suspension has a chance to act (think road bike vs mountain bike tires)
- Both TDIs in the garage now take the exact same tire size

and most importantly...

- The tires on the 16" wheels were TERRIBLE on the rare occasions when it was hot, cold, dry, rainy, snowy, icy, sandy, muddy, humid, sunny or cloudy outside and were nearly down to the wear bars
- The 15" Avus rims came with Goodyear Eagle LS tires with only 16k miles on them with PLENTY of tread left
- Replacing the 16" steelies with 15" Avus rims w/good tires was about half the cost of just replacing the 16" tires

So far the NB rides better and is MUCH more sure footed with its 15" wheels than it did with 16" wheels. This car is driven almost all the time in the city and we are far more interested in comfort and low replacement cost for tires than we are "handling" or "looks". Hell, we'd put 13" or 14" wheels on the car if we could get 5x100 wheels and tires that were tall/wide enough.

Going bigger in most cases only increases the bling and usually downgrades daily driving comfort, replacement cost and fuel economy. IMO spending money on big flashy wheels is one of biggest wastes of money on cars. Spend that money on something useful, like curb feelers or grounding strips!

scurvy

 

[Intech]

good choice. the 16s do run nicer and look better, but i only noticed a 1-2 mpg drop. i think the biggest factor is your choice of tires. i went with the michelin exalto a/s. what did you get?

"Z" rated Bridgestone RE-750 Potenzas. They stick like glue in both dry and wet conditions, and last week they paid for themselves when I had to stand the car on it's nose with a panic stop. I was super pleasantly surprised the car stopped as it did. I thought for sure that I was toast a split second before.

 

[Franko6]

From my experience, the main purpose of the larger rims has shifted from function to appearance. Can you say "pimp my ride"?

When performance is an issue, the main purpose for the lower profile, wider tires is a matter of rubber on the road. But the function of the taller wheels is also a matter of unsprung weight. In other words, the weight of the wheel/ tire combination is a factor for improving performance.

To consider what VW used to use a lot of; 15's, the additional rubber weight can be compensated with a good alloy rim and shave quite a few pounds from the car and not only remove weight, but remove it in a critical location. The ideal is to keep the rubber contacting the road and move over obstacles cleanly and efficiently.

But like I said, most people with the big rims are just pimpin'. There is a limit to the wheel/ tire offset to show a performance improvement.