Rims for my golf

[MickeyTDi]

Hi i have got a golf Mk6 silver TDi and im after some nice rims to suit it... dunno what sizes i should get im thinking about sticking with the same size or go 1 or 2 inches up at the most from my 15s. any suggestions? i had my eye on the VW silver and black vision alloys... soooo hot!! but any wheels that look good (maybe a matte black) id defs consider!

Cheers

[REXman]

I reckon if your going to bother getting upgrade rims definitely get at least 17s. Personally, I would get 18s as they look perfect on a golf. 17s are so 90s! A bit too anemic to me, in 2010.

[MickeyTDi]

i just thought a general rule was never go up by more than 2 inches.. any bigger and you would need thinner tyres right?

[REXman]

I'm pretty sure the sidewalk on your tyres will get thinner when you go bigger rims, and want to keep the same circumference. Keeping circumference close to original is important so your speedo is not out. There is a really good thing online which let's you calculate it, I'll post it up if you want it.

The only thing this is, NRMA for instance only allows 2 inches bigger and 1 inch wider without affecting your premium. Check out that, if you care about that sort of thing.

[Manaz]

I'm pretty sure the sidewalk on your tyres will get thinner when you go bigger rims, and want to keep the same circumference. Keeping circumference close to original is important so your speedo is not out. There is a really good thing online which let's you calculate it, I'll post it up if you want it.

The only thing this is, NRMA for instance only allows 2 inches bigger and 1 inch wider without affecting your premium. Check out that, if you care about that sort of thing.

Tire size calculator <- Is that the one?

You're absolutely right - as you increase rim diameter, you need to reduce tyre sidewall height (expressed on the tyre sizing as the profile, which is a percentage of tread width) in order to maintain the same (or very close to the same) rolling diameter so that you don't affect your speedo (too much). Your speedo works by calculating the speed by using a known rolling circumference and multiplying that by the number of revolutions per <time period - hour for ultimate speedo reading, but generally per second when doing the actual calcuation>. If you increase the rolling diameter, the speedo reads lower than your real speed, if you decrease it, the speedo will read higher. Reading lower is a quick way to get a speeding fine...

With regards to insurance companies and the allowed variation in rim size/width - that's based on the road rules (which state pretty much the same thing). Any bigger difference than that, and you technically need the car engineered to remain roadworthy.

[AdamD]

From memory, in SA (so, quite possibly different from NSW), the maximum deviation in terms of rolling circumference is 4%.

User Ozram has bought a set of 17" Denvers (from the GTI) and painted the inners black (as per the 18" Detroit rim) for his 118TSI. Definitely looks the biz. Have a search through his posts - he has posted images. Finding a set of good-condition second-hand Denvers should be fairly straight-forward and cost-effective too.