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17"/18" lowered??

Oliver-golf

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
gloucester
im am a newbee to modding golfs or any car for the matter.
I want to change the wheels on my golf mk5 and have found some nice ones.


only problem which i cant seem to get my head around is, would 18" look ok if the car is not lowered? or would it be best to stay 17"?

and then another question, if i did lower it, how much would it cost and by how much do i lower it?
total newbee sorry if i sound dumb.
Thanks!
 

WHO_I_AM

New member
Location
Texas
if the car isn't lowered the stocks would look best, no matter the size.

After market wheels never look good if there isn't drop. My personal opinion!

minimizing wheel gap is the goal. But it's personal preference if you do not like the look of a lowered car, then don't lower it. Kits could be 300-700 cup style kit, or 300 - 2400 coilover kit. again personal preference. install could be done by yourself if your experienced around a car, maybe friend could help. shop wise depends on hourly rate, but shouldnt be more than 2hour charge time.
 

Oliver-golf

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
gloucester
cheers, yeh i do think it looks better, but i dont really want to spend that much money, unless i could just buy some springs that would lower it enough which im guessing shouldnt be too expensive?
how far would u need to lower front and back to still have a good standerdish ride?
thanks
 

Red-2009-GTI

Ready to race!
Location
Phoenix, AZ
A common practice for someone wanting to keep costs down and lower their GTI is to use lowering springs on the stock shocks. The Eicack Pro Kit comes to mind and there are a lot of them in use. This is a good way to go IF YOUR SHOCKS ARE IN GOOD CONDITION. If you need shocks (stockers are good for perhaps 40,000 miles max depends on how you drive, condition of the roads in your area) then you are looking at spending $500 plus for new shocks and lowering speings, if you upgrade to better new shocks with those springs you are very close to the price of coil-overs. I just put Koni coilovers on my GTI and like them a LOT. I am still on stock 17" wheels and tires, with a plan to go to nice wheels next Spring (undecided between 17" or 18" wheels/tires).

As far as gap between the tire and the fender, this will stay the same with either 17", 18" or even 19" wheels/tires because the tires must be lower profile as the whell diameter is increased. In all case the GTI needs to have a tire diameter of 25" plus or minus perhaps 1/2". So why lower with bigger wheels? Because the gap seems to be more obvious with lower profile tires.

Lowereing your car correctly is more than a cosmetic thing. If the springs and shocks work together properly it will handle better too because of lower center of gravity among other benefits. Too low (some here say this is impossible!) and you get the tires rubbing the fenders and the bottom of your car dragging over speed bumps, etc.

A nice 1" to 1.5" drop give improved looks IMHO and has no rubbing problem as long as you stick to the correct size tire and proper offset wheels.


Hope this helps.
 

Oliver-golf

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
gloucester
that helped alot thanks! my car has done 43,000 miles and the roads in my area are not to be desired. I understand that bigger tryes look more obvious, yet i dont think i can afford new shocks at this moment in time.

The reason for urgent new wheels is mine have corroded! and VW will pay 40% to new standerd 1ns but not the full price as it is 2 months out of warranty :(!

So im looking to get some nice 18" wheels, and by the looks of my research it only looks good lowered, so looks like i need to think of some other options?
thanks
 
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