GolfGTIforum.co.uk
Model specific boards => Golf mk8 => Topic started by: Exonian on 06 June 2021, 12:11
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Second only in the dullness stakes to a “here’s a step by step report on everything I did detailing my car and a list of the 50 products I used” it’s a tyre pressure thread. Yay!
Granted we are all familiar with the fact that the mk8 is just a mk7 with a Picasso inspired face and a Lego inspired interior, but the mk8 Clubsport does have a few geometry tweaks to the suspension up front that can make tyre pressures all the more important.
A couple little squirms under hard acceleration recently reminded me that I’d better check the tyre pressures, so after giving the thing a wash this morning I fished the tyre pump out of the back of the garage and... it was as flat as Cambridgeshire.
I didn’t even get as far as checking the tyre pressures label.
But it got me thinking as to what others have experimented with (who care about such things) as to what the best pressures are for a ride and handling balance on the Clubsport? Or does everyone just use the tyre label recommendations?
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So what did the door sticker say for recommended pressure?
This being 2021, it's going to be way too much to try to make the contact patch as small as possible to reduce rolling resistance.
Which clearly is not what most people here want, they want a bigger contact patch.
I did go on a mission to try and find how you do that... But the best i could find involved pieces of paper and paint... Not very scientific.
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Some scientific methods are quite simple like that! Doesn’t have to be complex to be effective :nerd:
From memory it’s 41psi all round for half load and being as nobody likes me I’m normally driving solo so don’t need anything higher than that.
I do run around 38psi front and vary the back a bit depending on if I’m carrying crap around with me or not. I can’t remember what full load pressure at the rear is but it’s bloody high!
The sticker pressures on mine reflect that the car came on 18’s too, 19’s might be even higher PSI recommendations.
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Have they really only supplied a sticker for the factory wheel size? I can't remember when I looked at mine.
You'd have thought a table of different size options and using one sticker for all cars would be a more effective production process, but what do I know about production lines :rolleyes:
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VW (not sure of others) seem to have gone to recommending the same pressures front and rear, maybe this is just for the performance cars but I think it's part of the reason my 7.5 seems a bit 'crashy' at the rear, certainly when I have someone in the back or something in the boot it makes things a lot smoother.
If I changed from the sticker pressure of 2.6 all round I guess I would keep the 2.6 up front and maybe reduce the rears slightly.
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(https://i.postimg.cc/KvwsFTXB/9-CFB5367-E1-C0-4282-BB3-D-075590-F9444-E.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/svPJ4vgg)
There’s the sticker.
Checked the pressures and they were still at 39psi all round. The car definitely squirms under hard acceleration which isn’t ideal. Worse than light torque steer and I’m wondering if the Lane Assist doesn’t fully deactivate when the Brocky method is applied (which I do religiously after each start up).
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I've just finally got round to looking at the sticker in mine...
(https://i.postimg.cc/90QQdDWt/20210609-205857.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/JDS8m4HG)
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Nobody commenting on that.... 38psi on the GTI vs 41 on the Clubby....
According to all of the reviews, the Clubby rides a bit harder than the GTI.... have I just found out why that might be? 3psi different would probably do that.
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I think the likelihood of the review cars having exactly 38 and then exactly 41 psi all round is zero.
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That's strange. There's virtually zero (2kg) weight difference between the two. Surely the greater negative camber and slightly lower stance on the ClubSport isn't worthy of a 3psi difference...?
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It is strange... And of course this is the oem values not someone setting them to maybe their favourite...
I can only assume its to offset the co2. It definitely doesn't need 41 does it?
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Sorry, hectic week, I only glanced at your sticker Fred and didn’t notice the psi difference. The only thing my brain registered was “goodness me there’s lots of numbers on there compared to mine and in my rush I’d forgotten to whizz my photo through a 90 degree turn”
I put the extra info down to the fact yours has DCC and factory 19’s.
A few psi like that would definitely make the ride a bit jigglier and affect the steering turn in, but is almost certainly more of an emissions led figure. The M135i also had 40 odd psi in the tyres.
With all the incredibly clever electronics on modern engines achieving super high power outputs despite cats and gpf’s strangling the exhausts it’s such an easy tweak to use tyre pressures to squeeze those last few digits of exhaust emissions under the target figure.
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That's interesting.
My CS has 19's and DCC from the factory, like Fred's has, but my sticker is like yours Exonian. i.e. 41 psi all round and no other alternatives...
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Probably perfectly OK to run them at 38 then... I actually suspect 38 is a bit tweaked too and 36 all round would be good.
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That's interesting.
My CS has 19's and DCC from the factory, like Fred's has, but my sticker is like yours Exonian. i.e. 41 psi all round and no other alternatives...
Oh! That must mean those are the Clubsport recommendations no matter what the spec. That’s really helpful, having gone from 18’s to 19’s myself and wondered if the recommended pressures might have been a wee bit different
:afro:
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That's interesting.
My CS has 19's and DCC from the factory, like Fred's has, but my sticker is like yours Exonian. i.e. 41 psi all round and no other alternatives...
Oh! That must mean those are the Clubsport recommendations no matter what the spec. That’s really helpful, having gone from 18’s to 19’s myself and wondered if the recommended pressures might have been a wee bit different
:afro:
Yes, that would be my conclusion as well. I wonder why though?