Fitted new wheels and now it handles like rubbish

[vwbay72]

Bought the 86 gti 8v in feb and only recently started really using it. It drove like a dream with the wheels it had on there (ugly looking 13" steel's).  So i spent time cleaning it up and got a set of 15" BBS RA from fleabay and put them on this weekend and noticed it was pulling a bit to the left.

I checked tyre pressure etc and corrected to make sure it was ok.  So this morning i drove it to work and it was the worst drive iv ever had in the car!  It felt like awful!  Any bumps in the road and the car jerked to the left, it vibrates a bit at speed, so much so that i was scared to go past 40 and its a 20mile ring road trip to work

Its symptoms seem to be

pulling to left,
loose steering and it feels like im gonna loose control of the car even going slow
Vibration (not too bad but mix this with the loose steeering and it jerking hard if goes over a manhole or something makes it quite not fun)

Any idea's?  The wheels already had tyres and weights on them so I assumed they would be fine to fit as they were? 

Any help would be appreciated!
 

[dubslug]

none of the wheel bolts are loose??
if tyre pressure is ok then i would get them re balanced, or move wheels round see if it moves the pull??
and ur sure there for a golf??

[vwbay72]

yeh I checked all the wheel nuts are nice and tight.

Im pretty sure they are for a golf..the auction i bought them from said golf and they went straight on without any problems

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8294926@N06/604057450/

thats them fitted to mine. And this is the wheel just before fitting

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8294926@N06/620772264/

[lewis1641]

im no expert but i do know a little about wheels in general.

have a look at each wheel and make sure they are all the same offset. it should say et35 or et something anyway.  the offset determines where the centre line of the wheel is in relation to the mounting surface of the wheel. if one is different the car will be horrible.  i THINK the mk2 golf needs a wheel with an et35 offset (please correct me if wrong) i also THINK some 3 series bmw's had these wheels (again could be wrong) it may be possible they arte the bmw wheels which may be the wrong offset for the car anyway. its worth checking.

just because they have balance we9ights fitted doesnt mean they are balanced correctly. take them to a good garage and get them to balance them.  at this point the tyre fitter will spin the wheel up and it will be apparent if the wheel is bent at all.  it is amazing how many wheels are on ebay etc and are bent. i know as i have bought plenty myself. grrr

i have 3 sets of wheels for my golf - standard steels with semi slicks for the track, 15 inch tsw's with pirelli p6000's (if its wet) and some generic dezent 17's with crap brand tyres for the road.  there is a huge difference between these wheels. it grips well enough with the 17's but the ride is terrible!

in your case going from 13's to 15's will have reduced the profile of the tyre wall so you will feel more bumps as the tyres offer a bit of suspension.

my money is on wrong offset and/or buckled wheel.

if it is a fisted wheel they can be repaired for about 35 quid

2 last thoughts! are you using bolts for alloy wheels or the original steel ones?  if steel then get some bolts for alloy.  also, if they were not designed for the golf the centre bore may be too big and they wont be sitting on the hub properly - they may be slightly off centre. 2 ways to combal this - buy some correct spigot rings (ebay/halfrauds) or get round it as follows.,..

loosen the bolts, jack up car and retighten the bolts a bit at a time untill they are tight. you'll probably need a mate to press the brake pedal unless you have really long arms/legs.

this should centre the wheel. its worth a try before spending any money.

hope some of that helps?

[tom26]

sounds like a buckle/flat spot or incorrectly balanced wheel? if it were me i'd have the tracking looked at too

[vwbay72]

thanks guys.

The wheel has VW marked into the alloy so I think its safe to say they are VW wheels.

I guess il take it to a garage asap and get them to do balance and tracking,  how much would this cost?  I tend not to trust garages too much and usually do all the work myself or got a good mechanic mate but he doesnt do anything with wheels

[lewis1641]

id say its safe to say they are vw wheels then!!  it shouldnt be more than a fiver a piece. take it somewhere independant rather than bush tyres or wherever. i got quoted £106 at motorsave to swap over 2 sets of wheels and tyres once!!

[tom26]

about 30 to 40 bucks i'd say for alligning. I would take the car back to whoever fitted the tyres and explain that they recently fitted your tyres and balanced your wheels, yet you think they are not balanced correctly. Tell them the symptoms and i imagine they investigate free of charge for you.
In theory they should have told you if one of the wheels had a buckle when they balanced them?

[vwbay72]

ah no i bought the wheels from ebay with tyres alreaded fitted, and fitted em my self on the car .  I (wrongly) assumed they would be ok cus they were balanced and came from a golf they would be ok..

40quid is ok, 100quid is a bit much!

[j_s]

Tracking/alignment etc is normally around £25 for me.