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Hi, I’m wondering if anyone can help me. I’m looking at purchasing 8J R18 ET45-48 Wheels for my polo. I’m currently running stock 7J R17 ET51 tortosa alloys. I have checked that 8J wheels will fit and I have enough clearance. I just wondered what is a good amount for new wheels to ’poke’ out compared to the stock ones. Willtheyfit.com has said Et48 wheels would stick out 15mm. I want the wheels to poke out compared to my stock ones but just wondered what is a sensible amount as I’ve seen ET35s can poke out too far.
ET 48s would sit 9.7mm closer to my suspension and I have around 15-20mm clearance currently (the width of my thumb)
Current width between wheel and arch (around 15-20mm)
IMG_2781.jpeg (1.39 MiB) Viewed 654 times
so I think they should fit and every website is telling me they will. I’m probably overthinking it, I just wondered if anyone had any experience of fitting 8Js to a polo AW and what extra poke to standard wheels is a sensible amount?
You’ll probably find other relevant posts if you use the forum advanced search facility (top right of screen - click on the cog wheel symbol and search on ‘offset’, restricting your search to the AW/BZ forum board).
Be aware that the rear wheel arch liners are sometimes poorly fitted from the factory and even the GTI with factory fitted 7.5J x 18” ET51 alloys have had the inside face of the tyres rubbing against the liner.
An offset appropriate for the Polo is an important consideration to avoid either;
the inner face of the wheel and tyre being too close to the suspension strut
or
the outer face of the wheel protruding out too far as you may experience tyre rubbing issues, especially under certain manoeuvres such as enthusiastic cornering, when the car is fully laden or if your car is lowered.
Additional considerations;
Ensure the new alloys you’re considering have a bolt pattern of 5x100.
When considering potential clearance issues, it’s important to allow for the extra width of the tyres when reviewing the results from the calculator on www.willtheyfit.com website, as tyres will add a few extra mm’s to the width of the wheel.
VW factory spec tyres for 18” alloys are 215/40 R18. These aren’t a common size, so good premium brand tyres in that size are expensive (e.g. Michelin PS4 are around £160 or more per tyre - fitted price).
The design / shape of the spokes on some alloys might cause clearance issues between the reverse side of the spokes and brake calipers, in which case wheel spacers would be needed to create sufficient clearance, which would move the wheel further outwards.
Most (but not all) aftermarket alloys use wheel bolts with a tapered seat; VW OEM alloys use bolts with a radius / ball seat. It’s really important the correct bolt type is used to ensure the maximum contact patch between the wheel bolt seat and the mating surface in the bolt hole of the alloy wheel. If the incorrect bolt type is used, there’s a risk the bolts could work loose while the car is being driven!
The centre bore (CB) size of VW alloys for the Polo is 57.1. With most reputable retailers of aftermarket alloys, they’ll be able to supply a fitting kit (if needed) that includes both the correct type wheel bolts and a set of spigot rings of the correct size. A set of standard replacement wheel bolts is unlikely to include locking bolts so if you need these, then they’re likely to cost extra.
If you have a spare wheel rather than a tyre repair kit, keep a set of your original / existing wheel blots off one wheel in the car in case you need to fit your spare wheel.
Quite often, VW centre caps won’t fit the centre bore of aftermarket alloys, so if you want VW centre caps for aftermarket alloys, you may need to buy VW emblem stickers and attach them to the centre caps that come with the aftermarket alloys.
fitting different alloys to those fitted by VW in the factory is a modification for insurance purposes, so you’d need to inform your insurance company - depending on how mod-friendly (or not) they are, they may increase your premium.
