L&K on 17"s

[pugsley633]

Guys

I need some advice on the following; i have an 06 L&K estate 140 pd dsg on standard 16inch alloys which returns between 44 to 47 mpg per tank. I am looking to upgrade the wheels to either 17" or 18" as the current ones don’t do it any favors. Im looking to keep the same fuel economy / performance, can anyone comment if they have conducted this change and what adverse effects it has had on economy, ride and handling????

[sheep_go_baa]

I've got a year old L&K with 17" wheels and the fuel consumption is very similar to the figures you have quoted above.

[Nick P]

Your current tyres are 205 wide, so if you wanted to preserve fuel economy you could always get some 6.5J 17" wheels with 205 tyres. Go for a tyre known for economy like a Michelin Pilot Primacy and you should see no difference in economy.

[pugsley633]

Thanks for the update,

The other question i have is:

06 L&K were sold with 16inch wheels, 07 L&K were sold with 17inch wheels is there a change to the transmission to accomodate for wthe wheel size which would result in the same MPG?

Has anybody fitted 17 inch wheels to a 16 inch spec car

[gord]

Use this to calculate the correct size for the same gearing:thumbup:

Tire size calculator

[bahnstormer vrs]

L&Ks running on 17s will have the 7J x 17" Sputnik wheel IIRC with 225/45 17 tyres; these will have the same 'rolling radius' as you current 205/55 16 (or at least as near as makes no difference) so gearing remains the same.

The differences with 225/45 17s that you should, will or may notice will be

1. the ride will be a degree firmer/more jittery,

2. handling will be sharper/more taut,

3. straight line performance & fuel economy will be slightly worse due to the heavier wheel/tyre combination (difficult to quantify and even more so to notice unless you have a 'sense' for this).

Over to you!

[gord]

Only 0.4% difference in rolling radius.

Trust me you won't notice the difference in gearing and the fuel consumption rise will be negligible.

You might find the ride a little bit harsher though!

[bahnstormer vrs]

Forgive my cluelessness! ...but

Mine's 2005/55 & on 17" alloys exactly as I got it - but the option code is HH7... on the VAG options decoder, that comes back to "205/55 R16 91V" ...so does that mean it left the factory on 16" wheels? :confused:

Probably did; could have been that it had 'dealer fit' alloys at some stage. Did you buy it new?

What tyre size do you (out of curiosity) and what 'style' of wheel?

[gregoir]

My 140 TD i FL Elegance has got the brochure package sports suspension with 225/45 on 17" rims. Michelin Pilot Primacy. So far I am getting ~48mpg overall at 1800 miles.

Refinement/ride is acceptable to me but SWMBO has commented on the excessive road noise on certain surfaces. Wheels get dirty quickly IMHO.

[Foodhoover]

Folks my 58 plate L&K on sputniks is to my mind rather jittery and as you'll see from my other posts I'm not implressed with only getting a 16" 6.5 J spare giving me mismatched wheels following a recent pothole / rear wheel rim failure (wheel repalced new potenza to match the rest £200 later, harumph). IMHO the ride is not as good (too jittery and firm) as it should be on the 17's althought the grip is good but I can still get the front end all squirelly when applying the loud pedal .

I am looking at three options.

1) a suspension mod to soften the ride (recognising that this will add more roll)

2) swapping my sputniks for 16" 6.5J on appropriate rubber to keep the rolling radius

3) do nowt

at present option 2 is most likley (when I next need a set of front tyres) but we'll keep you posted

[bahnstormer vrs]

1) a suspension mod to soften the ride (recognising that this will add more roll)

Not necessarily .........

Koni FSDs will sort you our perfectly and give you the best of both worlds; that is, softer more compliant ride but with sharper handling response when pressing on (you will not get more roll).

Koni FSDs have been widely fitted by guys with vRS Octavias and work well; I have them on mine with the specific aim of softening the ride, whcih they do, and with the reverse benefit that they sharpen the handling really well. By comparison my wife's Roomster has a firmer more jittery ride!

Check the details here;- Koni: FSD

[Nick P]

Simbo - They're 16" wheels mate. They're Vegas. I've got a set as winter wheels.

[bahnstormer vrs]

Does the "ZR16" mean 16 inch ?? ...i'm getting more confused by the minute! :confused:

Yes it does. Perhaps you should have a read of this;- Car Bibles : The Wheel and Tyre Bible Page 1 of 2

[bahnstormer vrs]

Waaarrrrggghhhh!!!! :eek:

I'm sure I measured them ...maybe they've shrunk!??!

Remember that the size of the wheel will be from the rim where the bead of the tyre sits and this will easily be 1/2 an inch less than the actual edge of the wheel (that you can measure with a tape).

Hence; yes, you probably did measure 17" from the edge of the wheel but forgot to allow that 1/2 inch each side to the rim/bead seat. Easily done for the novice, but now you know for the future.

[Nathanio]

I have an elegance with 17" Alloys and sports suspension and would say that over extremely pitted surfaces it is figedty but on my daily commute of B roads and A roads it is perfectly smooth and happy This is me coming from a Toledo with 195/65/R15s and soft cruising suspension so I would know quickly if it was uncomfortable It is a better ride than the wifes Furby vRS even though the profile (45) is the same

[gadgetman]

2) swapping my sputniks for 16" 6.5J on appropriate rubber to keep the rolling radius

Which is fine until you come to sell and the buyer/dealer notices the 17's are missing.

I'd go the koni route if that bothered.

I dont find the sports suspension overly hard at all - well not once the dealer removes the transport blocks :rotz: