Club 80-90 Forums

Hi all,
Thinking about changing over to 15" wheels for that little extra height and a greater choice of tyre. Have some T4 wheels hanging about...wondering if its worth the extra work to fit these, or go for some with the correct offset to start with? my 14" mts are in the general for sale forum if anyone interested.
cheers

I have gone for some s/h 15" tyres and cheap /strong T4 rims to see how I get on, befoe spending the big money on new tyres. I am going to make some bolt-on, studded alloy spacers to correct the ET55 back to 30 or 35, bore the middles out of the wheels if needed.
I'm not a fan of loose spacers and over-long studs, so I'm making my own - because I can

Merc C class 15" rims are a straight fit and cheap. T4 rims dont fit without spacers and fitting longer studs is a long job.

Aren't the Merc ones soft as poop though? I've found some T4 wheels that are so cheap it's not true and making studded spacers isn't a big deal for me.

They are soft but that is only an issue if you do serious off roading

or you could just get mefros first time save changing from the mercs at later date when fed up with bashing out rims and with the house on the back I'd want the loadrating myself
but don't get mefros if you intend upgrading front brake calipers otherwise you may find you have to change rims to accommodate new callipers
merc ml alloys are cheap as chips, be nice if someone made some decent centre caps with vw logo that look like they are meant to be there though

merc ml alloys are cheap as chips, be nice if someone made some decent centre caps with vw logo that look like they are meant to be there though[/quote]


that sounds like a job for an engineering company :

I do know a guy who does injection molding and toolmaking, but the tool-up costs would be a joke for syncronaut volumes. But...we could turn some snap-in retainers out of hard engineering plastic like delrin/acetal, to hold an OEM VW wheel badge, though...if they are available at he right sort of diameter?

Adhesive badges available on ebay in a range of sizes and colours silver vinyl on black plastic works well
but if you're milling the material couldn't the logo been done in relief too
like the old 16" ones

Like you say Aidan, sounds like a job for an good engineering company. Do you know of any?

15" Mefros will fit over SA big brake kits but is there an issue with other brake set ups?

audi quattro are too big for mefros

hi all, thanks for the comments, going to web search the merc ml rim and see what they look like. A decent load rating is a priority over dent resistance i feel(house on doka bed)

syncropaddy wrote:Merc C class 15" rims are a straight fit and cheap. T4 rims dont fit without spacers and fitting longer studs is a long job.

Nope, you can run T4's with 215/75/15 BFG muds without any spacers, just think you need to bore the centres and change the nuts.
They are close to the spring up front, but they clear it and ive dont a few thousand and 4 syncro events with this arrangement on the pickup.
I dont think this would work if you choose a 235 width.

Merc ML's




Interested to know where they are comming up cheap, from having a look on the internet, they are becomming increasingly difficult to find in the 16" size, and then remember theres two widths to choose from.

syncro up wrote:

syncropaddy wrote:Merc C class 15" rims are a straight fit and cheap. T4 rims dont fit without spacers and fitting longer studs is a long job.

Nope, you can run T4's with 215/75/15 BFG muds without any spacers, just think you need to bore the centres and change the nuts.
They are close to the spring up front, but they clear it and ive dont a few thousand and 4 syncro events with this arrangement on the pickup.
I dont think this would work if you choose a 235 width.

Hmmm..... I remember a thread some time ago where there was an issue with the fronts. Oh well...