TheSamba.com :: View topic - 16" VW Tiguan wheels

Thu Jun 05, 2008 12:37 pm

I was just doing a little research on the bolt pattern of the new VW Tiguan and discovered that the base model come with 16x6.5 ET33 wheels in a 5x112 bolt pattern. The wheels also appear to have a large "snout" for a centercap. There are two different wheel styles that come with these specs, the "San Diego" and the Baltimore".

Hopefully, other than machining out the centerbore, this may be a nice near bolt-on wheel alternative for Vanagons.

Just though you would like to know.

Thu Jun 05, 2008 7:19 pm

Something good about the new "VW" van afterall... :wink:

Thu Jun 05, 2008 7:45 pm

Anyone care to do a little photoshop?

Thu Jun 05, 2008 8:01 pm

1621 wrote: Something good about the new "VW" van afterall... :wink:

The Tiguan is the new small SUV from VW.

Thu Jun 05, 2008 8:04 pm

1621 wrote: Something good about the new "VW" van afterall... :wink:

The Tiguan is the new small SUV from VW.

The weight of the Tiguan is probably pretty close to that of a Vanagon so these wheels should be robust enough to comfortably use on a Vanagon

Thu Jun 05, 2008 10:52 pm

Nice! The bottom ones (7 spoke) would look damn good on my van. Here's to hoping Tiguan buyers don't like 'em and are inclined to swap. Off-the-shelf new ones might be pricey.

Thu Jun 05, 2008 11:11 pm

Yeah, I was looking at one at the dealer the other day and noticed the tires had a 1600+ lb load rating. I like things a little lower profile, but they would certainly make a good Vanagon tire for people wanting to run 16s with a bigger diameter to raise the gearing - and wanting to have the proper load rating for a Vanagon.

I'm surprised the offset is 33mm. The Mk5 cars and all new VW/Audi cars for that matter are all running 50+mm offsets.

David

Fri Jun 06, 2008 7:28 am

I was surprised by the 33mm offset as well. The other wheels that it comes with are 17x7 ET43 and 18x7 ET43.

Mon Nov 23, 2009 9:45 am

I was hoping that I could be the big surpriser here about Tiguan wheels matching, but Loogy got to this long before I did. (Hey 1.5 years late isn't too bad, right? :wink: )

I will mention however, that the Tiguan can be had with 16" steel wheels in a similar configuration...

Methinks that I need to be talking to my local VW dealer to see if they can order me some. 8)

(machining likely needed, of course)

Mon Nov 23, 2009 10:17 am

You might as well check out Eos wheels, too. They use the 5x112 bolt pattern, too.

Mon Nov 23, 2009 10:23 am

The EOS rims are not sufficiently load rated for the T3.

Depth of centre hole on Tiguan rims is about 43mm from inside centre cap to mounting area against hub. I've checked... But those steels are nice :D

Mon Nov 23, 2009 10:48 am

FYI- The VW part number of the steelies is 5NO 601 027B 091 (silver painted).

I'd love to get some with the original centercaps like these here. =P~

http://cgi.ebay.de/4-Stahlfelgen-VW-Tiguan_W0QQite...20ae2c7c7f

Mon Nov 23, 2009 12:40 pm

rolfsky wrote: FYI- The VW part number of the steelies is 5NO 601 027B.

I'd love to get some with the original centercaps like these here. =P~

http://cgi.ebay.de/4-Stahlfelgen-VW-Tiguan_W0QQite...20ae2c7c7f

They look pretty nice. Good to know that the offset is nearly correct on those too. Unfortunately, the center caps don't allow nearly the length needed to clear the Vanagon front spindle dust caps or the rear axle stubs. They'd have to be run with open centers.

David

Mon Nov 23, 2009 6:30 pm

Maybe whoever is making the wheels for VW will realize there is an aftermarket demand for them and make them available through alternate sources. I would love to get hold of some steelies myself.

Mon Nov 23, 2009 7:13 pm

So I called 3 VW dealers today, two in my hometown and 1 in Canada and this is what I learned:

1st local VW dealer told me this: "there are none of these wheels in all of the USA, but there are some in Canada. We can't D2D (dealer to dealer) ship these because they are too heavy/large do to for free. Call Canada."

The Canadian dealer corroborated his story: there are a few sets of these wheels, in Canada to be bought for ~$113 CAN/tire. The centerbore is VW-sized, 57.1mm and would need to be machined. I asked what what shipping/freight would be, and he said, "I dunno, but it would be expensive. When we ship from the US, it's normally like $300 CAN". That being said, he could sell them to me.

2nd local VW dealer elaborated on this info a bit: "there are none of these wheels in black or silver in the USA. I see there are some on backorder, so they do exist, but it looks likely that most of them are going to Canada. I can call Germany if you want. There are 37 of the alloy wheels in New Jersey (main warehouse), but they are $300 each and would still require machining." He also asked if I could use new-Beetle wheels instead, (they are similar size), but I said that no, the van runs about 6000lbs. He said, "yeah, but remember the Tiguan is based on the Golf platform..."

2nd local dealer calls back: "I called Germany, and I can place an order for these $110 USD + tax + FREE shipping. They should arrive, maybe, in 30 to 50 days. Germany HQ has 'at least' 4 in stock today, but that might not be true tomorrow, or the day after. Do you want me to order them?"

I asked him about the load-rating on these rims and he told me that nothing he had told him that, but he was willing to look into it. He asked what the loadrating was on the stock wheels, and I said it was at least 1500 lbs, (6000 divided by 4). He's currently looking into it, but likely won't get a more definitive answer than the load rating of Tiguan tires.

:arrow: More fuel to the fire:

The Tiguan with 16" wheels comes equipped with 215/65-R16's from Dunlop or Michelin. Both have a service rating of 98H. For a Vanagon using passenger tires, we're looking for 100 at a minimum, but that's because we need to be de-rating them by 9% because "it's a truck". Without de-rating them, 98H is 1653lbs/tire.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireSearchResults.js...terType=oe

The curb weight of the Tiguan is listed as 3500 lbs, with the GVWR 4784 lbs. GAWR 2425 front, 2491 rear.

The curb weight of the Vanagon is between 4000 and 6000 lbs, with the GVWR as 5160 for a Westy. GAWR somewhere around, 2080-2450 front and 1980-2600 rear.

http://www.roadhaus.com/tires/load.html

All that being said.... it would appear as though these rims should be adequate... The Tiguan specs fail the "high" side of Vanagon numbers by 25 and 100lbs/axle respectively, but suffice for the "low" side admirably.

Anyone ever heard of a failure of a steel wheel? I would imagine that there is an in-built safety margin which should cover the extra "overloaded Vanagon"...

Thoughts?

Mon Nov 23, 2009 8:44 pm

In my opinion, any worry of a wheel's load rating is worrying over naught! Seriously, it's not an issue! You would be utterly surprised at the margin of error is built into a set of factory wheels and how many wheels have stated load ratings that have never been tested. Having been in and around the wheel business for a long, long time, I have never seen anything to make me think otherwise. Again, just my opinion.

Mon Nov 23, 2009 9:29 pm

I have heard of MB 15" steelies bending on syncros when offroading, so it is possible but not likely. I'll have a chat with my lokal vw dealer tomorrow about this wheels, could be interesting.

Mon Nov 23, 2009 9:36 pm

I'm not saying that it is impossible to bend or break a wheel. We all know that is possible given enough abuse. But when considering a whether or not a wheel is safe for the street, abuse can not be factored into that consideration.

Mon Nov 23, 2009 9:55 pm

ThorAlex wrote: I have heard of MB 15" steelies bending on syncros when offroading, so it is possible but not likely. I'll have a chat with my lokal vw dealer tomorrow about this wheels, could be interesting.

I could imagine some MB steelies bending in off-roading, that's a good data point. My van is a 2wd that likely won't see any off-roading harsher than some gravel + 30mph to some campsites.

Am I right in thinking that the most likely threat of an under-rated steel wheel deforming is by hitting a pothole "real hard"?

You opinion is valued Loogy, as is Thor's anecdote. Using some common sense, we are talking about a similarly-sized wheel on an application that it 90% similar...

Any other grey-hairs care to comment with some wheel failure anecdotes? I've never heard of such a thing, but I haven't been in the enthusiast community very long.

Mon Nov 23, 2009 10:25 pm

I also agree that load rating is not an issue given the Vanagon's weight of 3500 lbs for a passenger van and about 4000 for a 2wd Westy. For comparison, an Audi A6 4.2 weighs 4050 lbs, and a Mercedes S350 weighs 4300 lbs. Most of today's luxury cars outweigh a Vanagon by a sizable margin.

That said, if you examine the center portion of a 71-91 VW van steel wheel you will find that the steel is a much thicker gauge than your average passenger car steely. So I do think the VW steel wheels are true LT rated wheels. And maybe if you were going to load a Vanagon to its GVWR limit, there might be a strength issue using passenger car wheels. However, I think very few of us are putting 1800-2000 lbs in our Vanagons on a regular basis.

BTW, the New Beetle 16" steelys would definitely not work. They are 5x100 as are all Mk 4 based cars. It's only the Mk5s and the current Passat that have brought 5x112 to the transverse engine cars.

David