GOLFMK8
GOLFMK7
GOLFMK6
GOLFMKV

Vibration?

PLF8593

Drag Race Newbie
Location
Philly
Car(s)
19 Alltrack 6MT
There is a post (which I am trying to find) that highlights a hub centric ring solution available from Tire rack explicitly for MK7. Might be worth a call to TR and make request for MK7 R

Word. I put a set of brand new 235 40 18 Cooper Zeon RS3-A's on my car last week and it vibrates so much less than it did before that I'm honestly comfortable with closing my concerns and being done with it all. It still vibrates, but I've chalked it up to "increased NVH" from the stickier tires w/ stiffer sidewall.
 

lucyfek

Ready to race!
Location
IL USA
Car(s)
GTI & GSW
I've got new wheel package from TR (with the new centering rings as pictured in the linked post). All I can say is that the noise/vibration is still there (just a plain Golf) and is definitely speed related (but not engine speed) but I can't pin point the source. It's most pronounced on washed out asphalt pavement (gets quite noisy inside at 60mph). I've also found that driver side rear abs cable had tendency to rub against the body (or at least had enough wiggle to do so), I've wrapped it with a bit of insulation foam, time will tell (still looking for other options).
 

Al_in_Philly

Autocross Newbie
Location
Philadelphia USA
Careful torquing worked for me!


First, a little background (although some of it has been posted before). A few months back I bought a set of Advanti HY Hybris wheels from Tire Rack which I noticed showed some degree of vibration above 75 MPH--nothing serious, but it ought not be there. Why have a car capable of pulling 155 if you can't drive it smoothly past 75?

I read around and found the thread on Vortex where Tire Rack did the right thing and fabricated a set of deeper hub-centric rings (to fit past the taper found on Mk7 wheel hubs) for one of their customers with a GTI. So I contacted Tire Rack about it; however, they were not willing to make the proper rings for my Advanti wheels, but rather sent me the shipping materials so that I could send back the wheels for a refund. Given that I'd just spent just over $150 to mount and balance the Advantis, and would have to spend the same amount to switch the tires back to the stock wheels, I decided to try and find a solution for the vibration myself.

I found a machine shop in Maryland who would CNC fabricate a set for me if I'd draw up a set of specs, which I did. However, simultaneously with this, my wife had a bad run in with a curb, cosmetically mangling my right rear wheel. Replacing it would only cost $70 more than a grind/refinish, so I did that* (keeping the abused wheel as a spare) and thought that since I had to change a wheel/tire anyhow, I'd try the sometimes effective careful cross torqueing of the wheels to the factory spec of 88 ft. lbs. (first to 50 ft. lbs. and then to 88 ft. lbs.) and see if that helped at all. For me at least, it helped a whole hell of a lot. Last weekend I briefly brought my R up to 120 MPH and it rode absolutely smoothly, outside of the normal feeling of bumps on the expressway. So I guess I don't have to return the wheels, nor buy some custom hub-centric rings. Knocks on wood.

I just thought I'd share that with you.

*No, I did not but the additional wheel from Tire Rack!
 

The Fed

Old Guys Rule
Location
Florida
Did you get a road force balance? Did the dealer measure wheel and tire lateral run out? Did they check for an out of round condition? What exactly did they do?
 

Al_in_Philly

Autocross Newbie
Location
Philadelphia USA
Did you get a road force balance? Did the dealer measure wheel and tire lateral run out? Did they check for an out of round condition? What exactly did they do?

The tire shop just did their normal spin balance, at least as far as I know, and then they torqued the wheels down exactly as I requested--I watched. Low tech? Perhaps. But it seemed to work quite well. I've been going to this tire shop for 25 years and never had an issue with their work--I even know everyone by name there. I just wanted others to know that, at least for me, careful torqueing the wheels down seated them on the hubs the way they ought to be fitted. One thing I didn't say was that I still used the plastic hub-centric rings, which aided getting the wheel lugs on at first.
 
Last edited:

mk7gti2.0

Ready to race!
Location
De Soto, MO
I have a brand new 2016 golf r made in march. I am also having the same vibrations at highway speeds and I can't seem to pinpoint where it's coming from either.
 

lcubed

Ready to race!
Location
midatlantic
First, a little background (although some of it has been posted before). A few months back I bought a set of Advanti HY Hybris wheels from Tire Rack which I noticed showed some degree of vibration above 75 MPH--nothing serious, but it ought not be there. Why have a car capable of pulling 155 if you can't drive it smoothly past 75?

I read around and found the thread on Vortex where Tire Rack did the right thing and fabricated a set of deeper hub-centric rings (to fit past the taper found on Mk7 wheel hubs) for one of their customers with a GTI. So I contacted Tire Rack about it; however, they were not willing to make the proper rings for my Advanti wheels, but rather sent me the shipping materials so that I could send back the wheels for a refund. Given that I'd just spent just over $150 to mount and balance the Advantis, and would have to spend the same amount to switch the tires back to the stock wheels, I decided to try and find a solution for the vibration myself.

I found a machine shop in Maryland who would CNC fabricate a set for me if I'd draw up a set of specs, which I did. However, simultaneously with this, my wife had a bad run in with a curb, cosmetically mangling my right rear wheel. Replacing it would only cost $70 more than a grind/refinish, so I did that* (keeping the abused wheel as a spare) and thought that since I had to change a wheel/tire anyhow, I'd try the sometimes effective careful cross torqueing of the wheels to the factory spec of 88 ft. lbs. (first to 50 ft. lbs. and then to 88 ft. lbs.) and see if that helped at all. For me at least, it helped a whole hell of a lot. Last weekend I briefly brought my R up to 120 MPH and it rode absolutely smoothly, outside of the normal feeling of bumps on the expressway. So I guess I don't have to return the wheels, nor buy some custom hub-centric rings. Knocks on wood.

I just thought I'd share that with you.

*No, I did not but the additional wheel from Tire Rack!



Did you try torquing as described above? Poor installation technique seems rampant.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Sandman GTI

Drag Race Newbie
Location
Tennessee USA
The tire shop just did their normal spin balance, at least as far as I know, and then they torqued the wheels down exactly as I requested--I watched. Low tech? Perhaps. But it seemed to work quite well. I've been going to this tire shop for 25 years and never had an issue with their work--I even know everyone by name there. I just wanted others to know that, at least for me, careful torqueing the wheels down seated them on the hubs the way they ought to be fitted. One thing I didn't say was that I still used the plastic hub-centric rings, which aided getting the wheel lugs on at first.

How old is the equipment at this shop?
Newer equipment can measure and adjust wheels better.
They also test for conisity and road force.
After each wheel is checked and set they also tell the installer where to place the tire on the car for best ride. From what the mechanic at VW told me, the best tire gets mounted up front on the driver side for obvious reason. The worst tire is mounted in back on the passenger side. The other two are then balanced at the other corners.
This is after my wheels and tires had been set and checked by Tirerack and 1 wheel was checked and set by a wheel repair place that advertised they had a road force machine.
The machine they used to set 1 wheel was actually found to be the worst wheel at the VW dealer.
Suggest you find a shop with new equipment and also one that has a person who knows how to use it.
Not saying the guys at the local shop are not experts, but with newer cars newer and better equipment is a must.
Glad my dealer had this ability. Worth it's weight in gold to me.
 

SilvioMarco

New member
Location
Portugal
+1

I have this problem too, but it DIDN'T happen on the stock wheels/tires. I put Enkei EKM3's on and wrapped em in Cooper Zeon RS3-A's. Car vibrates above 70mph. And the vibration is very noticeable. I too can see my seat shake. Also, the sound of my rear seats shaking drives me fucking crazy if my speakers aren't blasting


+1! Same problem here!
 

PLF8593

Drag Race Newbie
Location
Philly
Car(s)
19 Alltrack 6MT
+1! Same problem here!



I fixed the problem in my car. I needed aluminium hub rings. The aftermarket wheels had a different bore than oem (72 instead of 57.1), and even tho they came with appropriately sized hubrings for the car, they were plastic and didnt really work. Also make sure your lug bolts are the correct type (ball vs cone seat). If it's neither of those things, you've either got (in order from most to least likely) an imbalanced wheel, a bent wheel, or a misshapen tire.
 

tonipepperoni77

Drag Race Newbie
Location
Mass
I fixed the problem in my car. I needed aluminium hub rings. The aftermarket wheels had a different bore than oem (72 instead of 57.1), and even tho they came with appropriately sized hubrings for the car, they were plastic and didnt really work. Also make sure your lug bolts are the correct type (ball vs cone seat). If it's neither of those things, you've either got (in order from most to least likely) an imbalanced wheel, a bent wheel, or a misshapen tire.

where did you get the hub rings from
 

NCM

Ready to race!
Location
Fort Wayne, IN, USA
Car(s)
2015 Golf R
Hubcentric ring adapters are usually supplied along with aftermarket wheels if they are required for a particular application. You can generally get them from wheel retailers. Tire Rack sells them.

However if you look at the Mk7 Golf's hub extension — the part that sticks out through the brake rotor centre and engages into the road wheel's center bore — you'll see that it's oddly shaped. Instead of being straight, as you'd expect, it necks down to a smaller diameter, then reverts to the larger diameter. (I'm told that this is a change from the Mk6 platform; nobody seems to know why it's like this on the Mk7.)

Depending on a given hubcentric ring adapter's design, and exactly how deeply it fits into the wheel bore and over the hub extension, it may end up sitting all or partly over the necked down area. When that happens the adapter no longer effectively centers the wheel on the hub. There was a long thread about this over on Vortex last year.

Cheap plastic hubcentric adapters, which are inherently less precise than machined aluminum versions, may also be a problem in their own right.

The proper solution is of course to buy direct fit wheels that have the correct bore size and require no adapter in the first place. Failing that, find aluminum hubcentric adapters that are designed to work properly on the Mk7 hub.

(Note this hubcentric fit, which is used on most cars, serves only to position the wheel accurately until the lug bolts are tightened down. Once that's done the wheel is effectively clamped in place.)

Neil
 

PLF8593

Drag Race Newbie
Location
Philly
Car(s)
19 Alltrack 6MT
The aluminium hubcentric rings i bought that remedied my issues were from Black Forest Industries
 
Top