MK6 Golf GTI Suspension Height

[stephenb146]

Hi everyone

My MK6 GTI was delivered with the factory 17" Denver rims. It's about 18 months old now & I've just upgraded to 18" Detroits.

But there's a sizeable gap now in the wheel arch & it makes the car look like its riding really high.

Every other GTI with Detroits sits a lot lower & therefore looks a lot better than mine. Does anyone know why the difference? Did selecting Detroits from the factory also mean lowered suspension?

Any thoughts / advice would be much appreciated as I've waited a long time & spent a lot of money upgrading the rims & the result is pretty disappointing.

Thanks in advance

[Umai Naa!!]

It's been jacked up to replace the wheels. Let the suspension re-settle over the next day or two with some driving, and see how it looks.

[stephenb146]

Thanks, I initially thought the same thing, but it's been about three weeks now.

[Umai Naa!!]

Its an illusion.

Outside diameter of the tyre will still be the same, therefore, so will the gap between the tyre and the guard.

[Scratchedeos]

I think you will find when the factory fits 18's they also lower the car 20-25mm


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[shane_in_oz]

factory lowering is 15mm on the mk6 GTI. not sure if it is wheel size dependent.

[night_flight]

factory lowering is 15mm on the mk6 GTI. not sure if it is wheel size dependent.

i wondered about this too...so can anyone confirm that factory delivered its 15mm lower?

[brad]

17s & 18s have the same suspension. As Umai said you are seeing an optical illusion as 225/45r17 & 225/40r18 have near enough the same diameter (within a few mm of each other). If the wheel arch gap is significantly different then maybe the tyres are the wrong size?

If you option 19" then suspension height remains the same but they fit some dinky plastic tabs to the wheel arch & mod the steering rack so that the turning circle is reduced.

[night_flight]

I like stephenb146 in his post have changed from denvers to detroits and I have noticed this difference too. thought its an optical illusion but now I am in a bit of a doubt as I think the cars that have stock delivered detroits also look a bit lower.

[brad]

You won't know unless you get out the tape measure.

it's been discussed many times before - it's an optical illusion.

Same thing happened to me when I went from 205/55r16 to 235/45r17 (which are bigger in diameter and therefore the gap is less). Suddenly all my mates tell me I need to lower the car as the gap was too big. It was less than previous.

[VR28LT]

Hi everyone

My MK6 GTI was delivered with the factory 17" Denver rims. It's about 18 months old now & I've just upgraded to 18" Detroits.

But there's a sizeable gap now in the wheel arch & it makes the car look like its riding really high.

Every other GTI with Detroits sits a lot lower & therefore looks a lot better than mine. Does anyone know why the difference? Did selecting Detroits from the factory also mean lowered suspension?

Any thoughts / advice would be much appreciated as I've waited a long time & spent a lot of money upgrading the rims & the result is pretty disappointing.

Thanks in advance

LOL I think you might be onto something, I have one of the later mk6 GTI's and I did the same thing upgraded to detroits and my GTI sits higher then my neighbours one..... maybe vw pulled one over us and installed tsi springs hahaha