Golf R Mods I REGRET Buying 

VW wheels are notoriously heavy.

A lot of manufacturers of flow formed and fully forged wheels do list the weights. And why most stock VW wheels are so heavy is due to being cast. If I'm not mistaken, I think only the Pretoria and Rotary styles are flow formed - I may be mistaken about the Rotary, but it weighs only about 1-2 lbs more than the Pretoria of the same size.

Agree , I've seen people have many problems messing with this car too much. I kept it simple.OEM+ : Unitronic Stage 1 ECU/TCU, rear H&R SB and 034 end links. 19' PS4S Tires with stock ride. Ride quality is good. Euro taillights and power folding mirrors. I would like to find the Akrapovič exhaust option Europe had. but it's $$

I had an 800hp Corvette for over 10 years. If you say what more could a person want than 370hp, then you don't understand.

I am glad they fixed that with the 8R

Same. Putting 18's on mine was the best change I made. Saved me so much money too. Denting and cracking rims every other day was driving me insane.

18 inch konigs on eibach pro kit and bilstien damptronic b6's perfect blend of better suspension and daily comfort for me

California isn't much better haha. Think I'll go with 18"

I’ve been running them for the past 4 months on stage 1+ no complaints!

Been using for over 2 years in my stage 1 APR tuned vehicle with no issues.

Yes!

So what about the popular rotiform rse they do offer them in 18s but most VW guys get the 19s

@@ThatBlack7.5 depends, does it look good ? Yes. If you a daily driving the car with 19’s you only have so many tire side wall choices. With and 18 there is more. Not only for comfort but performance performance. Seen to many 19” wheels exploded , from both high dollar and low dollar brands.

That's definitely something I will try. I appreciate the feedback!

Don’t need that a good tuning company can tune that out where it tricks the ecu into thinking there’s a cat still there I’m catless and can still pass a inspection

@@jevoncoleman5149 He is already tuned, so he probably does not want to buy another tune. And yes other tuners might be able to do that, my old evo x was tuned like that, its readiness monitor was set to "not available" so I didn't have to deal with this readiness monitor nonsense, but it seems all the major otd tunes for this car will encounter this same readiness monitor problem he is dealing with. So he can either spend like $40 on an O2 sensor spacer with inserts and keep his tune he already paid for, or he can buy and gamble on another tune that hopefully sets it to "not available" instead of the "not ready" like the IE tune does. For his situation and mine, it was much more worth while to buy the spacer and flash it back to stock once a year.

@@jevoncoleman5149 And just to clarify, the problem is multiple readiness monitors are set to "not ready"/"incomplete" with the IE stage 2 tune. You can only have a certain amount of these monitors not ready to pass emissions, and too many are set to not ready with this tune. The IE tune does this because of the high flow cat, it will throw a check engine light otherwise. Now some tuners can set this to "not available" which bypasses all this, because "not available" will not cause you to fail like "not ready" will. To make those monitors ready, he needs to flash the tune back to stock and drive for a bit, but then the system will notice the high flow cat and throw a check engine light or fail the monitor, so to trick the system into thinking he still has an oem cat, he needs a O2 sensor spacer. The spacer will restrict the amount of exhaust gases reaching the O2 sensor, and with the right combination of spacer and insert, you can trick the O2 sensor into thinking the system has a good cat. This combination of the O2 sensor spacer and stock tune will allow him to drive long enough for the needed monitors to come online without any failing/throwing a check engine light so he can pass inspection/emissions.

Also tractive suspension but very pricey

I appreciate this so much! Thanks for the kind words.

@NewEnglandPete of course brotha, keep slaying these videos. I always enjoy them my dude

ECU +TCU. You won't be regret.

apr stage 1 ecu and tcu tune

CEL and emissions. Stage 2 defeats the CEL code, but won’t pass readiness.

@@NewEnglandPete cant u just put in 3-5 liter of E85?

Thanks for the kind words! I am definitely looking into a wheel like those!

How much sidewall are you using on your 18’s, to make you think it’s “more sidewall” in that 19’s don’t give enough? I currently went back to stock suspension (after being on coilovers for 5 years), and run Rotiform KPS 19x8.5 ET45 wheels (29lbs/each) with 245/40 19 tires (Barum Bravuris all-seasons they’re actually pretty dang good for cheap tires!). It’s plenty of sidewall. 98mm to be exact. Definitely has the meaty look to it. I’ve been on 19’s for almost 6 years now, and am ready to go back to 18’s, so I literally just bought Konig Hypergrams (17lbs/each) 18x8.5 ET43 with 235/45 18 tires (PS4S’s super excited!). These tires sidewall are 105.75mm tall, so a little meatier, but the 245/40 19 looks still looks meaty. I wouldn’t say it isn’t enough sidewall. Can’t wait for my new setup to arrive. I’m sure between the lighter wheels, smaller diameter, and much grippier tires, that my MK7 GTI will feel transformed.

​@@JacesOwnWorldif you're not familiar, check out the Tyre Reviews RU-vid channel. He did a back to back test on a golf with 17, 18, and 19 inch wheels using the same tire model. Cool video - I definitely learned a lot from it. The short of it: 17 was the softest ride, but least steering response; 19 was the harshest ride, most steering response; 18 was a great middle ground, and it also produced less noise in the car than *either* the 17 or 19. Hope that helps.

Sure, other than that, "man, I frickin' love this thing, guys" line... 😂

Stage 1?

47 HP lol might as well go IE for 310HP

@@NewEnglandPete Honestly, I don't even think it's Stage 1. It's just an 87 Tune that gives you a modest bump. All the reviews say it's enough to notice and responsive. No support mods needed, no cooling issues, no worries about overloading the transmission. I just want to be quick off the line at the light, you know? ✌😎

@@FN4EVER. Mo' power, Mo' problems, 'ya know? 😁

Trying that route first. I'll report back the results.

In Vermont you can have 2 "not ready" flags I think, which can happen even if the CEL is not on. The O2 sensor clears this up and should keep the CEL off. That was my experience with a stage 2 high flo cat /Downpipe setup on my GTI a few years back. Good luck!

super gready

Right.

No, are you?

@NewEnglandPete nope but man at the beginning of your video...haha. DP is fine. Flash to stock. Run a spacer. Set readiness. I have the 18" version of those wheels with 235/40s...nice setup.

Homework is for sally’s