UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

i wonder if anyone can help me! i've got a mk3 polo and i have recently put alloys on it. the alloys are 15" team dynamics monza and they are 6.5 wide (apartently 7's wouldn't fit!). i got 195/45/15 tyres! anyway, had to do a bit of arch modification to one front arch (only one side on a full lock!). the back ones needed a 3mm spacer for saftey as i thought they were a bit close to the suspension strut! i have been using the car for a few weeks now and now and then when i go over the odd bump, one of the wheels catch somewhere and i have no idea where, i thought there was enough room for them! the other day, i managed to get one side to rub and then the other over the next bump, so their both doing it! its usually when there is too people in the car and the noise seems to be coming from the rear arches. anyone got any ideas? anyone have this problem as well?

thanx for ur help!

by the way, here are some pictures of my car!

p.s. i have taken the stickers off since these pictures!

there you go matey

shes looking nice but from those pics i have to ask what et are you running?

i only got the car a few weeks ago, needed some work to get it through the MOT!
looking forward to doing loadsa mods to her, she'll be great!
she's only a baby 1litre but i am only 18 and skint! insurance is so dam high!

Are you on standard suspension? if so its probably rubbing because theres too much travel (ie the wheels moves up and down too much) investing in some performance suspension would probably cure this (or at least help).

Also, like Ash said, it looks like the wheel face may be rubbing on the outer arch - heres a tip, get on your knees and look at the wheel and get a friend to push the car down and see if it does catch anywhere.

Looking good in those pics.
Most people running 15" wheels on Mk 3 Polo's experience catching on the wheel arches. You should be able to see where it catches if you look at the arches.
Fitting uprated suspension reduces suspension travel and means there is less chance of catching.

thanx for the advice, have been looking at wheels to find any marks on the tyres but couldn't see any, i'll probably rub chalk in the possible places and when it happens again then i'll see where the chalk has come off! suspension is one of the next things on my list! cheers

anyone else had any problems?

its not rubbing on the outer arches, already tried to make sure it wasn't them! i'm even running 3mm spacers to bring it out from the suspension struts, one side you can put ur hand between the stut and the wheel but on the other side you can't. i don't think its that rubbing cause it rubs on both sides!

last night i gave my car a bit more go around some corners and heard a rubbing noise, it was very quiet and i had music on so it was hard to make out, anyway i checked it in the morning and found this:

note the slight mark going around the whole tyre. its not like that on the other side

here is the reason why the mark is there, the supension strut sits so close to the wheel!

would it be worth getting a bigger spacer to clear the suspension strut? i think i got enough room looking at the pic below!
another thing is what pressure is best to run my tyres at? having a higher pressure stop the tyre rolling so much?

p.s. my brothers mk5 got lowered the other day! looks really good, pictures coming soon

i don't seem to be having much luck with imagestation, i'll try again

doug&dan wrote:i don't seem to be having much luck with imagestation, i'll try again

remember to take off the .orig.jpg

I ran 7x15in Autec Zyclons on my GT for a couple of weeks.

I didnt experience ANY problems with the wheels fitting (no rubbing or anything) but the drive was awful!

I experienced nothing but bump steer and tramlining. When driving round a roundabout the car would fight to the left, yet when you would go to exit the car would pull really hard to the right when the weight balance moved.

I was running 195/45x15 Yoko A539'sand had the camber and tracking aligned twice!

Not really too much help with your fitment problems tho......

i'm running 15"x6.5" alloys on 195/45/15 tyres! when i ordered alloys i was told that 15"x7" wouldn't fit, i was looking at getting oz suppleggra in silver! i have seen them on a g40 put i didn't really want to risk getting alloys that didn't fit! still the alloys i got now clear but its just the tyres! nevermind, hopefully lowering springs and uprated dampers should hopefully solve the problem. thats one of my next big jobs! i was thinking 35 to 40 mm. what everyone think? next month should have a bit of money handy for some little jobs such as clear indicators, and smoke side repeaters! i need to mod it, but such a lack of money!

just been cleaned, good job if u ask me!

get the SLs!!!


But check the ofset of the wheels when you buy them (i think you want ET38)