offset help on wide 18"

[sam k]

Hi its time to update the wheels on my 1.8t facelift and ive been looking on edition 38 for a nice set of 18"s but want to make sure im getting the right offset to have the fronts flush with the arches and the rears just poking out nothing too daft as i cant be doing with much police hassle.
Ideally im after 8j fronts and 9j rears but have seen a few nice porsche wheels which have 10j rears, is this an option or are they just too wide.
Im on JOM coilovers at the moment and have to run a couple of mm spacers on the fronts to stop the tyre fouling the coilovers im going for wider wheels so i know i need a lower offset im just not sure what i can and cant get away with.
Just need a little advice as i know there are quite a few of you running wider 18"s on your cars

Thanks

 

[DJ_Troopa]

10j rears on a 1.8T A3 will be too wide. Plus the offset on that wheel is very high, i believe ET52.

 

[sam k]

Thanks for the help. thought they would probably be too wide just wanted to make sure.

 

[s3_kev]

10j rears on a 1.8T A3 will be too wide. Plus the offset on that wheel is very high, i believe ET52.

high offset would aid the fitment of a wider wheel, except inside clearance up front but there lower offesets then the rears on porsche set ups anyway. sure the porsche wheels are more into the 60mm et but anyway (rear), i do belive your right that 10's would be too wide on the narrower bodied a3 though....
your going to need to have an offset of no more then et25 really for front end clearance on any thing upto 8.5 inch wide rears you shouldnt have this issue the outside arch will be your problem there and not sure on how much narrower the a3 all sits compared to an s3. however i have fitted et10 8j wheels onto a leon cupra beofre and it sat on the edge of the wheel arch so a little more and you would have the poke your after say et5-7 thats if the leon and a3 bodies are the same widths, however i doubt they are

 

[DJ_Troopa]

Oh yeah, my bad, the turbo twist reps are ET52's! The originals are into their 60's as Kev advised.

 

[sam k]

Thanks very much for the help was most concerned about the fronts clearing the coilover and now i know what i can get away with there.
Got about £900 saved for wheels and tyres, would love some MAM MT1's (although obviously brand new ones are out of my price range) but could really do with a wheel that i can keep on all year round but still looks special and not like a halfords jobbie if you know what i mean

 

[s3_kev]

hard choice to decide on which wheels as it can make or break the apperance of a car, if your using the wheels all year around that also limits your choices further as one piece monoblocks are your best bet as less worry of corroding rims, also your unlikely to get split rims for £900 with tyres.
when i 1st started out trying to stance my s3 correct i already had the wheels i wanted and then just simply measured the distance from the wheel rim to the edge of the outside arch. your then no your offset you require, bit more tricky 2nd time around though as i needed adapters and the wheels were an inch wider so i couldnt even test fit the wheels but from what i had already i could work out what i needed/wanted stance wise

 

[sam k]

Yeah split rims are somewhat out of the question thats why i was looking towards porsche reps, like the twists, but unless i can find a set of 4 front wheels they wont work either, think ill be looking to buy second hand from edition 38 or wheel whores, should i trust ebay for things like reps as ive heard there are some shady reps on there. It was easy to get my last cars stance right i just brought the wheels and just flared the arches out to get them sitting perfectly, but dont want to go too mad on the a3 get it sitting nice on some nice wheels.
thanks for all the advice

 

[chapmanvr6]

don't know if its any comparison but my mate is running et27 9x19 front and 10x19 et27 rear on a mk4 golf which is a very similar platform afaik. the extra inch on the rear simply translates to the wheel sitting both in and out of the arch an extra 12.7mm (half inch) compared to the front, if that makes any sense, and he has slight poke all round on his. i think a 10 on the rear is definately do-able, its all about how much you want it to fit and are willing to experiment.

 

[sam k]

Well i know a big stretch on the tyre can help me get them on but think they could be a bit too wide thats why i was thinking 9j at the back, definately want staggered wheels though, think you can create awsome stance with wider rears. Would love 10j to fit so i could go down the porsche wheel route but like others have told me they might be too wide for a normal a3 (not s3) and they are et 60 or et52 for reps which is quite high would i have trouble with them sitting too close to the inner arch. Got a friend who i work with who owns a mk4 golf and it could just be down to the style and shape of his arches but they do look wider then my a3's ones

 

[s3_kev]

this is my mates shop BM Autosport - BMW Alloy Wheel specialist UK he does rep wheels and no's his stuff about vw and bmw give him a bell if you see anything you like, he also has more then just on his website, tell him kevin bousell sent ya should see you get sumit sorted

 

[sam k]

thanks very much mate ill have a look on the website and my dads got the new bmw 3 series coupe so he will have a look aswell.
cheers

 

[Jordan1.8t]

I got told on edition 38 that if it's fits on a golf mk4 it will fit on a a3, it depends how much poke you want, I had a set of rear wheels that where 18x9j et 35 on the rear of my a3 and they barley poked at all if any, tbh most of it is on personal preference.

There's a bloke on edition 38 with an a3 ad he's got 16x9 et15!!!!
There is an a3 with staggered mam mt1's there 9.5j on the back with an offset of et25 and they don't poke rediculous amounts, maybe 2cm at most.

I'm picking up a set of staggered 3 piece splits tomorrow 8x18 up front and 18x10 out back for my a3

 

[20v-turbo]

hey, im running 19x10 on my rears with 245 stretch, et has been brought down to 25 and the tyre to the arch is perfect,, but i need shims and rolling to get it to sit perfect,

only problem i have found with jom coilovers is tht the rears are bouncy(well to mutch travel in teh spring)

but theres an a3 running 17x10 and its absoloutly sits perfect really makes the carr look wide as fuux


oh and on the fronts im running 19x9 et 18 (to clear from fowling) stretched on 215