Lava Grey A3 8P 3.2 Wheel advice / opinions

JamesWoj · Jul 8, 2015

Hi All,

I'm after some wheel advice and opinions.....

I currently have a Lava Grey A3 8P 3.2 lowered on FK coilovers with silver B6 S4 Avus alloy wheels.

I'm now thinking about a change but want to stay with genuine Audi wheels and ideally 18's (as I would like to try and keep it quite subtle and OEM+ as I call it). The current wheels are 8J ET45 with sit nicely and do not scrub the arch (no rolling required). So I'm looking at wheels with a similar width and offset

I am currently thinking of 2 other wheels, trying to be a little bit different from the norm:

Audi A4 'RS4' style wheels which are 8J and ET43. These are the only photos I can find of these wheels on an A3 8P - does anyone know of any others or could photoshop them?

Audi S4 'S3 8P style' wheels which are 8J and ET43 - Not a different wheel but would sit better without spacers. This this photo below might be 19's.

Just interested in people's opinon's and whether anyone else has any other suggestions. I do like the original RS6 and B7 RS4 style wheels but a lot of people seem to run these wheels.

Thanks in advance,

James.

TomSx · Jul 8, 2015

I actually like the older RS4 wheels on 8p's however I also really like B6 S4 rims. Let me know if you sell them..

I'd happily replace my 19's with Avus's.

Jlambert · Jul 8, 2015

I'm a big fan of the Avus wheels they seem to really suit the car, the offset just works.
The B5 RS4 style wheels work really well on mk1 TT's and should look the business on yours too.
The S3 wheels I've never really been a fan of and those do look like 19's to me, the 18's I don't think would suit yours.

I've got the C5 RS6 style 18's on my 3.2 8P1, they're the original wheels and the offset is very conservative in my opinion, and you do see a lot of them.
That's with spacers and standard ride height.

Joe

Rideen · Jul 8, 2015

I would go with RS4 ones. Have you given a thought about rotors?

JamesWoj · Jul 8, 2015

TomSx said:
I actually like the older RS4 wheels on 8p's however I also really like B6 S4 rims. Let me know if you sell them.. I'd happily replace my 19's with Avus's.

Thanks TomSx - have you seen any other photos of RS4 wheels on 8P's as I couldn't find any in the wheel thread? If I do get another set of wheels then they will have to be sold (can't afford 2 sets of wheels).

Jlambert said:
I'm a big fan of the Avus wheels they seem to really suit the car, the offset just works.
The B5 RS4 style wheels work really well on mk1 TT's and should look the business on yours too.
The S3 wheels I've never really been a fan of and those do look like 19's to me, the 18's I don't think would suit yours.

I've got the C5 RS6 style 18's on my 3.2 8P1, they're the original wheels and the offset is very conservative in my opinion, and you do see a lot of them.
That's with spacers and standard ride height.

Nice to hear so many people like the Avus wheels - don't get me wrong I do like them but I just fancy a change. I do like the C5 RS6 wheels - think they suit the 8P to a tea but as they were a standard S-Line wheel I just wanted to be a little bit different. I am going more towards the RS4 style wheels to be honest as they were never fitted as standard to the 8P.

Where did you get your diamond / hexagonal grill from? As I don't remember seeing any standard with that grill? Car looks great with the votex splitter and skirts in red.

Joe

Rideen said:
I would go with RS4 ones. Have you given a thought about rotors?

Rideen are you talking about these wheels below? If so I do like them but as I have a dark grey car I like having silver wheels and I don't think that wheel suits just being silver. I would also want the wider genuine 18" wheels (as the standard A3 wheels seem to be 7.5J and ET54) which seem to go for a lot of money.

JamesWoj · Jul 8, 2015

One of the things I would say with the RS4 wheels is that I don't particularly like the "pretend bolts" around the edge of the centre caps.

Sayam · Jul 8, 2015

I like the wheels that are on the car and wouldn't change the wheel or the colour.

I'd go for subtle tints at the front and S3 bi-xenon headlights if you don't already have them.

JamesWoj · Jul 8, 2015

Jlambert said:
I'm a big fan of the Avus wheels they seem to really suit the car, the offset just works.
The B5 RS4 style wheels work really well on mk1 TT's and should look the business on yours too.
The S3 wheels I've never really been a fan of and those do look like 19's to me, the 18's I don't think would suit yours.

I've got the C5 RS6 style 18's on my 3.2 8P1, they're the original wheels and the offset is very conservative in my opinion, and you do see a lot of them.
That's with spacers and standard ride height.

Joe

Nice to hear so many people like the Avus wheels - don't get me wrong I do like them but I just fancy a change. I do like the C5 RS6 wheels - think they suit the 8P to a tea but as they were a standard S-Line wheel I just wanted to be a little bit different. I am going more towards the RS4 style wheels to be honest as they were never fitted as standard to the 8P.

Where did you get your diamond / hexagonal grill from? As I don't remember seeing any standard with that grill? Car looks great with the votex splitter and skirts in red.

JamesWoj · Jul 8, 2015

Sayam said:
I like the wheels that are on the car and wouldn't change the wheel or the colour.

I'd go for subtle tints at the front and S3 bi-xenon headlights if you don't already have them.

Thanks for your comments, I would always want to stay with silver wheels on a grey car - but that's only my personal preference.

I would like to tint the rear windows and boot and get some xenon headlights - both, especially the xenon lights are a bit expensive at the moment with the other work i've done so far.

discostu49 · Jul 8, 2015

the only side shot i have of mine

discostu49 · Jul 8, 2015

do like the s4 wheels you have tho would love them on my car

Jake 61 · Jul 8, 2015

OEM+ 7.5 x 18 BBS CH with 5mm spacers and sitting on Weitec Coilovers...?
:smile new:

Jlambert · Jul 9, 2015

JamesWoj said:
Nice to hear so many people like the Avus wheels - don't get me wrong I do like them but I just fancy a change. I do like the C5 RS6 wheels - think they suit the 8P to a tea but as they were a standard S-Line wheel I just wanted to be a little bit different. I am going more towards the RS4 style wheels to be honest as they were never fitted as standard to the 8P.

Where did you get your diamond / hexagonal grill from? As I don't remember seeing any standard with that grill? Car looks great with the votex splitter and skirts in red.

I completely understand about the C5 RS6 wheels, mines had them since new, but yes you do see quite a lot of them!
The RS4 wheels work incredibly well on 8L S3's but you don't see them at all on 8P's.
I think my dad tried to fit the RS4 wheels to my car years ago, but they where the 18" option wheel on his RS6 and were way to wide!

I actually made the grill myself. Butchered an original A3 grill and an RS4 grill.
I was never a fan of the A3 grill, but didn't want to go for a single frame as unless you go for a S3 bumper I prefer the twin grill on earlier cars. (personal and quite rare opinion!)

It's a little amateurish up close but I think it transforms the look of the car.

Joe

JamesWoj · Jul 10, 2015

discostu49 said:
the only side shot i have of mine

Looks good there, are they 18" S-Line wheels? Think they are normally 7.5J and ET54 which means buying spacers.

I do like these wheels but there are lots of people with them. That's the difficult with these and the RS6 wheels, they really suit the car but they are common

JamesWoj · Jul 10, 2015

Jlambert said:
I completely understand about the C5 RS6 wheels, mines had them since new, but yes you do see quite a lot of them!
The RS4 wheels work incredibly well on 8L S3's but you don't see them at all on 8P's.
I think my dad tried to fit the RS4 wheels to my car years ago, but they where the 18" option wheel on his RS6 and were way to wide!

I actually made the grill myself. Butchered an original A3 grill and an RS4 grill.
I was never a fan of the A3 grill, but didn't want to go for a single frame as unless you go for a S3 bumper I prefer the twin grill on earlier cars. (personal and quite rare opinion!)

It's a little amateurish up close but I think it transforms the look of the car.

Joe

Thought the grills were probably a custom one-off. I completely agree I think they transform the car - are they gloss black as they look it.

I do like the split grill myself as well and actually prefer the S-Line special front bumper to the S3 bumper which is also probably a rare opinon. I would like a S-Line special front bumper but you need to change the bonnet and I believe other things so I decided to leave it.

Like I was saying in the post above the B7 RS4 and RS6 style wheels do both suit the A3 really well but they are common. I would not try genuine RS6 wheels they would be too wide but the same style from an A4 as they are 8J and ET43, similar to my wheels without needing spacers.

I am worried the B5 RS4 wheels won't suit but I haven't found any photos of a 3 door lowered on those wheels to compare against. Might have to find someone with photoshop to see how it looks?

JamesWoj · Jul 10, 2015

Jake 61 said:
View attachment 62743

OEM+ 7.5 x 18 BBS CH with 5mm spacers and sitting on Weitec Coilovers...?

I have to say i've seen a few cars with these BBS CH wheels on and they are growing on me. Are these from an ED30 Golf GTI or did they actually come on the Audi A3 as standard? I would ideally want to find 8J ET45ish to give me the same offset so I don't need to buy spacers.

Jake 61 · Jul 10, 2015

JamesWoj said:
I have to say i've seen a few cars with these BBS CH wheels on and they are growing on me. Are these from an ED30 Golf GTI or did they actually come on the Audi A3 as standard? I would ideally want to find 8J ET45ish to give me the same offset so I don't need to buy spacers.

No, these are Audi optional wheels with the correct numbers and logos cast into the inner face.
:smile new:

james.allan.923 · Jul 10, 2015

I have the same alloys as discostu49 but not lowered yet. Still undecided whether to go coilover or springs

Jlambert · Jul 10, 2015

JamesWoj said:
Thought the grills were probably a custom one-off. I completely agree I think they transform the car - are they gloss black as they look it.

I do like the split grill myself as well and actually prefer the S-Line special front bumper to the S3 bumper which is also probably a rare opinon. I would like a S-Line special front bumper but you need to change the bonnet and I believe other things so I decided to leave it.

Like I was saying in the post above the B7 RS4 and RS6 style wheels do both suit the A3 really well but they are common. I would not try genuine RS6 wheels they would be too wide but the same style from an A4 as they are 8J and ET43, similar to my wheels without needing spacers.

I am worried the B5 RS4 wheels won't suit but I haven't found any photos of a 3 door lowered on those wheels to compare against. Might have to find someone with photoshop to see how it looks?

I did consider that too, but in the end decided that if i wanted a big grille car I should have just bought one, and mines had the full dealer bodykit from new (I'm assuming this is the Vortex one?) so I'm going to leave it as it is. Apart from being a tad high I'm happy with mine now.

Yes the mesh is gloss black , I butchered a black optics RS4 grill for that. That and the second hand A3 grills and supplies ended up costing me a fortune! The surround is now brushed aluminum as well to finish off the look and to match the mirrors. The aim was a standard C5 RS6 grill.

No the RS6 wheels would rub everywhere! But I might have a picture somewhere though, I'll have a dig through. The extra half an inch really makes the difference.
I've spacered mine out, but would much prefer a bit more width.
The ones from an A4 would work very nicely, I'm assuming they're wider than the ones that get fitted to TT's and 8L S3's?
I can't believe I can't find a single picture of those wheels on an 8P1!
Closest I can find on an 8P is the MTM Bi-Motos, half way down this page, which do look the nuts.

http://www.audi-sport.net/xf/thread...of-specific-wheels.93198/page-67#post-2353404

Joe

JamesWoj · Jul 11, 2015

Jake 61 said:
No, these are Audi optional wheels with the correct numbers and logos cast into the inner face.

Never realised that - I expect they are quite rare as can't find many for sale. Might be another option although ideally would be 8J not 7.5J - wonder if the ED30 Golf has slightly different size.

JamesWoj · Jul 11, 2015

Jlambert said:
I did consider that too, but in the end decided that if i wanted a big grille car I should have just bought one, and mines had the full dealer bodykit from new (I'm assuming this is the Vortex one?) so I'm going to leave it as it is. Apart from being a tad high I'm happy with mine now.

Yes the mesh is gloss black , I butchered a black optics RS4 grill for that. That and the second hand A3 grills and supplies ended up costing me a fortune! The surround is now brushed aluminum as well to finish off the look and to match the mirrors. The aim was a standard C5 RS6 grill.

No the RS6 wheels would rub everywhere! But I might have a picture somewhere though, I'll have a dig through. The extra half an inch really makes the difference.
I've spacered mine out, but would much prefer a bit more width.
The ones from an A4 would work very nicely, I'm assuming they're wider than the ones that get fitted to TT's and 8L S3's?
I can't believe I can't find a single picture of those wheels on an 8P1!
Closest I can find on an 8P is the MTM Bi-Motos, half way down this page, which do look the nuts.

http://www.audi-sport.net/xf/thread...of-specific-wheels.93198/page-67#post-2353404

Joe

Yes I know what you mean there - should have bought one with a big grille but they were thousands more £££££ when I bought mine.

Yeah yours looks like it has the Vortex / Votex kit which I really like, again what I would call OEM+ but again can't really find any for sale as would be a nice upgrade.

The RS6 style wheels from the A4 are 8J ET43 whereas standard wheels on an A3 are 7.5J ET54 which makes a massive difference.

I've found a couple of other photos (went through the whole of the A3 8P photos thread), be interested to see what people think:

19's maybe?

Also found some photos with RS6 style wheels on lowered cars which I really like (although on the first two photos wheels look more concave - wonder if they are genuine RS6 wheels?)

Jlambert · Jul 13, 2015

JamesWoj said:
Yes I know what you mean there - should have bought one with a big grille but they were thousands more £££££ when I bought mine.

Yeah yours looks like it has the Vortex / Votex kit which I really like, again what I would call OEM+ but again can't really find any for sale as would be a nice upgrade.

The RS6 style wheels from the A4 are 8J ET43 whereas standard wheels on an A3 are 7.5J ET54 which makes a massive difference.

Also found some photos with RS6 style wheels on lowered cars which I really like (although on the first two photos wheels look more concave - wonder if they are genuine RS6 wheels?)

And of course you creep closer to the massive jump in tax!
Thanks, all I know about the kit is it was dealer fitted when the car was brand new. I think it suits the car really well, the only problem with it though is at the rear it squares off the bumper so you loose the pipes!

Those look they could even be the 20's fitted to A8's, and looks like he paid the price!
Would look cool in a more sensible size though.

The first two RS6 wheels defintely look like 19's to me, they could be proper RS6 wheels. No idea how you'd deal with the fitment on those though.
The last pic looks like it could be the standard 18's but lowered and spacered.

Joe

JamesWoj · Jul 13, 2015

Jlambert said:
And of course you creep closer to the massive jump in tax!
Thanks, all I know about the kit is it was dealer fitted when the car was brand new. I think it suits the car really well, the only problem with it though is at the rear it squares off the bumper so you loose the pipes!

Those look they could even be the 20's fitted to A8's, and looks like he paid the price!
Would look cool in a more sensible size though.

The first two RS6 wheels defintely look like 19's to me, they could be proper RS6 wheels. No idea how you'd deal with the fitment on those though.
The last pic looks like it could be the standard 18's but lowered and spacered.

Joe

Yes I do think that kit suits the car really well, definitely the front bumper splitter and skirts although I do admit i'm not such a fan of the rear valance / diffuser.

Yeah thought the first 3 pics looked like 19's or larger. Don't want to go larger than 18's due to tyre prices and fitment, still want to be able to drive it hard with no scrubbing issues or having to pay to roll the arches etc.

Managed to find another photos of RS4 wheels but website doesn't exist anymore - these might be 19's too

smurfworth · Jul 13, 2015

JamesWoj said:
Yes I do think that kit suits the car really well, definitely the front bumper splitter and skirts although I do admit i'm not such a fan of the rear valance / diffuser.

Yeah thought the first 3 pics looked like 19's or larger. Don't want to go larger than 18's due to tyre prices and fitment, still want to be able to drive it hard with no scrubbing issues or having to pay to roll the arches etc.

Managed to find another photos of RS4 wheels but website doesn't exist anymore - these might be 19's too

Looks like 20's to me, just like the ones in the pic with the split tyre.

I'd suggest staying away from 19's if you like to drive hard. 18's for go and 19's for show is what people normally say.

Jlambert · Jul 14, 2015

They do look good, but I agree with smurfworth they do look like 20's!

Yeah the rear valance does change the look, I think it suits my car though. Although it may just be because I'm used to it!

Joe

JamesWoj · Jul 18, 2015

smurfworth said:
Looks like 20's to me, just like the ones in the pic with the split tyre.

I'd suggest staying away from 19's if you like to drive hard. 18's for go and 19's for show is what people normally say.

Yeah they do look pretty big. I do drive my car hard and 18's seem to be a good balance, 18's for go it is then!

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