Hello group, I know the topic of wheels has been done to death and the six 14" wheels I have are in good nick. I have seen though a couple of T3 Syncro’s for sale with Tiguan 16" wheels and I was wondering if anyone here has used a set or even the Tiguan 15" wheels? Also, do Tiguan wheel centres work on the Syncro? Cheers, Harold
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You have to bore out the centres a bit
Thnks for the feedback Rowan. Did you have to machine the centre bore for the wheels to fit and did you also have to change any gearing? Mine is an original 140000km’s on the 2.1 and it’s certainly no power house so I don’t know how the 15" or 16" wheels affect performance.
Hi Harold. I have 25” metro steel wheels. I had 205 firestones and for my trip to cape York I put on 235 ATs. I have noticed that although it’s great on flat roads but any incline require more use of the gears. I will probably go for the middle ground and put on 215
ATs and sell the 235s. They have not had that much use.
Cheers, Peter
Hi Harold, yes you have to bore them out as per Greg E’s post above. And buy nuts from T3 technique. I recommend 215’s 70’s on 16’s, for width with no scrubbing and no mods needed for wider tyres. Also the 70 profile tyre is roughly the same as 75’s on 15’s. Added bonus is your Speedo will be correct as on 14’s your Speedo is 5km under. As for your vans engine performance I can’t comment but mine is fine with this combo. 2.1 wbx.
Thanks for that Rowan. I’ll start looking at wreckers for 16" Tiguan Wheels. My speedo with the 14" is out easily by 10k and oddly it’s consistently out by that according to my GPS. 70 reads 80 and 100 reads 110. Also good to hear that a 2.1 can handle the change. Thanks again, Harold
Agree… with a stock engine 235 x 75 x 15 tyres on whatever wheels will be too big and heavy and make the syncro struggle.
No problem with a bigger engine but to keep it original 215 would be a safer limit.
With my set up with the 235s? the speedo is exactly the same as my Tom Tom. With 205s it was always below actual.
Wise words Scott I will be sorting this issue out when I am back home. Also going to see Rudi on 18 March. Cheers 
Yes the speedo is set as 10% out usually from factory so increasing wheel size fixes that issue at least.
Love Rudi’s work - always quality.
Bearing in mind Rudi, like few if any others, can usually make it through challenging OZ terrain and waterways. While up there Peter, ask Rudi his thoughts on wider tyres on a syncro, also eyeball his own tyres on his syncros. Live and learn. HA!
Harold. I may have a set for sale soon. Centre bores done. 5 wheels and 4 tyres.
Cheers Neil, but where are you? Shipping might get expensive. What size tyres and what type/condition? And if I may ask, why would you no longer use them? I’m still a little leery that my stock 2.1 will handle 16" tyres. Cheers. Harold
Hi Harold.
Im from Rockhampton.
On the Sunshine Coast this afternoon though.
Shipping is around $25 per wheel by Australia Post.
Thanks Phil, that’s pretty reasonable. Would you know anything about the performance of a stock 2.1 with 16" wheels? I like the idea of better tyre options than the 14" and a little more ground clearance and even getting the speedo somewhere near accurate but I don’t want to negatively affect performance. If gearing needs changing I’d just as soon stay with the 14" wheels.
Harold. We had the 2.1 with these 215.70.16 and the performance was good. We saw no change except the speedo got to within 7km @100km/hr
I haven’t done a lot of off road but am impressed with the 2.1 and these rims/tyres.
I didn’t find any need at all to change the gearing.
I only changed because i found a set of slightly larger tyres and steel rims.
Whereabouts are you?
Neil
You would really need low profile tyres. With 75 series tyres the brakes would be terrible. I drove a heavy camper with 16" wheels and it was not good. It made first gear very tall.
Neil, I’m in Perth but syncro Phil posted that postage/shipping was only about $25 per wheel so that’s not so bad. If it’s to Perth? I don’t know if that included tyres on the rims. But depending on how much you need to get out of the deal and postage costs I’d be interested. 215 70 16 tyres? Are they an all terrain, a road tyre or light truck? I was looking for something like BF Goodrich AT 215/75 but I’m no tyre expert. I had BFGoodrich tyres on my old 14" rims and they were a brilliant off road and on road tyre. But as we all know finding something like those now is damn near impossible.
I’m not sure I understand first gear being very tall as a problem? To me a tall gear means it will run to a higher speed. So will it run at a lower rev count in the top end on the highway. When we left Perth to go north last winter we had a wind and rain situation that brought us down to about 60-50kpmh on one particular hill and I was down to third gear. But it was an extreme situation. The pop top was actually threatening to lift off at points as well! Normally I can attack most hills on the highway without gear changes as long as I plan for them.