u/jgronline

The 19” OEM wheels come with summer tires so I replaced it will all seasons.

Next, a pothole bent a wheel so I repaired it.

I then managed a few more thousand miles and another pothole killed a wheel

I sold the three good wheels and bought 18” APR wheels and another set of new tires. It took a few trips back to get the tires balanced and two different hub centric rings too.

After I got those wheels, I realized the gloss black trim on the Golf R doesn’t look good with satin wheels. So I bought a new set of gloss black wheels and used my existing 18” tires. It looks much better.

The new wheels with the old tires wouldn’t balance. I tried multiple times at two different shops including road force balancing. I tried plastic and aluminum hub centric rings too. Eventually, I had the tires replaced under warranty.

The new Continental tires are smoother and were road force balanced. I made sure it was torqued properly too. It is better but the car still shakes at high speeds. The steering wheel shakes at speed too.

My next step is an alignment and I’ll have a third shop attempt to balance the new tires.

I have 11,000 miles on the car too. This is getting ridiculous.

Why is it so hard to get a decent ride in this car?

https://preview.redd.it/qdfusneh7w9h1.png?width=869&format=png&auto=webp&s=08869078af19f62b9c6dcca3d04f79fd047e7867

I recently installed these in my MK8 Golf R and they sound amazing!

My sound mods:

• ACM Technik sound improvement mod
• 2 8" Pioneer subs under the rear floor
• Skar 350.1D amp (1 ohm mono)
• Audio Control LCi2
• Sound deadening in the doors and rear floor

The tweeters make a huge difference! The high-hat in songs actually sound like a high-hat! There is good stereo separation now where before, it just sounded muddled.

The door speakers don't add as much mid-bass as I would like but maybe it would be better if I removed the little capacitor which I'm assuming is a high pass filter. But the mid-range sounds much better now!

It is a great balance with the stock rear speakers as it is a great front stage and rear fill.

I also don't think I'm going to upgrade the center channel speaker. At this point, it doesn't seem worth it. I would consider that a "stage 1" mod only because it is much easier to install than the Focal IS VW 155 speakers. My recommendation is to skip the stage 1 center channel speaker upgrade and go right for the Focal door speakers.

These speakers are for the MK7 but fit very well in the MK8. The tweeters fit perfectly and the included harness works too. But the door speakers harness needs to have little tabs removed. I used a dremel to do this. This dremel mod allows you to switch back to the stock speakers too so it is reversible.