VW Lug Bolt question.

My son's 2011 Jetta had a shimmy that his local wrench could not solve. I loaned him my Jetta for a few days while I sent his to my guy. He runs factory alloys in the summer and factory steelies with snows in winter.

The answer is that he had a mishmash of lug bolt types. All were replaced with new ball type for his steel wheels.

I posed this question to a VW Forum, made up mostly of young broke local college guys, and got too many answers and a bit of lip.

I assumed the ball type was used on steelies and tapered on the alloys. I determined this by eye balling the chamfer inside the wheel.

Any experience, thoughts? Suggestions?

Dan

alloy bolts should be longer than the ones for the steelies. I am also sure that VW uses hubcentric mounting and not bolt centric.. but who knows.. did putting the correct bolts on the car cure the shimmy?

It is my belief both factory alloys and steelies use a radius bolt. Aftermarket use cone seats.

Hmm... not sure about a 2011, but my 2003 Jetta goes between alloy and steel wheels using the same lug bolts without issue.

nhmercracer wrote: It is my belief both factory alloys and steelies use a radius bolt. Aftermarket use cone seats.

This way my experience with my 05 gti.

Yep. VW has been ball lug since the 70's.

ditchdigger wrote: Yep. VW has been ball lug since the 70's.

This! When I went with studs instead of bolts I had to buy a set of ball nuts to fit the OEM wheels to the car but cone lugs for the aftermarket wheel that I used for racing.

nhmercracer has it correct if you have a cone seat on the steelies then they are not factory VW wheels. Factory Alloy lugs will work on alloys or factory steels.

Agreed here on all ball seat for oem. If your steelies are acorn, they are non-stock wheels.

Putting brandy new ball type on all four wheels corrected most of the shimmy. I understand the remaining chatter (barely perceptible) is due to cheap snow tires.

He bought the car from a Stealership and never noticed the difference in lug bolt. Some were ball, some were conical.

Thanks guys!

Dan

nhmercracer wrote: It is my belief both factory alloys and steelies use a radius bolt. Aftermarket use cone seats.

This and only this.
Which reminds me that I need to put 4 stock lug bolts in with my spare.