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33s on a V10 T1

21K views 36 replies 15 participants last post by  djklhc 
#1 ·
Hi all,

Try again - I posted the same thread in the wrong forum. Oops! >:)

I've just bought a 2005 Touareg V10 and I'm looking at doing some fairly serious mods to get 33s under the arches.

Has anyone done this here?

I'll be off-roading it and using the centre and rear diff-lock fully. I'm also looking at what's involved in fitting a front diff-lock.

I'm looking into the possibility of a subframe lift to be able to get extra room for the tyres.
 
#2 ·
Please click on User CP to update your location.


Good luck with the mods.
 
#4 ·
I've got 33s (275/70/18) on my V8 and it really didn't take much work at all. I hammered the front of the rockers quite a bit and that was it. Oh, and I have wheel spacers. I honestly don't even think i needed to hammer it as much as I did. Other than that, you'd just have to move the intercoolers forward at the front of the wheel wells, which has been well document here on the forum.
 
#5 ·
US rockers = GB sills.


I should have recognised an English street from the pavement alone in your profile picture!


Happy Magic Roundabouting!! I remember the day it opened when it was just piles of tyres. Didn't bother with the arrows - just selected my exit and went straight for it!!


And for our American chums, here's the aerial view of 5 mini-roundabouts arranged around a larger, central, 6th roundabout in the Op's home town . . . and, no, I still haven't a frickin' clue how to get round it nearly 50 years later and as for the poor girl on my SATNAV, she goes effing mental!!


 
#6 · (Edited)
Hi all,

<snip>
I'll be off-roading it and using the centre and rear diff-lock fully. I'm also looking at what's involved in fitting a front diff-lock.
<snip>
I've never driven the V10 but I have experimented in our V8 off road with various settings on the diff lock dial (open, rear, rear + center). In powder snow, slushy snow and on pure ice my V8 works much better with the diffs open and unlocked. Open diffs also worked better on ours crawling slowly over rocks and decomposed granite. This was for uphill, downhill and flat terrain. Tires/tyres are Goodyear Wrangler - 265/65-17.

Locked diffs worked better in gravel deeper than just decomposed granite, sand and some mud. Took me hours to clean after the mud so I don't do that much. :)

I can't figure out how to post a youtube link without the video embedding so go to https://www.youtube.com/user/hiracing/search?query=touareg and scroll down to "Sliding Truck". It's a traditional Dodge 4x4, locked diffs, much trouble. Touraeg in same spot did fine with open diffs.

"Hill Climb - May 17 2014" shows ascending a steep hill in low range, open diffs. If you watch that one make sure the audio is on - my wife did *not* want to go over that hill. :D

Welcome to the club and have fun! I can't be trusted with this platform and the power of a V10. :)

Good luck!
 
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#7 ·
Thanks for the info.

I have some experience off-road with other vehicles. It'll be mud / gravel etc on green-lanes within the UK that it gets used on as well as in the winter.

You're spot on about ice and snow, diff-locks are not the place for these. Diff-locks in those conditions just remove control and you end up sliding sideways as per the profile of the street.
 
#8 ·
I thought that I should update this thread as well as the main thread on the V10 as people like me may be looking for this information in the future.

The 33s are on... but they catch! No surprise there.





They're 275/70R18s, which measure up as 33.17" tall (according to the maths!)

The front wheels/tyres catch... the rears don't. I won't be looking at anything to do with the rears so any referrals to 'front or rear' will be about the front arch... just to save any confusion later ;)

The tyres catch only when turning and at a specific position, not all of the time.

At the front, they catch on the arch liner and behind that is the intercooler with ducting. They don't catch the bumper.



At the back, they catch on the arch liner and behind that... is the sill :( That's not an easy fix.



I only had a few hours so I concentrated on the intercoolers to start with.

So, off with the arch liners. These were both damaged from previous owners so I didn't feel bad about cutting them rather than trying to modify them.

I cut the section out with the vents in and that was it. I will look at some fine mesh grills to put over the intercooler rear face to protect them against stones and mud. For now, they're open to the elements.



Cutting the grill out (and the section that sticks back the most) wasn't going to be enough as the tyres were catching on the intercooler rear ducts as well.

I pulled the front bumper off and had a close look at the mountings.





The top intercooler mounts, I can't get to without dismantling lots more and I figured that by moving the bottom forwards, I would probably get the room that I need.

Here's the bottom mounting and me carefully removing all of the bracket that is part of the intercooler.



With that lump removed, I also had to slightly modify the front mounting part to give clearance for the intercooler to swing fowards. We're only talking mm here but every bit counts.

Once cleaned up, I drilled a hole through the remaining bracket (it's doesn't go into the intercooler chamber) and used the an M6 nut for the original fixing bolt to screw into.



And with the pipe back in position, you can see how much it's moved forwards.



Here's the other side with a few more detailed photos.









On the left hand side, the intercooler was now pushing against an intercooler pipe. A slight 'manipulation' with a pry bar in the right place was all that was needed to move it and allow the two parts to live happily together again :)

With everything buttoned back up again, it's clear to see how much more room there is.





The rear of the arches will be next but that's going to involve cutting and welding.
 
#24 ·
At the back, they catch on the arch liner and behind that... is the sill :( That's not an easy fix.




The rear of the arches will be next but that's going to involve cutting and welding.

Apparently I never read back through this thread very thoroughly. You definitely do not have to cut and weld at the back of the arches. I pulled back the plastic liner and whatever other plastics were in my way and just hit the bottom there with a little three pound sledge hammer and moved some of that metal out of the way. It cleared it just perfectly for the 33s. There's enough air space behind that metal that it will crumple just enough, and all the plastic liners and everything still went back on like normal for me. I didn't photograph the passenger side, but it was even easier because I didn't have the 4-zone/rear heat water lines in the way. I crushed the rocker/sill a little bit at the bottom of the arch (circled) and I also flattened out the water lines a little bit too (circled) because you can see the tire was rubbing the one water line, too.

However, any bigger and you definitely need to start cutting things out of the way. I plan to do that one of these years. There's a former Cayenne guy that went to 35s and then 37s with custom made lift parts and subframe spacers and who knows what else, and I think he started cutting the arches when he put 35s on.

30856755758_868a2acbfa_h by Pat, on Flickr
 
#9 ·
Good post. Pictures always help.

I hope you cleaned out the bulkhead (plenum chamber) drain on each side whilst you had the front liners off?
 
#12 ·
I strongly suggest adding wire mesh between your ICs and wheels.... those mudders will throw all sorts of debris at your ICs and will both clog and damage the cooling fins.... if it was my vehicle, I'd go as far as making some custom louvered sheet metal panels to still allow airflow\drainage but to protect the ICs.
 
#14 ·
I have seen quite a few custom intercoolers consolidated and relocated to the top-end of the engine bay. Is this something that you are apt to do? I'm not a mechanic, but I am mechanically inclined, and can fabricate.

some inspiration.....





Great photos and sources for inspiration.

I love those snorkels but they're ££££ and they only make one for the right hand side. I've spoken to them about making the mirror image for the left but they're not interested :(

Moving the intercoolers is something that I was thinking about when carrying out the work.

However, this is primarily a tow-vehicle with a serious lean towards off-road ability. I (or the owner) won't be climbing vertical mud banks with it.

I was fairly dismayed to find that the 33s mean cutting the front ends of the sills but there's no help for it. Even with a body lift, they'll catch on full compression.
 
#16 ·
Airflow to that Top Mount is horrible.... don't follow that idea.
If you're gonna do anything, do a FMIC or if you go top mount like that, use a reverse scoop to expel the hot ait through the hood.

You will clearly have to duct fresh air into it from the front end somewhere....
Yep I thought about the heat build-up as well. Any way to relocate the current intercoolers in front of the radiator with some fans?
 
#18 ·
I suggest just putting 31.6 inch tall tires, as downsides (driveability, additional work) of going to 33 doesn't outweigh the additional benefits.

Just put 265/65/18 (or 265/70/17), they should fit with no modification. Also, this is the same size that Cayenne Transsyberia rally cars used back in the day.
 
#22 ·
A little update on the V10.

I've been having issues with it due to the brake pressure switch failing. Now I've done these many times at the dealership while working for Porsche on Cayennes but never have I had one sheer in two due to someone over tightening it.

It was so tight that I ended up having to remove the brake master cylinder and put the remains of the switch into a vice and a tube onto the master cylinder.

Once done though, it was a fairly easy refit and then bleed of the brakes.

While that was going on, I've been putting together my set of street wheels... W12 20s :D

But with 275/60R20s







I also looked into having an adaptor plate made for the spare wheel carrier.









I have to finish off the bracket but it's functional.
 
#27 ·
A couple of vids from recent Green-laning in Wales.

This was my first time off-road with the V10 so I was being a bit careful hence the slow progress.



Again, I was taking my time here. This was in 'off-road' level, not the full height level which I'd never use when off-road as it limits suspension travel.



The lift kit (body 50mm lift kit) has given me the ability to run the 33s and have the V10 at a sensible ride height when off-road and therefore have full suspension movement rather than it being maxed out.
 
#28 ·
Can anyone tell me if it's possible to change coding/settings so that the windows will wind down by holding the unlock button on the remote and up by holding the lock button on the remote? It's normally changed within the comfort settings but I can't find a way of changing it.

Thanks
 
#31 · (Edited)
A question for those in the know...

I'm looking at swapping the spare wheel carrier (with tailgate, wiring, ECU etc) from my Silver V10 to another V10 Touareg which has more options (Jan 2006 reg, 2005 model year). Has anyone done this? Is the main wiring loom in the car different for the spare wheel carrier?

Anyone have any links to info or a retro fitted setup please?

This is the new T1 V10.





The interior colour is... er... different!



I've never seen an interior this colour before and it wouldn't be my choice but it's everywhere and even has heated rear seats as well as the additional rear air conditioning setup.

This is the reason for all of the interest...



I've only seen the disengaging anti-roll bars in photos before and driven 1x Cayenne with them before.

Here is the control ECU for it.





I'm also looking to swap over the towbar but I hope that that isn't much more than bolts and a bit of wiring.

The option list on the V10 include:

Disengaging anti-roll bars
Rear diff-lock
Tyre pressure monitoring
Rear heater/air conditioning for rear passengers
Rear heated seats
19" factory wheels
Sunroof
Mudflaps
 
#32 · (Edited)
Disengaging anti-roll bars
Incredible! I've seen lots of people claiming on here that this feature was never actually manufactured.

What does the button above the anti-roll bar button, with the "lock" and up arrow do? I would imagine it prevents the height from adjusting automatically based on speed? Edit: Indeed, that is what is does apparently.
 
#33 ·
The anti roll bars in default position, work as normal anti roll bars.
Each anti roll bar is in fact made from two separate pieces which have splined ends. A coupling actuator sits over them which has two positions, open (disengaging the anti roll bars) and closed (normal running position).

There is a very strong spring (basic mechanical device) which holds the decoupler in the closed position.

Then there is a hydraulic system that uses high pressure hydraulics (basically a ram) to push against that spring to disengage the two sections of the anti roll bar.

The hydraulic pump is hidden away in front of the left rear light.

The function of disengaging the anti roll bars is to give each wheel the ability to move fully within its travel without being resisted by the anti roll bar that is attached to the opposite suspension on that axle. Better articulation is what it's all about which equals more time with the tyres in contact with the ground.
 
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