a5un

So the car has close to 4000 miles on it, and I decided that I'll start my weekend off with an engine oil change and a tire rotation. The oil change went smooth; no problem. Then came the tire rotation.

Due to lack of tools, I use the scissor jack in the trunk to lift one wheel at a time and replace with the donut spare while I move that particular wheel to the rotated position. Everything was fine until it was time to torque down the lug nuts. I reviewed the service manual and it calls for 73 ft-lb +/- 7 ft-lb. I set my Craftsman torque wrench and gave it a go.

"Hold on a sec.! WTF! Why is it getting easier to turn?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!" I tried it on other lug nuts and only 1 wheel out of 4 could be torqued down.

At this point, I seriously was about to crap my pants. I was not about to replace 15 studs ...

I decide to take off one wheel at a time to see what the f*ck was going on. This is when I went from screaming "WTF WTF WTF WTF WTF" at the middle of the night to just dead silence. I had not paid any attention to the fact that the through holes on the BBS wheels weren't really beveled at all. Due to the lug nut shape, I had just assumed that the BBS were like the rest of the aftermarket wheels with that 60* bevel around the edge where the lug nut meets the face of the wheel. Luckily, none of the studs or lug nuts threads were stripped. "Whew!"

As a result of my negligence, a good number of wheels had "new" bevels made for them, except most were off centered. The wheels were put on the car and hand tightened. My routine was do hand tighten all the wheels and then torque them all down together once they're all on the ground. But because the clearance was so large, the center points for the 5 holes on the wheels did not meet up perfectly with the center points for the 5 studs. While in the air, my hand tightened lug nuts were able to center the wheel, but once it's on the ground, the weight of the car simply was too great for the hand-tightened lug nuts. The wheels becomes off-centered once it was on the ground, and my torque wrench just went to town making bevels.

Seeing how soft the wheel material was, I decided the best course of action without replacing the wheels was to just bevel the wheel as I tighten the wheel down while the car's in the air. I lifted each wheel, loosened the lug nuts, with one arm pushing against the wheel to make sure that the wheel remained approximately centered, then hand-tightened the lug nuts. This was then followed by hand-tightening with my 1/2-drive wrench until all 5 lug nuts cannot be turned, all in the mean while I'm mustering whatever strength I had left pushing the wheel into the hub with the other arm.

The plan worked. I was able to torque down all the wheels while they're in the air, and checked again after putting them all down. A quick drive afterwards with some fast turning seemed okay. I couldn't feel any play from the wheels; so far so good.

At this point, I'm not sure if the wheels can be taken off and re-tightened again for the next service. I guess it'll be another 4000 miles before I find out.

I searched around a bit, and it seems like I'm the only dumbass in the world ... But frankly, I'm a bit surprised by the wheel design. How are people supposed to center the wheel? The next time you do your rotation, you can see that even if the center of the wheel is centered with the axle, the 5 holes may not be aligned with the 5 studs. You can actually rotate the wheel CCW and CW because the through holes on the wheels are so damn large.

I think it's time I start saving for some new wheels... I seriously do not feel safe driving this thing right now, let alone doing any of the fun things likes like autocross or track days. So, just a word (or, lots of words) of caution: be very careful when tightening these down.

As a side note, I was really impressed by how light these wheels are with tires. My 2009 WRX had 17x8 RPF1 with Hankook RS-3, and those felt heavier than these.

ugakirk

iTrader: (14)

So you used the stock wheels and the stock lugs? Sounds about normal to me.

Tuxevo

iTrader: (8)

Something is wrong. There's no way you should have been able to sink the lugs into the wheel with 73flbs. Did you use some type of aftearket lug nuts? It also strikes me as wrong that the oem lugs wouldn't seat perfectly on oem wheels. I'd be very concerned about wheel strength at this point. Maybe on the X it's normal to have to 'reform' the face that the lug torques onto, but I doubt it.

tkromer

iTrader: (6)

I busted a (one) stock lug nut on my Sky at 90 lbs, but that was a fluke. I've rotated my tires once and replaced stock with aftermarket once and there's been no damage to the wheels at all. Something seems wrong!

a5un

Everything is stock on the car; not a single thing that wasnt there the day I bought it.

a5un

Mind elaborating?

a5un

As for oem lug nuts biting into the wheel, its possible due the the difference in material hardness. Aluminum (wheel is forged aluminum) is significantly softer than steel (lug nut)?

JDMevoBOOST

iTrader: (37)

With the car in the air you have to rotate the wheel until the lug "shank" actually threads through the lug hole. If it's not aligned properly and the shank portion is sitting on top of the lug hole lip, you are going to have problems. After you know what you are doing it's really easy, I always partially torque with it up in the air for the front wheels with one hand keeping the rim from spinning and the other on the wrench. For the rear tires, your e-brake should be on so you can torque that to 80 ft lbs no problem with the car in the air.

ugakirk

iTrader: (14)

When you tightened the lugs, the lug "caught" but wasn't tightened down all the way because the wheel was slightly offcentered on the studs. Once the lugnut is tightened more, the bottom "centers" the wheel, basically forcing it in to the right position, and you can tighten the lug all the way.

The only way to prevent that, like you said, is to turn the wheel or play with it enough so the studs are more centered in the bolt holes on the wheel..

GTijoejoe

iTrader: (25)

You're stock wheels are machined to be hubcentric so the center of the wheel sits on the hub. You should tighten one lug all the way do and be sure the wheel is flat on the hub.... you should never have an center offset issue with stock wheels.

Secondly just about every OEM protects for x2 the lug torque (because they know idots exist), so yes, you should never be able to seat the lug into an OEM wheel, ESPECIALLY at the oem torque level. Just about every OEM uses aluminum wheels, I think only Honda/Acura still use steel inserts in aluminum wheels, but they are also probably the most conservative OEM.

SamsonEvoX

I have been working on cars since 1970 and have never, ever heard of such a thing. I even had BBS wheels on a new 1987 VW Scirocco 16v. Proper alignment on the hub is essential as is the centering of each lug nut. Once I get a couple of nuts on-across from each other, I lightly tighten down one of them to seat the wheel. Then, I add the other lughs and begin to cross tighten. The only time I have ever heard of a problem like this is when someone uses lugs from a stock wheel on an aftermarket wheel where the bevel on the lug is different. Even then, it is very obvious that the lugs will not seat correctly. Quite a learning experience I would say.

sblvro

iTrader: (2)

always hand tighten before lowering the wheels down. turn it 25 degrees clockwise to fully tighten it.

a5un

I will try tightening down one lug completely the next time around for sure. This was also how I was able to get the wheels back on. I just feel lucky that nothing got TOO f*cked up.

As for someone's comment regarding the difference in the bevel shape between the wheel and the lug nuts (i.e., when someone uses tuner lugs on some OEM wheels), well, I feel like this is exactly the situation from the factory. Typically a tuner wheel has very obvious 60* bevel at the circumference of the holes, for fit-up to the lug nuts, which are beveled 60* (like the EVO X's). In the case of OEM wheel, there is barely any noticeable bevel at the circumference (which is also the case for the EVO X), hence a different type of lug nut ends.

So, here we are, a wheel that hasn't gotten any sort of pronouced bevel and lug nut ends with very obvious bevel (I can't actually measure if it's 60*, but it looked like it). Isn't this the exact situation when you put aftermarket lug nuts on OEM wheels?

Johnr352

iTrader: (18)

Just take the car in to a mechanic of some sort and get this checked out. Something sound amiss. I'm not positive but think that shearing your stud at 75 mph and losing a wheel is bad. Check the manual to make sure.

GTijoejoe

iTrader: (25)

I think with the 8/9's the lug has a ball cup, not a bevel.... Stock lugs + stock wheels will work every time. It is true that aftermarket wheels may not always be able to use your stock lugs. Normally the OEM wheels will have a much larger bearing surface for clamp load. Keep in mind, your OEM wheels are designed slightly differently than an aftermarket wheel, and of course they probably have much different design qualifications.