Will the rims fit?

[watchnut]

Hi All, advice please

I have just bought a Mini "baker street" diesel 2012. it has on it 195/55/16 alloys/tyres.

I have a set of steel 15" rims with "winter" tyres fitted that were bought and used on my Corsa "c" 2006 sxi+ cdti for when the weather dropped to below 7 deg. these rims and tyres were bought from Vauxhall for an eye watering £600.

I took the rear nearside wheel off the Mini yesterday to see if the steel rim fitted it....it did, and when i released the handbrake and turned the wheel by hand it rotated nicely without anything being wrong.....to someone who thinks if it did not bang or clunk it must be OK.......

How can I find out if the steel wheel is perfectly safe to use on the Mini without maybe being fobbed off by a BMW/MINI dealer who I susspect will not be shall i say be talking in my best interests if he can't sell me something?

To replace my perfectly fine winter tyres and wheels from a BMW/mini dealer ship i am looking at some £462-£560 If I can continue to use these I will be very happy seeing that they look new, and have 6mm tread on the tyres even after 2 winters worth of use

any help would be most gratefully received

cheers

[Mastodon2]

Rims?

[watchnut]

OK then "wheels"

[N Dentressangle]

You need to find out 3 dimensions of the two types of wheel:

- stud pattern / spacing
- centre bore diameter
- offset

There are sites with all this info on - without knowing exactly what wheels you have it's hard to tell.

Obviously the stud pattern / spacing & centre bore are crucial, but offset discrepancies might cause problems interfering with brakes etc.

[HustleRussell]

The fitting is highly unlikely to be identical to the BMW wheels.

[vikingaero]

From my old Mini2 days I remember that some people interchanged steel/alloy wheels from Corsas. I even saw one at a Mini meet with Corsa alloys on. They seem to have very similar sizing.

[CraigJ]

they have the same PCD of 4x100 and the bore is the same at 56.1mm. Just check to see if the offsets are the same. The Mini has offsets from 35-45mm and the vauxhall will be around 38mm.

If i was you id be checking that the wheels fit over the front calipers as they will usually be bigger than the rears.

[davepoth]

Mastodon2 said:

Rims?

Innit, bruv.

The centre bore is out by .5mm. That's important because the MINI is hub-centric. You won't be able to get a spigot ring to make up the difference because the ring would have to be 0.25mm thick. If you leave it, the wheels will be shifting around a tiny bit and that's bad.

Your best bet is to get the tyres off the wheels, flog the wheels, and buy some new ones off ebay in the right size. they're quite cheap (a set of four on for £60 at the moment).

[watchnut]

thanks so far, when i put the wheel on the r/n/s it looked a good fit, and I did wonder if the brakes would be an issue for the front, thanks. It has to be 100% or not at all

[watchnut]

thanks Davepoth, but when buying off the bay I worry that what I'm buying is the "real deal" 100% pucca!

[Fleckers]

stick them on

i mean whats the worst that can happen ?

Its not like your insurance company will mind if you have incorrectly sized wheels on your car

[deltashad]

Wheel nuts.

[watchnut]

I took the car to my local garage/tyre place for an opinion, and he was not happy, so the wheels and tyres have been sold to the buyer of the car, and I will buy the BMW/Mini original fit ones as I must be 100% sure of type "fit"....thanks for the posts!

[HertsBiker]

davepoth said:

Innit, bruv.

The centre bore is out by .5mm. That's important because the MINI is hub-centric. You won't be able to get a spigot ring to make up the difference because the ring would have to be 0.25mm thick. If you leave it, the wheels will be shifting around a tiny bit and that's bad.

Your best bet is to get the tyres off the wheels, flog the wheels, and buy some new ones off ebay in the right size. they're quite cheap (a set of four on for £60 at the moment).

So the wheel could be 0.5mm out of spec on rotation? Sort of an elliptical rotation? I've had tyres fitted that are 4mm out and it got annoying, would 0.5mm notice though?

[watchnut]

Like "Flecters" said.....if....you had an accident, an the insurance company/Police saw that the wheels/tyres were not a "type" fit, you would find yourself in "brown and smelly" stuff........if it was a fatal accident....they would definately spot the problem, and any excuse insurance companies can get to wriggle out of paying....they will!

[Monty Python]

This any use?

http://www.bmautosport.co.uk/showroom/index.php/bm...

[loko]

But surely most aftermarket wheels that need spigot rings or wobble bolts arent "type fit" and plenty have those fitted

[Engineer1]

HertsBiker said:

davepoth said:

Innit, bruv.

The centre bore is out by .5mm. That's important because the MINI is hub-centric. You won't be able to get a spigot ring to make up the difference because the ring would have to be 0.25mm thick. If you leave it, the wheels will be shifting around a tiny bit and that's bad.

Your best bet is to get the tyres off the wheels, flog the wheels, and buy some new ones off ebay in the right size. they're quite cheap (a set of four on for £60 at the moment).

So the wheel could be 0.5mm out of spec on rotation? Sort of an elliptical rotation? I've had tyres fitted that are 4mm out and it got annoying, would 0.5mm notice though?

No the mounting face of the wheel would be .5mm out so potentially wrecking more expensive components within the hub and drive train.