Silver_545i

Hi Guys,

I desperately need some help here.

I recently purchased new 18" x 8.5 wheels from VMR. they were 35 offset so I purchased 15mm spacers from H&R. I also purchased 15mm spacer extended bolts (it says 43mm).
I believe the stock 545i sport wheels are ~20 offset so this should have worked.

The bolts and spacers worked for 3 of my wheels - both rear and driver front side. For some reason, the bolts won't tighten all the way on the passenger front side. The spacer is exactly the same. The wheel depth is exactly the same. The bolt length is exactly the same. But after 5-6 turns with the bolt, it gets super tight and the wheel is loose! I tried swapping the wheel / spacer, but it worked perfectly on the other sides - just won't fit my passenger front side!

So, it's like I need shorter bolts in order to mount the wheel. Have any of you experienced this?
Would I have 1 wheel hub (passenger front side) that has shorter bolt threads? I checked the BMW part # and it looks the same as the driver front side.

Should I force the bolt into the hub with a wrench? I didn't have to use extra force on any of the other 3 wheels and I used my torque wrench to exactly 80.8 lbs.

So, now I've got 3 new VMR wheels installed perfectly, but the passenger front wheel is dangling loose - still on my jack.

Can you guys offer any suggestions / advise?

Thanks so much!

e6t.lab.rat

Wow sorry to hear of the trouble. Sounds very unusual to not have one wheel fit right. I would check your rotor and remove it off of the hub. You have to remove a rotor hold down screw to get the rotor off so don't force it (rotor) off until this screw is out. Compare to other side rotor and check the hub for differences (if any) also. Honestly I don't know what kind of differences there could be but you never know... good luck

Silver_545i

Thanks for your reply and suggestions!

I sat down over dinner and prayed about the situation. Went back out to the garage and I was able to fix it.


I carefully examined the hub threads to ensure they weren't crossed and also what the full depth was. Then I used a paper shop towel, twisted it like a que-tip and turned it around and around in each hub thread. There was some rust and other brown junk that came out. Not enough that would cause the lug bolt not to sit correctly, but I'm happy that they are clean. Then I mounted the wheel and tightened the bolt to the furtherest it would go by hand - approx 15mm too short. Then, using my hand socket wrench, I pushed through with more force. Again, only because I examined it before and was some-what confident that the hub had enough depth for the bolts. After a certain point, and with quite a bit of force, it seemed like I pressed through and the bolt was free. It tightened just like the other wheels / corners. I had the same experience with the other 4 bolts. So, maybe there was some rust formed at the end of the thread where the OEM bolt used to sit and I just had to push through to break it?

Since this was the front tire, I was able to spin it round and there were no noises or scratching. Just came back from a test drive and all seems well. It was raining, so I didn't kill any speeds, but I'll test more throughly tomorrow. At least my car is not sitting on the jack over-night and all the new shoes are on! I really hope I didn't hurt anything in the hub...

I'll post pictures tomorrow!

thanks again!