Hi everyone,

I have purchased OEM mini cooper 17' rims for my wifes mini.
Im having an issue of steering wheel shudder only when im off the throttle at highway speeds. no issue when accelerating or holding speed. I thought maybe when i got them installed that they did not balance them properly, so i swapped the rear rims and tires for the front to see if it was just a balancing problem and the same issue happened.

Its only occuring when i get around highway speeds.

Note that with my original 15" i didnt have this issue.

I have a couple ideas of what the problem couple be but would love to get your input and see if anyone else has had this problem.

Thanks everyone for your input

 

what year is your r50 and what year did the OEM wheel come from? Early build r50's had m12 threads and later build 06's and later had M14 threads so its possible that the wheel fits and your m12 lugs are simply too small for the m14 holes. You might want to check this as a starting point.

 

Thats a good place to start, as i was not aware of this. The mini is an 04 and the rims i picked up off a tire shop that had them in storage but the owner went missing so they sold them. Ill see if there is some kind of markings on the rims to determine when the rims were made.

but I think the lugs are tapered to make sure they sit center and overlap the rim lug holes. ill check that too. Thanks for the help

If anyone else had some ideas it would be great to hear. Thanks

 

There are also several replica OEM wheels that you would swear are the real OEM. Your application may require a hub centric ring. That would cause the exact situation you described.