Ok, I purchased a set of Konig Holes rims 18x7.5, tires and lugs through a place in FL, (tire rack doesn't have these wheels)not to mentions names yet, and installed it on my MCS. Well, as I was driving about 20 or so miles later the front driver wheel FELL OFF. Good thing I was not going fast then. To say the least this caused damages to body, suspension, wheel and so on. I took it to a reputable body shop and the repairs has been done with all new OEM parts even a new wheel and lugs.

NOW HERE'S THE SCARY PART....after their test drive of the car they reinspected everything and noticed the lugs were loose again. Assumptions were made as to why they are coming loose and decided to put the OEM lugs back on the wheels. Initial test drives show that these lugs DID NOT come loose. More test drive will be made.

But for those of you that have put on other aftermarket wheels, what lugs did you use and if you have problems? Now why do I think what I experienced is a BIG PROBLEM? If I was at highway speeds I would have probably been killed, to say the least.

Does anyone know what kind of material the OEM lugs are made of? One of the assumptions we made was that lots of heat disipate through those wheels and that not all lugs or wheels can withstand that type of heat without giving way.(expansion or shrinkage) Another might have been the spirals on the lugs too. Don't have an exact answer yet, but I have to definitely have to try and get to the bottom of this, because I am still alive to do so, and will probably save someone else too.

Any feedback would be good, thanks in advance. Sorry to write so long.


Peter

 

Lugs are specific for wheels. Were the wheels specific for the Mini?

 

2minis,

Yes the manufacturer and seller claims that it will fit the MCS, the lugs came with the wheels.
The body shop checked to make sure that the wheels sat flat and snug against the rotors too.


Peter

 

What did they torque them to? Did they just use an air
lug to tighten or did they hand tighten with a torque wrench?

 

This probably has nothing to do with it (I dont know why it would) but the axel bit on my car was stripped when I got springs installed - if you take off the wheel there's a bit that is responsible for holding the wheel to the axel. I wish I had a picture to show you, but on my car a good portion of it was broken off entirely and the wheel would have fallen off if I put many miles on it - fortunately I brought it into a shop before long with a seperate issue and they found it. Hope you kept your recipt!

 

RChristiano,

Not sure what part it is your talking about but would like more info about it.

2minis,

I was there when they torqued it but I didn't ask what lb-age they used, but they used the same lb-age on the OEM lugs too when they put those on. I trust these guys at the body shop in regards to knowing what they are doing, so I think they would use the right torque.

Peter

 

I'd run it by Randy at mini-motorsport.com
A more knowledgeable fellow you won't find.
But I would find ouit how many lbs of torque.
I think different wheels have different torque
settings but I'm not sure..

 

sheesh....
that is some scary stuff!
i'd have a few bones to pick if i were you!!
glad to hear that you're ok!

 

That is not a nice story, I have seen a few wheels fall off some cars in the past and it almost always seems to be one of two things. First , the painted area where the lug crown meets the wheel. I have seen this a few times with track cars, after a few laps the rims takes a wrong turn to the right as the car goes left. Most folks at the track will remove this painted area of the rim with a wire brush as it helps the lug seat to the rim better. Second is that they were not torqued correctly in the first place. The shop might have used a gun that they thought was set right and they did not check them once the car was back on the ground. We have a few clients with the Konig rims and I noticed that they use a special lugnut on their rims. What did they look like when you took them off the car? Is it possible that the socket for the lugnut was broken and this caused them to not torque correctly?

 

oooh, this sucks to hear! ops:

Another possibility is that the bolts included with the new wheel set were incorrect (i.e. for steel wheels) and therefore couldn't seat correctly with the alloy wheels, therefore not allowing the bolts to be torqued correctly. Alloy wheel bolts and lugs should have a conical seat, not spherical or flat!

Good luck,
Ryan

 

A big concern is to match the seat type to the wheel. The MINI OEM wheel use conical-seat bolts, if this is not matched with aftermarket bolts with OEM wheels, or aftermarket wheels matched with their required bolts, you can have a very dangerous situation in the making.

Even torquing to proper specs will not hold a wheel in place if the bolt or nut does not seat properly.

 

That sounds like you were really lucky.

Are you sure you had thre correct size centering rings? If not you wheel would not be perfectly centered and would slightly shift as you drove and the lugs could come loose.

The centering ring keeps the wheel centered on you hub.

Brady

 

Itsthesize,
Sorry to hear of your troubles. I was in the aftermarket tire and wheel business for the better part of 10 years. It sounds to me That most likely they were not torqued correctly. Of course there is also the possibility that the aftermarket studnuts didn't seat properly. I'm assuming The Cooper uses studnuts as most bimmers do. From experiences similar to this, we made a habit to instruct our customers to please come in after some driving and let us inspect and re-torque the nuts to make sure they had not come loose. It's quite common for new aluminum wheels to work their way loose after the first bolt on.
I don't know if any of these were a factor for you, but I have been at the short side of repairing damaged vehicles when the wheel falls off, and most, if not all of the time, it was due to the fact they were not re-torqued after the initial install.
Sounds like you have it fixed, but what a horrible way to discover the problem.
I am including a link that states something similar to my comments. See the last paragraph.
Goodluck,
RW




Proper wheel installation

_________________
I'll see you in the future, if not in the pasture.

 

Sorry to hear about this. I think there are two possibilities: The seats on the lug bolts were incorrect, or the lugbolts were not long enough. YOu might check to see that enough of the thread area is grasping the axle.
Good luck!

 

Thanks everyone for the information. I have yet to speak to the shop today but as soon as I get more info I will pass it along so no one else run into the same problem.

Peter

 

i had this problem with some custom wheels on a 73 nova a few years back. what might be happening is the nut bottoms out if it is not a tapered lug. i had these shank lugs that bottomed out on a lip on the wheel stud and would not let the threads get grip. once the lip lost it's grip the lug would work its way out. and i was on the freeway when this happened. i exit and the stearing was reallly slopy. so i pull over with only two lugs still on and half out. i took some lugs of of each wheel and bolted it back up and limped home slowly. i end up having to change out the wheel studs that did not have a lip on them and everything is fine now. look at what you have and see if it is bottoming out . you might need a spacer, different lugs, new wheel studs, or all of the above. hope that helps some