probably a basic and obvious question.
I am swapping my OEM 16" for some 18" motegi's with Nice Kumho tires. tires are already mounted on the wheels. was just going to mount the wheels with a 2.5 ton floor jack then get an alignment done the next day at the shop. have the spaces and such. is there a DIY for swapping tires out?
Thanks,
sam

 

Your speedometer may be affected by the tire/wheel size change. Here is a tire size calculator we found that may be of interest.

 

You mean a wheel swap, not just a tire swap, right?

You will need a torque wrench. The setting is 103 ft. lbs. for 2nd Gen. MINIs (14 mm lug bolts). You will have to look up the number if you have a 1st Gen. with 12 mm lug bolts. I think it is somewhere around 80 or 90 ft. lbs.

It is best to tighten the lug bolts in stages, and in a cross pattern (upper left, then lower right, upper right, lower left). I hand tighten all the bolts, holding the socket in my hand. Then put it on the wrench and make them all firm. Finally torque them to 103.

You will need to reset the tire monitoring system in your MINI after you have the new wheels on and pressures adjusted.

 

cool thanks, yes, its a new tire and wheel swapover. have a pretty awesome torque wrench & floor jack. just didn't want to pay a shop $30 a tire just to mount them. figure they will balance the tires correctly when i get it aligned. 0 degree toe-in is better for alignment right? have had problems of toe-in in the past when they do alignment to factory specs.

 

Not likely as balancing the wheels is not a normal part of the alignment process.

Hope this helps...

 

I think he might have been referring to paying someone to put the tires on the car. If he's buying new wheels and new tires (mail order) then most places (Tire Rack or Discount Tire Direct for example) will have mounted and balanced the entire wheel before shipping.

Having just bought new wheels and tires (and kept the OEMs as is) I am assuming he bought new TPMS sensors for the tires (if his car has TPMS).

 

Unless you were having problems with your alignment before changing wheels there should be no reason to have it checked or changed after.

You did not mention what width the new wheels and tire are. Even if it does not change the alignment it can certainly change the feel of the car and how it responds to uneven pavement. The wider the tire the more likely you are to experience something called "tram lining". What you feel on the wheel is pulling to one side or the other depending upon the shape of the pavement, and it will change with the pavement.

As for balancing the tires, that should have been done by the person mounting them. If you bought them through Tire Rack I think it is included when you buy a tire and wheel package.

 

Yeah, they come with the tool for the new drive bolts , drive bolts and centering rings, same as from tirerack. 215/35-18. coming off an 04 cooper S. currently have 195/55r16 which didn't last but a little over 20K. car drives in a straight line, had alignment done after I bought the car just to ensure that everything was in spec. but the passenger side had some serious wear versus the driver side is looking brand new. tires were new at 22,000, i bought car at 24, now its at 42K round abouts.
on next alignment, i plan to have the freezer installed during the alignment just to make sure it is weight balanced for my driving habits and load. will probably rotate them more often as well. i got in the habit of rotating with each oil change which is fine when you don't have synthetics running to 12-15K.
car does have TPMS, but I was under the thinking that TPMS is independent of tires and wheels.

 

I guess the most basic question is "how do I pop the center rings off of the wheels to get to the lugs?" i'd'a figured that i could just pop them off with a thin flathead screwdriver or credit card, but i don't want to damage the soft aluminum.

 

There should be a tool in the tool kit in the boot which is used to pop the center caps off. It looks kind of like a paint can opener.

 

Beavr, As long as your car is a 2006 or older you should have no problems fitting those wheels. After Sept of 2006 MINI changed the bolt size to a larger bolt and the older wheels will not fit the newer cars unless you install a 14mm to 12mm conversion kit.

In 2007 MINI changed to a new type of tire pressure monitoring system that has a small radio transmitter fitted to the valve stem, inside the wheel. The older cars used the sensors from the anti-lock brake system to monitor wheel speeds. A tire running on low pressure is smaller in circumferance than a tire at full pressure and therefore turns faster. If one wheel turns enough faster than the other wheels it trips the low pressure warning light. Any wheel can be used with the older system. The newer system requires that you add a air pressure monitor device to each wheel before the tires are mounted.

 

Thanks, car is an 04 cooper. 16" wheel package. wheels coming from an 04 cooper S. so should work without interfering with the tpms.