Anyone using aluminum lug nuts on their car. I'm converting to studs because of the spacer required on my BBK. Need to decide on the lenght of the studs. I was thinking of buying a set of forged aluminum lug nuts which are longer than the steel nuts so I was going to go w/ longer studs. Any disadvantage to going w/ the aluminum other than cost?

 

You mustn plan with stud lenth - as my forged alloy lugs are closed end. You dont want an 80mm stud with no spacer, you'll pop the back of the lug open.

Planning is everything.

Do not run wheel locks in conjunction - they will throw the wheel off balance due to the ther 3 being much lighter.

Alex

 

Aluminum lug nuts-
May be a target for thieves by themselves since they are lighter in weight and fairly standard.
If anodized a color will become worn and loose their finish.
Are less durable than other lug nuts and can be nicked or damaged by tools or when dropped.
Allow for roughly a half pound weight loss or more when compared to stock lug bolts.

 

is it possible to run stock lugs w/a 3mm 0r 5mm spacer?

and are the factory lock set kit good or are there better?

 

Alex,
Is it typically 7-8 turns of thread engagement minimum for safety. For closed lug nut will require more planning since stud lenghts come in 10-15mm increments. (40mm,50,75,90).

Minihune,
Didn't even think about people wanting to steal lug nuts.

 

Rays engineering and Zenki forged lug nuts have matching wheel locks.

The rays lugs use a seven sided lock, and the weight is the same.

I used Zenki's on my civic for about a year, they slowly faded from red to an
"anodized pink" from the heat of the brakes (fronts faded fast, so I rotated them ).

rays are closed-ended:


zenki (open ended):

 

Common practice is 1.5x the thread diameter for minimum engagement. Seeing as these are M12 that makes it about 18mm of thread required.

7-8 turns seems a bit low too me at 1.5 pitch netting only about 12mm. I don't believe the MINI hub is a full 18mm thick anyhow. Looking at the back side if the thread if fully into the hub there's no gain of it passing through.

However....I can say from experience that the addtion of all but the most minimal (maybe 1-2mm) spacer will require the fit of a stud conversion. The stock bolts bairly pass the hub when tight and NOBODY should run the stock parts without full engagement of the hub.

 

thx!! will contact U' later on that rear 11 3/4" rotor set-up.............

 

I had blue volk racing d[font=Arial]uraluminum lug nuts.. about half the weight of a normal lug nut but it's mostly for bling.. [/font][font=Arial]held up well for 3years.. about 10 tire changes until I sold them.. becareful not to use any air wrench on them as it will ruin the finish..but still held up well..[/font]
[font=Arial]yes it had 7 sided "wheel lock" and weight was same as others.[/font]

 

anyone know of a good shop that sells spacers and studs, etc?

 

pilo racing? :smile:

 

I'm using the long studs and alloy lug nuts from BMP/Pro-Mini. Shoot me a PM, maybe I can swing by and show them to you.
Jim

 

Jim,

Are you running them w/ or w/o spacers. I am using 15mm spacer in the front and 5mm in the back. BMP studs are 40 or 50mm but have been out of stock for the past month. I was thinking of going w/ the Road Race tech studs or the Turner motorsport ones since bmp doesn't have any.
Emmanuel

 

No spacers.
Jim

 

6-7 is minimum turns of enguagment to be safe on 12 mm studs

Alex