Ok,
Today, I decided to see if my Panasport wheels from my 2002 MINI Cooper would fit my new 2007 Cooper S. I didn't even get to the point of taking the wheels off the car... loosened the lug bolts from one wheel, and tested the bolt. No dice, the bolts don't fit! They are slightly larger than the holes in the Panasports. If one were to drill the holes in the wheels slightly larger, they could probably be made to fit, but I'm not willing to try that. I'll have to wait and see if a wheel company comes out with wheels to fit the new Cooper S!

I suspect that with the new Cooper S's increased torque, MINI decided to strengthen the bolts by thickening them. Anyway, now I have a set of Panasports to sell to someone with an older MINI!
Mike

 

That's interesting to know. I wonder if wheels on the R53, such as the S-lites would fit on the new Cooper.

 

Your Panasports won't fit any MINI built from 07/12/2006 onward, as that's when they changed the wheel bolt size from M12x1.5 to M14x1.25

 

Can't the bolt holes just be drilled out to make the new bolts fit?

 

The bolt holes can be drilled out by a machine shop for about $80, but you can get 14mm to 12mm conversion studs for about $120. So, having ONE set of wheels drilled is cheaper than the studs, but if you think you might ever switch to a different set of wheels that might need drilling, the studs are probably a better and more cost-effective long-term solution. I have the conversion studs on my car and like them very much.

I don't think anyone really knows why MINI changed the wheel bolts. All of the GPs, all of the '07 cars, and the '06 cars built after about July 2006 have them. The factory wheels didn't change, the torque specs for the bolts didn't change, and I haven't heard any problems with the 12mm bolts breaking.

 

7/12/2006, I will keep that date in mind!

 

I'm fairly certain all of the stock MINI wheels have 16mm holes, so they'll work with either the 12mm or 14mm bolts. I know that the Holies, X-lites, and Web-spokes all fit both bolt sizes.

 

While true, not exactly breaking news. It's in been in several threads and motoring file more than once.

SOME of the older wheels such as the 15" holies will fit the new bolts.

 

Has anyone found a stock MINI wheel that *won't* fit the 14mm bolts? I only have first-hand knowledge of the three I mentioned (X-lites, Holies, and Web-Spokes), but I haven't heard anyone specifically say that they had stock wheels that *wouldn't* fit with the new bolts.

Considering that MINI introduced the new bolts as a running production change without giving anyone much advance notice, I would think that we would have heard a lot of complaints from people that ordered post-July-build '06 models, only to find out that the wheels they had chosen on the configurator or at the dealership wouldn't fit.

The fact that I haven't seen a single such complaint here on NAM leads me to suspect that all of the stock MINI wheels fit the 14mm bolts.

 

thanks for the info

 

sooooooooo how much for those panasports?

 

I think its might be a fair guess that MINI anticipated the higher torque of the JCW, GP and R56 MCS and corrected with beefier bolts before failures had to rear their ugly head.

 

Perhaps, but the R53 JCW package puts out more torque than the R56 MCS, and it's been around for years, doing just fine with the 12mm bolts. Also, there are cars with a LOT more torque than the MINI running around with M12 bolts. Heck, the Corvette uses the same M12 X 1.5 size that the MINI used to use. Granted, it's a 5-lug application instead of a four-lug, but we're talking about 400 lbf-ft of torque on the 'Vette.

Lastly, the bolts themselves don't have to withstand the shear forces between the hub and the wheel - the hub/wheel interface itself does that. True, the clamping force between the hub face and the wheel comes from the tension in the wheel bolts from torquing them down, but the torque specs haven't changed with the new M14 bolts, and I don't think torquing a 14mm bolt to 88 lbf-ft provides any more clamping force than torquing a 12mm bolt to 88 lbf-ft.

Maybe MINI got a good deal on a batch of M14 bolts - I don't know. Maybe they're going to be releasing a model in the future with 300 lbf-ft of torque - again, I don't know. But the 14mm bolts certainly seem to be a solution in search of a problem.

 

Why not just drill them by hand? The wheels are posistioned by the tapered part of the hole so the exact center of the holes is not critical. This should be a cheap conversion.

 

Has anybody looked into the converse... some of the rims available for the R56 are pretty sharp. Can they be installed on the R53?

 

The Bridge Spokes that came on my R56 are currently on an R53, no problems. I would think that any factory wheel would fit a previous model.

 

True enough. You'll probably have to use a larger drill bit than a machine shop would, because you probably won't be able to get all four holes spaced exactly 90 degrees apart and exactly on the 100mm bolt circle, but if you're comfortable drilling the wheels by hand, I can't think why it wouldn't work.

 

That shouldn't be a problem - the original holes are in the right places and the drill bit will naturally center itself when you enlarge them.

 

Actually, they might. It wasn't just the dia. that changed. The pitch changed also. If MINIAC got the numbers right, the M14 have finer threads.
1.25 means there is 1.25mm between one thread peak and the next. So, there are 8 threads per cm. The M12x1.5 only have 6.667 threads per cm.

The finer threads are closer to perpendicular to the axis of the shaft so there is more mechanical advantage from the same torque force. They are also less likely to loosen.

Although many people have a difficult time believing it, finer threads are usually stronger. They have greater shear strength because they don't cut as deeply into the shaft. The counter-intuitive part is they have more resistance to being stripped because -- although smaller -- the greater number of threads more than offsets their size.

The main purpose of coarse threads is for faster assembly.

 

I sold the Panasports on thursday night for $700. Sorry to see them go, but I will be looking for lighter wheels and better tires at some point. Actually, given the speeds the R56 hits, I want really great tires. Can't wait to see how the MINI does autocrossing and maybe on the track.