I'm picking up my new MCS this saturday and have already bought Enkei RSM 17" wheels + kumho ecstas to swap them out. they have been mounted and balanced.

is it just a matter of swapping out the wheels now or does anything further need to be done.

I was also told that the factory lug nuts may not fit my new wheels. how can i do a compatibility test ahead of time?

thanks

 

Did you order a set of TPMS valves and have them installed? If not, you will have to remove the TPMS valves from your factory wheels and get them installed on your new wheels. The tires will have to be remounted and rebalanced. Do a search across all the forums on 'TPMS' for more info. Hopefully your wheel vendor will cover all this.

 

And what are your plans for the factory wheels?

 

MINI now has 14mm lugs and most aftermarkets and older MINI wheels are 12mm so you might have an issue there.
Also if it is a car with the new TPMS the rims might not even accept the new sensors that the new system uses as some rims don't have the space for the sensor.

 

I'm planning to sell the factory wheels

wheelsdirectonline tells me the enkeis are 14mm, so hopefully no issue there.

I pulled this piece of advice from another thread, so will have to see if this is viable and if so, then will dealership likely try to gouge me by insisting on remount/rebalance:

'break the seal and use the machine to drop the tire a bit right where the valve stem is. Giving you enough room to take it off and put a new valve stem in place'

 

i hope you all realize that its not just the valve stem that needs to be swapped... there is another unit inside the rim that completes the assembly.

 

I just recently put new rims on my car and was wondering this myself... Assuming my tire pressure is accurate and it drives fine for a week without any warning lights going off, I should be able to let the air out of the two rear tires lets say and if the warning light for the tpms comes on then it's working properly correct?

I'm not 100% sure if these were changed over onto my new wheels or if my old wheels (17" stock crownspokes? the U shaped flower looking ones) had it...

 

check with your Mini service if you are planning on aftermarket wheels - only becuase I have read here where some have had problems with getting service/warranty on wheel/brake problems after installing other than Mini wheels - I have NO proof of this - just where I have read on this forum..

 

process for swapping out wheels? unbolt, remove, replace?

seriously...if you're not comfortable with a jack and lugwrench, leave it to the pro's and spend a few $$.

As for using the stock bolts....looks to be ok. The Enkei's I had wouldn't take them though. The other issue is TPMS, if your car is equipped with the hardware based system instead of using the ABS (all newer MINI's are hardware based). Even if you could deflate the tire, pull the bead down and install the valvestem based type sensor, you'd still need to rebalance.

 

I'm planning to replace my stock rims in the spring, and have questions similar to the OP. First, despite my MCS having just been picked up two weeks ago, it was manufactured in February. I would assume from the date that it does not use the new tire pressure monitoring system, and instead uses the older method. How can I tell from looking at the valve stems? They look like regular stems, but they have a metcallic-looking cap.

Assuming my car uses the older method to monitor the pressure, will something have to be reset once new rims and tires are mounted? My current tires are runflats.

 

no...it works off wheel speed...nothing to reset

 

Sweet! Thanks.

I just found another thread with a pic of the new TPMS valve stem and cap, and mine must be using the rotational speed method since they don't look anything like that pic.

 

Any time you change anything tire related you really should reset the TPMS. Different wheel weights, tire sizes, inflations rates etc may give you a false reading. It's safer and better to re-baseline the system when you put the new wheels on.

 

if it's ABS based and therefore looks for delta v between L/R, none of this matters. Not hard to press a button, but methinks you're overthinking it

 

You also need a torque wrench. The R56 wheel lugs should be torqued to 103 lb-ft. It is a good idea to tell a tire installer about this spec. if you have it done. Many of them just use the R53 spec. which is much lower.

If you do them yourself, tighten them in a cross pattern to keep the wheel on straight. I tighten them in stages to everything even.

Rastven is correct. Anytime you change wheels or tire pressures you need to reset the FTM.* From page 68 in the manual:

In order to assure the reliable reporting of a flat tire, the system must be initialized for the correct tire inflation pressure.
Each time you correct the pressure in a tire, or change a wheel or tire, the system must be reinitialized.

*FTM (Flat Tire Monitor) is what the rotation-based system is called. TPMS is for the new sensor system.

 

But it is also comparing that delta to the one that was previously stored.I've had false readings before because I increased pressures and didn't reset the system, also had them when I changed summer to winter and decreased both rotational mass and tire size.

 

no, it compares side to side on the axle. if the LR is moving slower than the RF, the light comes on to check. I've had the light come on, but as soon as the car is restarted, it goes away. obviously, pushing the reset is ok too