Wheels dont fit

[The German Flower Pot]

i bought a set of 18" inovit alloys

they are 112 et35

and as the hub on the wheels is angled the hole in the alloys only goes half way down the hub before it stops so id need about 15mm of spacers to get the wheel to sit flush

so as i really dont want to sell the wheels

has anyone ever had the hole in the alloys machined to make them fit?

i think the hole would need to be a max of 5mm bigger or probably a bit less

see im concerned that if it was done the hole would not still be perfectly centric

also would the alloy not then start corroding from the middle even if it was re painted

any ideas as i dont really want to have 15mm of spacers on each side

its the w124 e320 coupe ive got them for

 

[Xtractorfan]

The wheels can certainly be machined to suit your centres, and they shouldnt corrode even if not painted, use a good quality grease on the centres before fitting and it will stop them from sticking on as well....it is worth getting them done in a proper engineering shop and make sure they run them on a lathe ..........and spacers are a no no.. tracking, wheel bearings, tramlining ................

 

[The German Flower Pot]

superb just what i wanted to hear

any recomendayions in cambs?

ill ask jib too

 

[jibcl500]

Danny

I think firstly you need to speak to the company who make or are a supplier for the wheels to see if this is possible be fore anyhting is done to the wheel.

Machining the inside of the wheel so it fits another hub would be easy but it might change the structure of the wheel and cause it to break.

A good engineering shop would possibly be able to provide some info on this also.

I dont know anyone locally, try www.yello.com and search engineering shops or machine shops. Ive got an estate now so if you need a hand getting them somewhere shout.
Also try these people. http://www.alloywheelrepair.co.uk/index.htm
http://www.alloywheelrepairs.net/WheelRepair.html
jib

 

[Myros]

and if all that fails

I have four Eibach 15mm spacers and a set of longer bolts that I don't use anymore.

 

[Bolide]

You can machine the wheels or use a set of hubcentric spacers which are machined to fit the wheel exactly and to fit the hub exactly

If you machine the wheels they must be centred correctly as the wheels are hubcentric. I would think this would be quite a tough thing to achieve for some machine shops

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk

 

[The German Flower Pot]

i bought some eibach 5mm spacers (5mm per wheel) and they are too small even though thats what they told me i need

ive also got longer bolts

myros, are they the spacers that bolt onto the hub or just spacer discs?

if my hub is say 50mm and i put 15mm of spacers on then the wheel is only sitting on 35mm of hub and that id have thought would be bad

but with the spacers that bolt on then id have thought its not to bad

whats peoples thoughts please

cheers jib ill look into that

ive emailed inovit directly explaining the whole situation and its been 2 days and no reply

 

[Myros]

Pot, they have the same amount

of "hub" as the real hubs, but they aren't the ones which bolt separately onto the hub, they are the through-bolt type, hence the 15mm longer bolts I bought. I think these might be the thickest they get before they bolt on themselves, although it's a good few years since I bought them and my recollection of the types could be unreliable. They do have the tuv certificate which means they are legal in Germany, if mounted properly.
I had them to mount a set of et49s onto my 202 which takes et37s usually. After I sourced some nice CLK wheels, I put the et49s on the 124 where they belong.

 

[Juddian]

I seem to remember we've been here before with these or similar pesky wheels.

I have to say this seems to me an awful lot of trouble to try and make a set of wheels plainly unsuitable fit your car.

Please i'm not trying to be obnoxious, what concerns me are two things.

1 will the wheels still be strong enough, as jib mentions, after machining?

2 after going to all this work, you won't know till you've fitted the wheels whether you will have the dreaded 124 front arch problem, as we know there's not much clearance at the front, with 18" it must be getting critical, and you could be juggling around with spacers, or worse try to get some of the inner face removed from the wheels to create a better offset. I know with my wheels just how close the inside edge of the wheels run to the suspension strut.

Sorry to sound so negative, don't want to see you ruin a set of wheels that you could possibly sell to a VW owner.

Hope my thoughts are wrong as usual and everything works ok for you.

 

[jibcl500]

I tend to agree if the wheel was designed for the car then go with it, if it wasnt then theres too many factors involved in making them fit which could be a risk long term.

Im not a fan of using spacers either, MB dont sell new cars with spacers!!!! as they possibly dont comply with safety standards.

If the center of the wheel doesnt sit on the center of the hub then the stress on the wheel bolts is far greater, Ive seen and also been in a car with incorrect wheels and spacers and Ive heard the bang a wheel bolt makes when it snaps, 3 bangs later the car was stopped in time before the 4th and final bolt snapped. When they go they go quickly 40 mph to 0, 3 bolts gone, I recon at 60 mph all 4 would have gone and the wheel would be off!!!!!!!!!!!

jib

 

[The German Flower Pot]

so do you feel as strongly against bolt on hub centric spacers that bolt onto the hub then the wheels bolt onto the new spacers?

any idea how far the hub sticks out on my w124?

 

[The German Flower Pot]

problem solved

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Alloy-wheel-h...yZ122154QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

superb quality metal

hub centric

made for my car

line sup perfectly

fits over hub like a glove

wheels fit like a dream

 

[Juddian]

Never new you could get those, glad you got the job sorted though without machining those unusual wheels.

By the way have GFP, i see you're looking for a E36, are you watching the one on fleabay at the moment?

 

[The German Flower Pot]

Thanks for being glad as i almost gave up after spending almost £250 on spacers!

yes im looking at it but its not got the right colour seats, need to be cream

plus with the 2 cars in my pic sive no space so im going to sell the twin turbo as its as rare as hens teeth and ive spent £7k on it now (including the car) and want a convertible w124 e320

or a bigger drive way!

 

[jibcl500]

I see theres a super charger kit on egay for the W124.

Dan

wheels look good mate, will give you a shout towards the ene of next week, email me if you get sorted before hand.

jib

 

[The German Flower Pot]

Jib, yup the problem was exactly as you said

Luckly marcus had a new bag of handbrake shoe springs and rich did it all in 3 hours!

went to arsenal & back today with no problems

my mates 2000 clk 4.3 v8 cab has a problem, the windows dont drop the 1" (or any) when the roof comes up

here will be here next sunday as he has the 19" alloys for sale as he needs 18" ones

and the drivers front shock or spring has gone on my TT

 

[The German Flower Pot]

New pics now bolts are tightend up, black bolt caps, center caps (will paint black soon)

had the car upto 85-90 on way to football but most was around 60ish as was taking it easy with new wheels

on the way back touched 140 and road angel said i was doing 138, so with 17" amg's spedo was 4 mph out and now its 2mph out!

new pics....

 

[jibcl500]

Dan

Your not suposed to mention your speed on the forum as you might get arrested!!!!! What you meant to say was 70!!!

I did say the front coil was suspect, mind you they all look ready for replacement, has it got an MOT on it?

What time sunday? and can you email me your address again.

jib

 

[The German Flower Pot]

i ment 140 kmh obviously