Wheels & Wheel Sets

Five dimensions together: diameter, rim width, offset, centre bore and bolt pattern. Diameter and bolt pattern are the ones people check, and offset is the one that causes trouble. It sets how far the mounting face sits from the wheel centreline, which decides whether the tyre clears the suspension and the arch, and how the wheel bearing is loaded. A wheel with the wrong offset can fit and still rub, wear bearings early and change the steering feel. Match the OE number and all five follow.

Balance and wheel condition are the usual suspects, and a speed specific vibration is the signature. Have the wheels balanced first, which is inexpensive, and ask the fitter to check each rim for runout on the machine while it is there. A buckled rim from a pothole shows up immediately as lateral or radial runout that no amount of balance weight will cure. If the wheels are true and balanced and the vibration persists, look at tyres, hubs and driveshafts.

A modest buckle in the rim flange can often be pressed straight by a specialist, and that is genuinely useful for a wheel that is otherwise sound. What cannot be repaired is a crack, and welding a cracked alloy wheel is unsafe because the heat changes the material properties around the repair without any way of verifying the result. Corrosion damage at the bead seat can sometimes be machined and resealed. Any wheel with cracks radiating from a spoke or the mounting face is scrap.

Look at the bead seat rather than the tyre. Aluminium corrodes where the tyre bead sits, particularly on cars that see road salt, and the resulting oxide film breaks the seal so the tyre loses pressure over days rather than hours. A fitter can break the bead, clean the seat back to bright metal, apply sealant and refit. If the corrosion has pitted deeply, the wheel is finished. Check this before spending money on a tyre that is probably fine.

They matter more than almost anything else in this category. Wheel nuts come with conical, spherical or flat seats, and the seat has to match the shape of the wheel's nut recess so that clamp load is spread over a face rather than a line. A mismatched nut feels tight, works loose in service, and elongates the seat in the wheel until neither part is usable. Check the seat shape as well as the thread pitch, and never mix nut types across one wheel.

To the manufacturer's torque figure, applied with a torque wrench, in a diagonal sequence, with the wheel just touching the ground rather than hanging. Overtightening with an impact gun stretches studs and warps brake discs, which is a common cause of the pedal pulsation blamed on discs. Undertightening is worse. Recheck the torque after a short drive following any wheel change, because seating movement can reduce clamp load in the first few miles.

Wheel nuts sit right at the bottom of the range. Steel wheels are modest. Alloy wheels sit at the top of the category and vary considerably by size and finish, and they ship as heavy, easily damaged items so freight is a real part of the total. Spare wheel winch assemblies fall in between. The live minimum and maximum are shown in the band at the top of this page, and the quote form returns delivered figures for heavy items.

In places that salt the roads, yes, and for practical reasons rather than economy alone. Steel wheels shrug off kerb contact, can be straightened after a pothole rather than scrapped, and cost little enough that cosmetic damage is irrelevant. Keeping the alloys off the car through winter also avoids the corrosion at the bead seat that causes slow punctures later. Check that the steel wheel clears your brake calipers, since larger brakes sometimes rule out the smaller diameters.

If your vehicle uses a direct monitoring system, each set needs its own sensors or the car will report a fault every time you change over. The alternative is moving one set of sensors between wheels twice a year, which costs less in parts and more in labour, and carries some risk of damage during fitting. Either way a relearn follows so the vehicle knows which sensor sits where. Pressure sensors are listed in their own category on the site.

Only if all five dimensions agree, and the bolt pattern alone is not enough. Centre bore is the one that catches people out: a wheel with a larger bore than the hub spigot will not centre itself and produces a vibration that no amount of balancing removes, unless centring rings are used. Offset differences change arch clearance and bearing loading. Match the OE number where you can, and where a reference brings back nothing, use the quote form.

That is the winch assembly, a cable and drum mechanism operated through a hole in the boot floor or the bumper. They corrode and seize because they live in the spray from the rear wheels, and the cable frays inside its guide until it jams or snaps. Some vehicles provide an emergency release. Once seized, the winch assembly is replaced as a unit, and it is listed here. Exercise the mechanism occasionally rather than discovering the fault at the roadside.

Yes. Wheels are heavy, easily damaged in transit and produced in many finishes, so the quote route is the normal one and it returns the delivered figure with the part. Give the reference and the number of wheels you need. Be exact about the specification when you ask, because diameter, width, offset, bolt pattern and centre bore all have to agree and a wheel that bolts on with the wrong offset changes the steering geometry. Where you are replacing one damaged wheel from a set, mention the finish, since the same wheel exists in several.