Costco Steel Rims

[hgclim]

Hi all,

I recently bought a set of steel rims (snow tires winter use) for my 97 Nissan Maxima at Costco. The brand is Macpek. From the catalog, the recommended model is X41552 and the alternate model is X42554. The particular branch I visited only carried the alternate and I bought a set. They are 15x6 with 5x114.3 bolt pattern. They are universal fit and hence are lug-centric instead of hub-centric.

I intend to place the tires on the car myself and and hence I took the Cost rims and snow tires to a local garage to have them mounted and balanced. Upon installing the tires on my car, I realized that the lug holes on the Costco rims are a bit larger than the originals for my Maxima. I check the lug hole size against my 04 Honda Accord rims and the ones from Costco are still bigger.

Here's my problems:

1) I understand the rims will not fit the hub, but what if it doesn't even have a tight fit on the lugs? How can I ever centered them properly?
2) Is it normal for the lug holes to be bigger?
3) Perhaps there are new bolts that can solve my problems?
4) My original maxima rims are 6.5" wide. The costco rims are 6" wide. Any problems going to a thinner rim even though I am using the same size tires?
5) Would a hub adapter solve my problems?
6) I have an impact wrench from Canadian Tire which I bought for wheel swapping. Understanding the recommended torque for wheels is about 90lb/ft, would my 228lb/ft impact wrench which doesn't not have torque adjustment be a problem? Potential damages?

Thanks in advance for any responses.

hgclim1

[Narci]

I think if they are lug centric, you need the lug nuts that are cone shaped at the end where it goes in.

Something like this:



Or

[myapple]

I bought a set of 4x100 winter rims from CT two years ago. I had the same problem with the "recommended" steelies...the lugs lined up correctly, but the centre is not an exact snug fit compared to my OEM rims. They fit pretty well, but if u look closely...it's not perfect. Ah well, they work.

If you're paranoid, return the rims and get a set of OEM ones from the dealer. But if u do...u're probably gonna have to pay a LOT more.

[Azxster]

You'r not the only one with universal winter rims. Drive 100 km, if it still is tight, then keep driving.

[DragonZealot]

The impact wrench should be used for taking off the lug nuts only not for tightening. To do it properly use torque wrench to tighten.

[Narci]

The impact wrench should be used for taking off the lug nuts only not for tightening. To do it properly use torque wrench to tighten.

Unless it has the torqueing wrench attachment.

[fast_typeR]

firstly
with 288 ft/lb of tightening, you're looking for trouble. do it a few times and you'll kill the thread on your lugs. you should never use an impact wrench for any wheel work. the reason why shops use it is because they want it to be fast so they can get as much work done as possible

in regards to the bore opening of the wheel not being exact fit (also called slip fit), there are alot of aftermarket rims that are like that. what we get is a hub centric ring, a plastic ring that you insert into the hub bore opening to make it the size of hub centre diameter. I don't know if this applies to Steelies, but I would imagine there are something like that. It's not good to drive a car without a snug fit on the hub bore opening, because your wheels will tend to loosen a bit after a bit of driving and it can cause your wheel to wobble causing vibration.

There's no need to worry much about the lug holes as opposed to the hub bore opening fitment. if your hub bore opening is well fitted and your lug diameter can well tighten the wheel to the rotor through the lugs then you should be fine. for the lug nuts, just make sure their diameter is larger than the opening of the lug holes on yoru wheel and you should be fine.

[fast_typeR]

actually, my bad,
i just remembered there are no hub centric rings for steel wheels. however, as long as your lug diameter is larger than the hub hole openings on the wheel, you should be fine.

i guess the only way for you to make sure you get maxium tightening is to tighten the lugs in a right pattern, if you already aren't. if you have 4 lugs, use a criss-cross pattern, for 5 lugs use a star pattern.

[Narci]

firstly
with 288 ft/lb of tightening, you're looking for trouble. do it a few times and you'll kill the thread on your lugs. you should never use an impact wrench for any wheel work. the reason why shops use it is because they want it to be fast so they can get as much work done as possible.

Like I said, there's a torquing attachment you can use with an impact gun. Obvioulsy tourqing the lugs with no attachment would ne a no no.

[DragonZealot]

Yes when using impact wrench you can limit the torque by using an attachment like this.

However this kind of limiter comes with pre-set limit so you can not adjust the torque to the setting for your car. Even if you can adjust the limit you need special torque guage to adjust.

Another way is to use a torque limiting impact wrench. Basically it just regulate the air pressure driving the hammer to reduce the impact. Again it is not accurate.

Both ways are not ideal only shops that careless about quality would use them. These shops also tend to overtighten the lug nuts for the fear that the wheel will come off if not tight enough.

You should at least use a clicker type torque wrench especially if you have alloy wheels. It only cost $25 from Princess Auto here when on sale.

Even a cheap dial type torque wrench will do better than the impact wrench "solutions".

[fast_typeR]

Like I said, there's a torquing attachment you can use with an impact gun. Obvioulsy tourqing the lugs with no attachment would ne a no no.

i'm responding to the user's question no. 6

6) I have an impact wrench from Canadian Tire which I bought for wheel swapping. Understanding the recommended torque for wheels is about 90lb/ft, would my 228lb/ft impact wrench which doesn't not have torque adjustment be a problem? Potential damages?

[Narci]

i'm responding to the user's question no. 6

ohhh..me bad

[hgclim]

I purchased the recommended torque wrench from Princess Auto this morning for $24.99. There was a least a couple hundred of them at the Mississauga store. Canadian Tire is selling a similar torque wrench for $99.99!

One additional purchase I made was an impact gun they have on special for $55.55. The physical appearance of the impact gun looks identical to the one I got from Canadian Tire for $149.99 (which is already on special from $249.99). I haven't used it yet, but I plugged it in to test it and it even feels the same. I wonder if the "guts" of the guns are identical. But anyways, $55.55 seems like a good deal.

Now I can unscrew with my impact gun, and tighten properly with my torque wrench.

Thanks guys.

[fast_typeR]

yea
cdn tire and home depot jack up their prices alot. I was getting a torque wrench last time too and found for the price of one torque wrench at canadian tire, i could get a torque wrench, sockets, ratchet and crowfoot adapters still with money leftover.

you might want to get a jack and jackstand from Princess auto as well, they look far more solid than the ones avaliable at CDN Tire

[DragonZealot]

Basically CT's Mastercraft is of better quality and warranty and thus more expensive. It is unfair to to conclude that the CT tools is more expensive.

A profession mechanics will have no doubt opt for the better quality Mastercraft cause he wants the tool to last. Since we only use the torque wrench a few time a year the lower quality one is good enough. Same reason for the impact wrench.