The washers that came with the SB24T bolts were thrown away and replaced with the SW28V
ones which have and extra 1mm diameter allow them to be used in a
wobble bolts application. The bolts were cut down to length.
The bolts need to be M12×1.25mm with a cone seat.
The only hex nut size these come with is
a 19mm. In this size there are 4 different lengths:
I bought a four pack part number 21180 SU which consisted of M12×1.25mm with
a cone seat, 49.2mm shaft length and 19mm hex nut.
However once I drove the car with the wheels fitted I noticed that the spacers
had completely messed up the handing of the car. The 15mm spacers had effectively
changed the negative offset of the wheels from 37mm down to 22mm. This meant that
the front wheels stuck out further than they should. The steering was frightening as it
oversteered quite badly. Made worse by the tendancy of the ultra low profile tyres
to tramline. Because the wheels were rotating around the axis of the hub differently
than intended it also meant that the outer edge of the wheels rubbed against the
air vents on the inside of the wheel arches on full lock making a horrible rasping
noise when performing parking manuvours. The wheels had to be changed for safety and
also if I ever wanted to lower it then they would not be able to stick out as far as
they did.
I spent many evenings searching through web pages and car magazines
trying to come up with designs of wheels I liked. I then tried to look up
the specifications of the wheels, width, diamter, offset, PCD to see which
ones would be possibilities to try on the Coupe. What I found was that most
of the wheels in 7.5×18" size only came in 4×100 PCD and hardly
any in 8×18". I did not mind using wobble bolts but I did not want to
use the wrong offset again. I then spent 3 days phoneing around tyre and wheel
centres and wheel manufactures asking if they had any wheels that would fit the
Coupe. Once I told them what the car was most didn't want to know as they had
problems with finding wheels the last time they tried and didn't want to be
bothered doing it again. Most wheel manufactuers simply said they didn't do
any wheels simply because they only made 4×100 PCD in 18" size not 4x98. Some
centres only ordered wheels in based on fitment tables. They were reluctant to
order in wheels to try as they would not be able to return them.
However I eventually found two companies called "Elite" and "South West
Tyres" who were willing for me to take the car to them and offer up
different wheels. The choice is still somewhat limited as nobody tends to stock
a lot of 4×100 PCD 18" wheels. "WheelMania" also knew of two
wheels that would fit without spacers.
The following 18" wheels DO NOT FIT without the use of spacers:
The following 18" wheels DO FIT without requring spacers:
24.1mm 27170 30.5mm 27169 37.0mm 27185 49.2mm 27180 Wolfrace Urban Racer Shadow Chrome Wheels
I loved the look of the shadow black chrome finish of the Urban Racers and were
thin spoked with the spokes going right to the end to make the wheels look
even bigger. I'm not too keen on the copper coloured details at the end of
each spoke but I was just so happy to find a wheel that suited the car.
