crooked_toe

Hey everyone, I'm a major n00b with anything to do with car repair and need some help. I'm going to add as many pictures as I can to describe the issue so perhaps that will help.

I have a 2003 C230k, w203. I purchased this car with aftermarket Monet Bohemian rims (atleast from my research, i believe they are monet bohemians). They are Hamann PG2 knock-offs. I have never had OEM rims on this car.

side shot.



About a month ago I hit a pot hole and damaged the front right rim beyond repair. bummer.


My Monet Bohemians are 19x8.5 and 19x9.5 staggered. The tires are 235/35/19 and 265/30/19. I have no clue about the offset. Here are all the pictures I took of the inside of the damaged rim. Again, this is the front right.






This past week I purchased the 19" Staggered iForged Sprints from this thread:
https://mbworld.org/forums/wheels-ti...d-sprints.html

which was an older purchase from this thread:
https://mbworld.org/forums/classifie...ps2-tires.html

These were originally on a 2006 c230. the thread say they fit a w203, so i thought i was in good shape. same tire size. simple swap so i thought.

When I got the rims i noticed the lug bolt sizes were different.


First, I have no clue if spacers were used before. I doubt it because the spare wheel is on there right now and the shop that changed it out only gave me a bag for the bolts, no spacer for the front right. Didn't know if a spacer has to be removed to put on a spare.

Second, the iForged Sprints only came with 15 bolts. That means there is 1 set of lug bolts missing. The seller says he can't find them either.

[edit]
Should I take a lug bolt off the spare wheel that's on there and figure out that size?
[\edit]

Is it safe to use the lug bolts from the Monet Bohemian Rims? Or should I find another set of bolts for the missing wheel? Or should I just buy a completely new set of bolts for all the wheels?

Sorry if this seems like a dumb question, but I don't want to damage my car. I am more than confident I can change all the wheels, but i want to make sure I am using the correct bolts. Or would it be best to just take everything to a shop around here and let them figure it out?

TIA

phister

What you can do is measure the length of your lugs on the Monet and then stick then in the Monet wheels and see how far it sticks out of the back side of the wheel and measure it, that will be the length it needs to stick out. Then grab the same lugs and stick them in the new wheels and measure the length it sticks out and add or subtract the length compared to the other length to get the length of the shaft you need for the new wheels. Radusadirect. com is where many get their lug bolts.

phister

The part that says et is your offset so your et is +37. Also you can use the iforged lugs and see if it sticks out the same length on the iforged wheels as the Monet lugs does on the Monet w wheels. Some wheels require shorter or longer lugs depending on the wheels. The lugs should only take 6 full rotations from beginning of threading to full tightening. Of you do too much it'll ruin the braking system.

crooked_toe

thanks Phister. Here are my findings. it looks like there is a 4mm difference between the lugs when put on the different rims. i could always try to put a new rim on with the old lugs but there will be an extra 4mm. I know i won't really know what 6 rotations feel like. I don't do this that often. Sorry if I seem ignorant, but what size of lug bolts do i need?

Here is a picture with the monet bohemian lug inside the old(Monet Bohemian) rim.


Here is a picture with the monet bohemian lug inside the new(iForged Sprint) rim.


Here is a picture of the new iForged lug inside the new iForged rim

phister

if you get a wrench and start the threading of the lug bolt it should take 6 full circles/rotates from the start to it beginning tightened. I would not put the Monet bolts on the iforged. measure the shaft length of the monet lug and substract 4mm from it to get the length you need of the bolt or measure the iforged bolt because they look pretty close in length on how much it sticks out the back. when buying lug bolts they go off the shaft length, not the overall bolt length. the shaft length is the threaded part of the bolt.

crooked_toe

so if the Monet lug is 30mm, then that means i need a 26mm lug for the iForged Sprints.

2nd question, on http://www.radusadirect.com, I'm assuming this is cone (taper) 12x1.5.

In addition, it looks like my iForged bolts are only 20mm in shaft length which isn't available from http://www.radusadirect.com. Is that just an odd size or something?

phister

No you can probably call them and get it made. They only really post standard sizes on mb length for people that swap around OEM wheels that need different length.

Another course is to do a stud conversion which is around 100 for the studs. But since you have a cone setup there isn't a lot of cone lug nuts that look good unless you grab some Honda s2000 ones.

I'm running a stud conversion because I'm constantly working on my wheels or suspension and had 4 different set of wheels already so getting new lug bolts became a pain and have a drawer full of bolts now.

crooked_toe

Ok. When I get home next week ill mount the new iForged with the iForged lugs and see if I can get 6 rotations. If so, then we might be good and ill go on the search for 5 lugs with 20mm shafts. If I can't get 6 rotations then ill order some 26mm bolts.

Ill report back next week. Probably Friday. Thank you for all your help

copper7op

Hey man, I had the same issue as you, DONT run the long bolts, you'll break stuff super quick.

I parked my benzo for the winter when I bought my 2013 Jeep Wranger, but a stud conversion is literally the first thing on my list.

Phister, do you have a part number for the studs? Or a walk-thru? If not, I'll do up some pictures when I do mine.

phister

stud conversion isnt hard to do its just basically screwing the studs on the hub, just use some blue loctite and tighten each stud down to 25ft/lbs and let it sit for a few hours before driving. apexraceparts sells them and many othe places, you just have to choose what you want in length and design. you can do fully threaded standard design or a bullet end race design and if you want long studs or short studs. I went all out and got black coated zince bullet nose/race track studs in 75mm length so I can run spacers if I wanted and have th long open ended lug nuts. studs ran about 125 but theres cheaper ones out there. just make sure its 12x1.5 pitch thread.

tommy

Rogue Engineering here in Jersey sells two different sets for Bimmers - fit our cars, though. I've had mine for a couple of years now, and a couple of other people have bought sets too, and I haven't seen any issues with them. A bit cheaper than phister's at $106.

I was going to recommend to the OP that he get a stud conversion, but figured everyone was tired of me recommending them to everyone instead of doing the "which length bolt" dance.

crooked_toe

I'm honestly more scared of doing a stud conversion than buying new bolts. last thing i want to do is deal with spacers and all kinds of new things.

phister

doing a stud is safer than new lug bolts because if you get the wrong length it'll mess up your braking system and then you'll have to get new parts for that or if too short you might have a wheel pop off. I have a bin full of bolts from all the wheels I had and going with a stud conversion is one of the best mods I could do. A lot of bimmers run stud conversions that do heavy duty road racing with no issues.

It already seems like you're dealing with spacers and getting new bolts previously. with a stud conversion you can just put spacers and just bolt down, thats why I went with 75mm studs because it can deal with spacers up to 20mm.