Lessons learned about wheels
I'm trying to reuse 16" alloy Sacchi wheels on 2013 M3 sedan. They previously were used with 2006 Honda Civic. I have never swapped wheels before and the had the work done at various shops. This time I installed them like this:-
- Tried to removed OEM wheels but the tiny OEM wrench found in the trunk did not give enough leverage. Bought a 3-way metric from CanTire which does the job. Fortunately, I never got stranded by a flat tire with this car.
- Tried installation of two of the winters on the the M3 rear. But the Sacchi's have 10 lug holes and the hole surrounds are not big enough for 21mm wheel wrench. This time I got a 21mm socket and a 15 inch "breaker bar" handle from Home Depot. Two of the winters on the M3 rear tested fine.
- Next, put the other two on the front. I noticed before this new car has a slightly audible "whirrr" sound from the front end at low speeds which is not unpleasant. However, it became a growl with these winters. So I restored the OEM setup.
- Finally read the stickies in this forum. There are good writeups, thank you much.
- Definitely need centering rings which were not included in the old bill from CanTire. On a recent visit, the parts guy said they do not provide rings, I must get them from a dealer (Implies: we only sell poorly fitted wheels..Ha!). But the Avante guy says they only sell wheels which fit Mazda and they don't need rings.
- Guess I have enough info to order some rings. But what to do about offset?
Offset: The Sacchi has +40 and the M3 has +50. I think this means the wheel has an offset but the M3 expects an offset. Is there a shim to compensate? I don't want to ignore this topic since Mazda has taken a great deal of care with engineering the front end which may not work well with multifit wheels.
Beware: I am dismayed that neither Canadian Tire, Honda, or Goodyear warned me about these missing rings.
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Originally Posted by Jackal
