Alloy Wheel Bolt Length Problem ???? FINALLY SORTED, WITH PICS !!!!!!!!!!

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Alloy Wheel Bolt Length Problem ???? FINALLY SORTED, WITH PICS !!!!!!!!!!

G

Ghengis Khan

Guest
Hello All Apologies in advance for the long post but i've tried to give all the relevant info so i can get some answers.

I mentioned the above names as i know they've messed about with different wheels and bolts before but all others please help me as well to sort this one. The cars a 97 Brava 1.4s

Had these wheels on the car. Marea 15" Alloys. My original steel wheel bolts were too short obviously and i used the genuine fiat alloy wheel bolts and locking bolts that came with them and they fitted fine.

p1010005.JPG


As far as i knew the marea wheels run a slightly different offset to the brava and i noticed that they sat in more on mines than the steelies.

Now i've gone and got these 15" Alloys that came on the Brava Formula as standard, i assume they were an option on others as well. They came as wheels only wih no bolts. I assumed the marea alloy bolts would be fine.

coche-919495334.jpg


Now bearing in mind i've never changed a wheel on my brava before, despite having it for 6 years, i'm new to bolts as opposed to nuts, not that it should make any difference. When changing i noticed the front wheels had one locating pin each and the marea alloy had a corresponding hole on the alloy to accept it. The brava alloys did not and i was going to remove them but they have a massive recess between each bolt hole which would allow the locating pin to dissapear into comfortabely so i
did not bother to remove them, when holding the wheels up against the hub the locating pin did not seem to be getting in the way and i could hold the wheel up flush. anyway when bolting the wheel on it seemed to take quite a while to get the bolts to be fully tight to be honest but i got there eventually. The back wheels had two locating pins each which i again did not remove. The back wheels seem to go on so much quicker and easily though for some reason. While tightening the last back wheel i heard what sounded like a spring noise as if something was being forced in the drum brake, no noise on the last turn. While tightening the last front wheel and spinning it to make it easier i felt some resistance to the wheel spinning at one point, after tightneing some more and trying again i t seemed to have decreased, i didn't try this with the first front wheel so dont know if both were like that and i had the handbrake on so dont know about the backs either.

Once done i was a bit worried about this so only edged the car forward slightly and allowed it to freewheel slightly, the resistance was still there and enough to almost slow the car to a halt as well as creaking from the back drums simialr to the sound heard when initially tightening them.

Given these are original fiat alloys spoecifically for the brava i can only assume that maybe the marea alloy bolts are possibly too long and catching something when fully tightenened? If i need original fiat alloy bolts where's best to get them from or is it just fiat who will do them? If they're too long and i've overtightened will this have damamged anything or will swapping them back tomorrow be quick enough to avoid any long term problems? If Marea alloy bolts are the same length as Brava alloy bolts then what is the problem you reckon?

All advice appreciated and many thanks in advance.


Ghengis Khan, http://www.babarmalik.com

 
Re: Alloy Wheel Bolt Length Problem ???? Advice needed please from Tom, Tommy K, Buzz etc

OK, the locating pins are really just there to make aligning the big bolt holes easy. if the holes on your alloys are too big, dont worry. When i took off my wolfrace 17's i noticed that whoever had fitted them, had't even replaced the original 2 locating pins. There were none there!

I took my bare 16" OZ rims to michelin for tyres, and they said that, despite me having replacements that came with my OZ rims, that i didn't need them. As it was, i'd only brough half of them, so we didn't bother fitting the ones that I had brought.

Your centre bore will be the same, and the 4 bolt holes will line up. Thats all you need to worry about going from bravo to brava or to marea or whatever. you catch my drift i'm sure.

Oh, and your OE alloy bolts will be just fine too.

Hope thats what you were after :D
 
Re: Alloy Wheel Bolt Length Problem ???? Advice needed please from Tom, Tommy K, Buzz etc

your bolts might be a tad too long and hitting the inside of the drum, think I had that problem when I originally bought some aftermarket shiney bolts for them.

Dan

beast.gif

Skate2create & Psykee-Lea
 
Re: Alloy Wheel Bolt Length Problem ???? Advice needed please from Tom, Tommy K, Buzz etc

The bolts would have to be WAAYYYY too long to catch the drum innards and then the wheel WOULD NOT TURN at all.
 
Re: Alloy Wheel Bolt Length Problem ???? Advice needed please from Tom, Tommy K, Buzz etc

mine didn't turn :(

it turned a little and then caught something and stopped dead.

Dan

beast.gif

Skate2create & Psykee-Lea
 
Re: Alloy Wheel Bolt Length Problem ???? Advice needed please from Tom, Tommy K, Buzz etc

Thanks for the advice all, Dans experience was the same as mine so went back to fiat and using my cars chassis number the alloy bolts i was given were the same length as the ones i already had, then after showing fiat the alloys i had they eventually found the correct shorter ones as seen in the photo below, these were fine but finding locking ones to match was another headache, i eventually got some aftermarket mcgards ones to solve the problem. Now all done many weeks later.

Bolts.JPG


Old Marea Alloys

oldalloys.JPG


New Brava Alloys

newalloys.JPG


What you Think?

Ghengis Khan, http://www.babarmalik.com

Banner.jpg
 
wow they look great!! now im not just saying this because i have the same aloys but i do think they are the best standard fiat alloys for the bravo/a?

brava009.jpg


Fiat Brava 1.2SX Formula 49k
fiat1233.jpg
 

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