Wheel bolts

I've fitted 5mm spacers to my BMW fronts so the inside edges don't rub on extreme full lock (i.e. they only rub if you are holding it hard against the stop and going fast in small circles). I probably could have got away with 3mm spacers but I couldn't be arsed to go round the loop several times.

The wheel bolts on there are 28mm - several aftermarket wheel places spec

Also, does the MOT check things like that? They will obviously notice the spacers and the rub marks on the arches, so they may be looking harder at that area.

I've fitted 5mm spacers to my BMW fronts so the inside edges don't rub on extreme full lock (i.e. they only rub if you are holding it hard against the stop and going fast in small circles). I probably could have got away with 3mm spacers but I couldn't be arsed to go round the loop several times.

The wheel bolts on there are 28mm - several aftermarket wheel places spec

Also, does the MOT check things like that? They will obviously notice the spacers and the rub marks on the arches, so they may be looking harder at that area.

I've fitted 5mm spacers to my BMW fronts so the inside edges don't rub on extreme full lock (i.e. they only rub if you are holding it hard against the stop and going fast in small circles). I probably could have got away with 3mm spacers but I couldn't be arsed to go round the loop several times.

The wheel bolts on there are 28mm - several aftermarket wheel places spec

Also, does the MOT check things like that? They will obviously notice the spacers and the rub marks on the arches, so they may be looking harder at that area.

Asked the question on behalf of each wheel? ;-)

new Ubuntu, new Pan newsreader, don't know why it did that. Sorry!

..and if this does the same I won't do it again!

The brief answer is, probably fine but you've got more chance of them stripping their threads when you do them up.

That sounds good. I've already done them up ;-)

Although I guess the MOT place might have some monkeys with more brute force than me. They'll never beat me on ignorance though!

I saw a rule of thumb that you should have as much thread engaged as the diameter of the bolt - I have 10mm for 12mm bolts, so it's not as if I only have 50% of the recommended thread...

Interestingly none of the local factors yesterday kept them in, only locking varieties. Even more surprising was that the local alloy wheels specialist ProTyre didn't sell them either...

IMO that rule of thumb should be considered an absolute minimum.

It was phrased more as 'at least as much..." so I guess that follows. I am intending to get 35mm bolts ASAP which will leave me with 17mm engaged, so that's about right I would think.

I feel safe enough for pottering a couple of miles to the MOT though.

Fotunately then they don't take your wheels off during the MOT

Well most people work on >1.5 times, a standard M12 nut is 10mm thick, but the 1st 3 threads of your bolt are normally reduced in diameter so that it can engage easily & the 1st thread of a tapped hole is often oversized.

They would not rub with correctly sized wheels for the car and correct height of suspension. Anything else will invalidate your insurance unless declared as it destroys the handling of the car. It's usually thick young boy racers that mess with suspension geometry and have to be scraped off the road due to very unpredictable handling.

No it isn't safe, you need to correct the suspension problem which is causing your wheels to rub on full lock. That will be an MOT failure and an accident waiting to happen as it sounds quite serious. If you have lowered the suspension and generally mucked it up, which would cause wheels to rub - or fitted oversized wheels, you need to correct whatever you did. If you bought it with an MOT in this condition when report the test station to VOSA.

They will fail you on whatever the problem is with the suspension causing your wheels to rub. For your own saftey, don't mess with the car unless you know what you are doing. If you have an accident you will end up being proescuted and spend a while in prison because your insurance is currently void.

Roger/Clive, f*ck off, seriously you can change your posting ID as many times as you like but after reading only the first few words it's obvious that such fuckwittery can only be spouted by you.....

Why do you bother ?

One wonders how Roger knows this?

Strange as it may seem lowering and stiffening the suspension plus increasing tyre widths increases the stability of the car if done correctly , it doesnt make the handling unpredictable .

The problem arrises when the modifications are not complete as appears with the ops car

Correct he needs to rectify the problem

You are making asumptions that the op hasnt told the insurance company that the car has not been modified

The op will only spend time in jail if he is at fault and has caused serious injury or death

Well "can increase", it fairly often does f*ck it up, but it's not normally relevant.

Paul gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Four front wheels?

He's modified it.

he's trying to make it into one of these:

I just remembered we had a special notice from vosa on volvos rubbing the wheel arches & I've just found an old copy of Matters for Testing regarding it. Page 8 Testing tips. its a pdf copy.