Stolen Mags

It's true, and all mechanics check those numbers whenever they have a car in their shop, and are required to report them to the police just like pawn shops do with guns & other serial-numbered items.

Mike Patterson Please remove the spamtrap to email me.

The question isn't "are there weapons of mass destruction?", the question is "who has them now?"

Yes. So just buy your mags at the store and leave the ones on your neighbor's car alone. Some of the premium brands also have radio controlled destruct signals available for dealing with mag thieves.

So, when you see the centers spinning, the self destruct sequence has started? ;)

BOB

That reminds me, a while back there was a crash outside, and I saw a nice white BMW with a missing front wheel. The wheel had fallen off and the car had run over it, doing quite some damage under the car, then there was more damage when the car continued without a wheel.

The young male owner had just bought a new set of mags and had put them on by himself. For some reason the wheel studs had unscrewed themselves on all the wheels, and all the studs for the front wheel were lost so he couldn't even put the spare wheel on. Also the car was too low to use his jack to lift it. The car was blocking a major highway with the rush hour approaching.

He refused my offer of a trolly jack and planks of wood, and while he frantically called his dad (who'd probably given him the car) I put a warning cone behind his car and wandered back the way he'd come, picking up the studs where they'd flicked a couple of yards off the side of the road. I found all the missing studs, with the nuts still firmly attached.

His dad arrived with the original wheels and a trolley jack, they put the old wheels on and drove off.

I have wondered ever since why the studs unscrewed themselves. He would not have needed to replace them when he put the mags on, unless the mags needed longer studs. How likely is that?

Not so unlikely these days. If he had put new wheels with the same or similar offset (ET) as the original ones, he could've used the original lugs. It's not so unfrequent for people to install wheels with incorrect offset and loger lugs may be needed.

In any case, he probably didn't torque them correctly.

Doesn't BMW normally use a "bolt" and not a nut on a stud ? Maybe he bought the wrong wheels and decided that he could just put some standard studs in there with nuts to hold them on.

Don't be ridiculous. There's no self destruct. They do have UPC codes molded in that the sensors at traffic lights, toll booths, and any auto repair shop pick up on though. Since wheels are worth over $250, it's grand theft. If you used a tire iron to take them, off, it's armed robbery. If you buy them from someone who did, you're an accessory after the fact to armed robbery. That's

In theory maybe. Having a car with wheels of the type likely to attract thieves I'd like to think this is true, but I find it very hard to believe all of the thousands of wheels which are removed at tire places, auto shops etc. in any given day are routinely checked against some huge database of stolen rims. You're lucky if you can get them to just correctly torque the damned lug nuts when they put them back on the car (which is why I always take my wheels in loose).

Dan

Jimmy-UPC code reading on your brake dust encrusted rims as you zip through an intersection at 40 mph? Would this be the same technology that requires the grocery store clerk to scan your box of Cherrios 3 times to get it to ring up? ;-)

Dan

BMW usually uses bolts and not a nut-ona-a-stud. However there are several conversions kits as some people prefer the more standard arrangement. (Like autoxers that frequently change wheels!)

Why thanks for noticing, George. I do try to be tongue-in-cheek in my use of consonants, as well. You see so much nonsense in these discussions it can be hard to tell sometimes...

ok thanks for that, where is this serial or identification located? is it possible to check if these mags are stolen property somehow? so that i could buy them and have a clear conscience?

thnx

Sandro

Sandro, I'm sorry, I was just kidding.

As far as I know, there are no such serial numbers and almost certainly there isn't any such requirement, though considering the cost of those things, maybe there should be.

Mike

That's what I thought. So, some dope who throws the studs into the holes without proper tightening would be likely to lose them as the other poster observed.

ok thanks mike

so i have come to the conclusion after many replies that there is no identification on gs or anything.

thanks all

UPC code is like saying, Universal Product Code code. =o)

That being said.... Me thinks we're a long way from wheel tracking at intersections.. I'd say most bar code readers are only effective up to 18 inches or so. Now, with RFID coming up, I'd say it'd be much more likely that they, or we for that matter, would track assets since RFID readers have a much higher effective range.

-Bruce

Thing about RFID is that the tag is easily located. Embedding the chip in the wheel isn't worth it.

I don't know about that. A few years ago I attended ScanTech in Dallas, and one of the vendors scanned my badge from a couple of aisles over, a good 45-50 feet.

JazzMan