Volkswagen Wheels?

[graft]

Hey, new guy around here....I'm picking up a '98 wagon in a bit (to replace my '85 GL beater) and I've been trying to plan out some new wheels for it. I was looking into VW wheels, they have the same bolt pattern, hub diameter is only ~1mm bigger (so I would need a hubcentric ring), but...the wheel bolts on VW's are 14mm, and the Legacy has 12mm. The question is, can I make this work? Is there a way to swap out the bolts for 14mm ones, or can I get something like a barrel lug to fill out the extra 2mm?

Sorry if this was gone over before, I tried to search for it, but to no avail.

[dunnboy]

why would you put vw rims on any subaru...........thats just wrong

[Huffer]

why would you put vw rims on any subaru...........thats just wrong

Ok, you're not helping. Anymore posts like this in the tech sections and I'm going to start deleting things.

If the lugs holes on the VW wheels are 14mm, then you may need some kind of thin spacer to ensure the wheels are sitting correctly on the lug studs. You can't install 14mm ones I believe because the holes for the studs in the hub are 12mm.

I bet you could probably get away with wrapping the lug studs with teflon tape a few times, and then torquing the lugs in the star pattern to ensure even distribution.

VW wheels would be a fairly unique look.

[DLC]

A friend used to run VW steelies on his SRP 2.5RS back in the day (which was a Wednesday) and didn't seem to need spacers or anything specific to make them work. They were strictly used for AutoX, and had a lower offset, so in effect made his track width greater while still staying within the rules. Worked for him.

[graft]

Thanks....maybe I'll see if I can pick up a VW 5x100 steelie at a junkyard for cheap and do a test fitment. If it works out, I can justfy spending more on a set of nicer wheels .
Although, now that I think about it more, the holes on my old GL wheels are definitly bigger than the wheel bolts themselves, but the lug nuts have a conical seat and center the wheel when you torque them down. Do the Legacy lugs have the same design? If so this should problaby work....

[dodik]

acorn or tapered lug nuts should only be installed on the wheels that have conical lug nut seats in them, now said that most subarus i've seen come stock with acorn style lug nuts but still the shape of them strictly depends on the wheels itself, if you get a wheel with flat not tapered seat and put tapered lug nuts in it it will start to eat away from your wheel untill they fully settle in which WILL make your new wheels weaker. and possibly cause for lugs to come loose until they fully settle in, which will make it dangerous to drive. i wouldnt recommend doing all that, and remeber not all vw have 5x100, there are quite a few good looking cheap wheels with better offset out there. i personally wouldnt go lower than +40 offset on 7.5" wide wheel

[graft]

I'll keep that in mind to note the shape of the seat on the wheel/lug combo.

Also, for clarification, I'm not looking only at OEM VW wheels (probably should have indicated this earlier), rather I'm more interested in some of aftermarket wheels you see commonly VW's, i.e. older BBS mesh styles, Borbet type A's, etc. I'm partial to those types of wheels, and haven't really seen anything similar out there specifically for/on Subarus. I'm just trying to figure out if it is possible to fit something like that up on the hub properly.

[dodik]

fitting them on the hub is one thing but you also have to keep in mind the offset, most vw oem and aftermarket wheels run in +30 to +38 range thats pretty low for a subaru unless those wheels are like 8.5 -10.0 inches wide and those would require fender/wheel well modification to fit properly. yeah the style most suby wheels come in are not really old skool euro looking like those that you mentioned but simply becasue its not a european cars. oh and if you are able to mount a wheel on the hub properly like using hubcentric rings or end up finding correct bore sized wheels you may not need to go acorn/tapered lugs but rather using flat lugs just to make sure it doesnt wobble on the hub. gl with your search

[graft]

Yeah, I was anticipating fender work...I want to go as wide as I can. Thanks for the tips!