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      09-25-2013, 10:13 AM   #1
BenN
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United Kingdom
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Drives: F31 335d MSport Plus
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: North East, UK

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Advice: Corroded Locking Wheel Bolt

Hi,

Just looking for abit of advice.

I'll be switching my summer wheels/tyres over for the winter set in a month or so's time, ready for the unpredictable UK winter

I bought my wheels and tyre set last year, along with some locking and regular wheel bolts - all from the same supplier. I purchased new lockers due to the winter wheels being slightly thicker and requiring slightly longer bolts in general. When i fitted the wheels last winter, the winter set along with the new bolts gave the same amount of thread hub-side compared to the original BMW M-Sport alloys and BMW bolts.

The problem is this, after removing the wheels last winter, i noticed corrosion had started to appear on the McGard locking wheel bolts that i had purchased specifically for the winter set. TBH, the locking wheel key is almost identical to that of the BMW original equipment (obviously the keyed bit is different), so to me, this suggested that BMW used McGard lockers. I wouldnt usually be bothered about corrosion on wheel bolts, as this is to be expected; however i have had bad experience with McGard locking wheel bolts on a previous car, similar thing happened and i ended up with the keyed bit snapping from the bolt on removal, meaning that i had to get the bolt drilled before the routine servicing could carry out. I was, at the time of buying the McGard lockers for the BMW cautious of this happening again, but i guessed with McGard being a fairly reputable company that this was a one-off and put it down to bad luck.

With the same thing looking to happen again, what would you do? I have contacted BMW about buying some slightly longer bolts for my car from them, but they insist all of the bolts on all BMW's are the same length

If i rememeber correctly from last year, the BMW lockers are slightly longer than the BMW bolts, and wondered, even though they are slightly shorter than my winter bolts, whether the BMW lockers would be ok to use with my winter set? I am more-so concerned about these bolts not seating all of the way into the hub and after torquing up to 140nm, that half the thread gets pulled (or maybe im just worrying about nothing).

Anyway, heres some pics of the McGard lockers, the corrosion surrounding the keyed chrome part and where this joins to the main bolt is where i had one fail previously, as this corrosion had got under the keyed bit; the bolts in the pics have been on the car for less than 6 months.

I have contacted McGard about this, but they are resistant to any sort of response. The generic OEM winter bolts that i am using have no rust or corrosion on them in any way.

Also, ive sometimes had a gold/bronze grease put on the end of bolts during a service, i wondered what your thoughts where about this and whether i should do the same when i swap the wheels this time?

What would you do? any advice would be appreciated...

Thanks, Ben

(Maybe someone can work out the bolt length difference from the McGard part number compared to BMW bolts )
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