Last Modified 03 June 2006

Well it had to happen eventually. I ran out of tyres that were any good. The Yokohama A022 finally died on the rear and the front Goodyear F1's were knackered as well. I did change to Toyo Proxie T-1R's but there were just as rubbish as the 1S's. Direction changes were more hope and pray and flicking in and out of roundabouts was a life changing experience everytime. Now the mr2oc April drive was coming up and the thought of running about on these rubbish tyres was just too much. I knew I'd be off the road so I took the plunge and started looking for wheels. Now a few cars have the same PCD and stud pattern as the mk2 and lo a set of std Evo 6 wheels came up on ebay. Now I knew one of the guys was running Evo 5 wheels on his steed so I asked him about any fitting issues. None he said, they just fitted straight on. Nice one. 1st mistake

Convincing myself they would fit I kept my bid in and put in a max also. As luck would have it I was the only bidder and got these wheels for a good price. The wheels were duly sent and everything went swimmingly. The wheels arrived and then I could get the fitting kit ordered to match the rims.

Executive summary time here, standard Evo 6 wheels which I bought have OEM properties, ie fit the hub of the vehicle exactly and in this case have flat machined bolt holes, not the aftermarket standard 60deg cut. To get these wheels to fit an MR2 you need some standard Evo 6 wheels nuts, part number MR455707 and obviously the matching locking nut set part number SPO29833. You can buy the nuts from Mitsubishi but they are butt clenching expensive and as I found out later you can usually get them cheaper from any alloy wheel dealer or even from a rally prep company like ADR Motosport who have loads of the little critters at rock bottom prices. The spigot rings are from Fox alloys and take the bore of the wheel from the evo 67.1mm to the mk2 60.1mm. Fit on some lovely Goodyear F1 rubber, 205x40x17's on the front and 235x40x17's on the rears. Keeps the 30mm diff front to rear of standard

So on with the long story now

Due to the Easter Bank Holiday getting tyres for these puppies was going to be a headache with deliveries and all but as luck would have it was just as well I hadn't ordered any tyres. The wheels turned out to be different from their description and oh boy was it just the beginning of a nightmare.

Advertised as 8x17 I needed to find the OZ part code so I could order the fitting kit and when inspecting the wheel spokes for clues I made the startlingly discovery that the wheels were in fact 7.5x17 with an offset of 38!! Now 7.5 aint 8 and when it comes to fitting tyres on wheel widths that half inch makes a huge difference. The 215x40x17 fronts would still fit alright but the 245x35x17 rears where a huge no-no. In fact the 7.5 rim was really in the middle as far as tyre sizes went. Really I should have had 7inch fronts and 8inch rears, staggered rims, but that costs money, something I am lacking and also something thats difficult to find in the UK. Dunno why but its not easy to find staggered wheel rims in the UK. Too many corsa's and the ilk I reckon.

Anyways 205x40x17 for the fronts and 235x40x17 duly ordered for the rears and of course the all important fitting kit. I wont bore you with the details of me trying to carry 4 alloys to the carpark across from my flat into my dads car nor the hassles of getting them back but suffice to say I got a good workout with that. Due to the aforementioned bank holiday I was getting the fronts fitted at one alloy wheel supplier, they also supplied the fitting kit and the rears fitted elsewhere all on the Saturday.

The fitting kit arrived on the Tuesday and then it started going a bit funny. I never noticed the nuts face on the wheels were flat and the fitting kits nuts had a 60deg cut into them. The spigot rings, from Fox alloys were fine but the nuts would prove to be a huge nightmare. Like I said I never noticed so I merrily changed the wheels over one by one and tightened the nuts. Wondered why after tightening all 5 I could then tighten them all back up by another half turn or so. Never paid attention to it, 2nd mistake.

My mate John however arrived just as I was fitting the last wheel and noticed the new wheel nuts were different shaped from the old ones. So with renewed attention to detail we realised the fitting kit, well the nuts anyway just would not fit. So I changed the nuts back and thats when the new big problem arose. On the drivers side rear wheel I had wound the nuts past the beginning of 3 of the studs and damaged the threads. Oh dear. Worse to follow was a mad vibration above 50mph that seemed to alter the speed and intensity at which it arrived. With just 3 days to the April drive this was pish news indeed.

A quick drop into the alloy wheel supplier that supplied the fitting kit was met with hostility. Turns out the standard Evo 6 wheels though made by OZ are machined specifically for an OEM fitting which is completely different from the usual OZ aftermarket wheels. Basically, although aftermarket Evo 6 wheels were straight fitments the std units were a different kettle of fish altogether. I was told I'd have to get special wheel nuts made up and no the alloy wheel supplier couldn't help me as they had never come up against this before. Mixing and matching wheels wasn't something they were interested in. Ah pants. On the plus side they did give me another alloy wheel supplier that might help. He couldn't supply wheel nuts either but he did explain / show the problem. The wheels were not being centrally held onto the hub because the nuts were the wrong shape. MR2 nuts though flush like the Evo 6 wheels were not shaped at the end correctly to hold the wheel central. He would have to think about it in order to get some nuts made up to suit the wheel / car combo. More aw pish.

So i departed that friday for the April drive not knowing whether the wheels would remain attached to the hubs or whether the hubs would just shear off at somepoint complete with the wheels still attached. Speed was severely limited as expected but I still had a great weekend. Stunning roads / scenery but always the worry of the wheels.

After the drive weekend I duly signed up to LancerRegister and started asking questions about the fitting arrangement for evo 6's. Really helpful folks and straightaway I found out the stud diameter and pitch were the same as the MK2 typical Japanese efficiency. Unable however to get a set of 2nd hand nuts I thought well nobody else will have them so I ordered a new set straight from Mitsubishi complete with locking nuts. 3rd mistake.

They cost a bomb and it turned out later I could have gotten them from an alloy wheel supplier along the road for HALF the price. You live and learn. Anyways changed 3 wheels no bother and yes the wheel studs were lining up bang on centre of the stud hole of the alloys. Ya dancer. Came to the last wheel, the damaged driver side rear and guess what. Broke a stud. It just couldn't take the damage any longer and broke. New studs please.

Of note here I should point out that I still had some vibrations through the steering wheel. Nothing serious and nothing like I had before but still there and I COULD drive through it and it cleared. I decided not to trust the original alloy place and went to another place to get the front wheels checked for balance and what a mess they were. Both wheels had a string of TEN x5g weights on them totally wrong. Turns out the passenger side wheel / tyre was perfectly balanced without weights so gawd only knows what the tyre fitter was thinking when he did that wheel. The other wheel was needing some weights but not the string originally fitted. Now I have almost no vibration other than the expected road variations. fantastic.

Anyways I ordered new studs for the rear wheel and that nice chap Calum fitted them for me. Had to get 2nd hand wheel nuts cause I had bought the entire UK stock of wheel nuts from Mitsubishi previously. Ho hum. For those interested the part number for the wheel studs is 90942-02049 and the Mitsubishi Evo 6 wheel nut is MR455707.

To change the wheel studs on the MK2 you just take off the calliper and rotate the hub round til the stud lines up with where the calliper was sitting. You then hit the stud with a large engineering tool ( a hammer ) and the studs literally fly out the other side. To get them back in you have to align the splines on the stud with the hub and then gently tap them in. Of course you'll never be able to hit them fully home so stick a larger nut over the wheel nut and use that to pull the stud through. Calum said it was dead easy so I'll take his word for it.

Picture of the vehicle support used by Calum to ensure the car wouldn't fall on him. Not in the manual of holding cars up but 100% practical in actual usage

and of course the hub with all new shiny studs fitted

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I like these wheels though they do need refurbed. Time for that in the future