Why 5-lug over 4-lug......?

[Stephen]

I disagree with e30 friendly sizes being more common in 5x120. It will depend what you are after wheel wise, granted.

5x120 is BMW only, 4x100 spreads to a few marquees. For track beasts, there are wide options in both, so why spend the money to switch over? Plus with any custom wheel, you can simply choose to have it drilled 4x100, and use the large pile of cash left over to buy some larger brakes.

e30 m3 brakes are no longer that big comparatively, and all the goofyness involved in widening your track with e36/ti/etc gear means you will have to run shitty e46 stock wheels, and eliminate the space you could've used to adapt if you find non 5x120 wheels you like later on (plus 5-lug swap + adapters = wtf?)


a 5x114.3 swap, now theres some wheel selection.

[Ray Smoodiver]

I saw you mention something about the factory 5 lug before and thought it was maybe a 320is but I think they came 4 lug anyway. That's a cool fucking car you have there! Is it LHD?

All the SA cars built there were RHD

Ray Smoodiver -

your car is beautiful dude.

Cheers mate! 291,000km - barely run in!

[xAZxE30x]

Looking back I probably wouldn't have gone 5 lug. But I got a good deal on the e30m3 rear setup and then of course had to find some front struts to tag along

I did have a set of RC090's that I wanted to run and I'm not an adapter fan so that was a good incentive

[rkettner]

Yup.........

e36m3 struts (bought all the M3 stuff for $850......the so called complete kit was sent with wrong control arms, had to source two actual m3 arms)
eyeball CABs ($180)
Koni cut-n-gut inserts in front ($270)
Koni Porsche 911 rear shocks ($350)
Bimmerworld billet rear mounts ($100)
GC coilovers ($460)
e28 camber plates ($300)
z3 hubs (came with m3 parts)
Rotors and calipers that match accordingly. ($300)

You're also talking about a coilover project that should be considered somewhat seperate for costing purposes.

[Roysneon]

All South African cars are rhd

So are 'all' Japanese cars, but E30s shipped and sold there were lhd.

[IronFreak]

agreed...and still have money left over for a big brake kit for your stopping power. you already have 2700 into it with no wheels yet...

Yup.........

e36m3 struts (bought all the M3 stuff for $850......the so called complete kit was sent with wrong control arms, had to source two actual m3 arms)
eyeball CABs ($180)
Koni cut-n-gut inserts in front ($270)
Koni Porsche 911 rear shocks ($350)
Bimmerworld billet rear mounts ($100)
GC coilovers ($460)
e28 camber plates ($300)
z3 hubs (came with m3 parts)
Rotors and calipers that match accordingly. ($300)

[mrmckie]

I looked at the cost of doing a proper 5-lug conversion and realized you can get practically any baller 4x100 wheel setup you want with that budget. Doesn't really make sense unless you're getting a hell of a deal on the parts.

agreed...and still have money left over for a big brake kit for your stopping power. you already have 2700 into it with no wheels yet...

[Shangsta]

I saw you mention something about the factory 5 lug before and thought it was maybe a 320is but I think they came 4 lug anyway. That's a cool fucking car you have there! Is it LHD?

All South African cars are rhd

[IronFreak]

Ray Smoodiver -

your car is beautiful dude.

[Roysneon]

South African factory special, 1/500 built ;D

I saw you mention something about the factory 5 lug before and thought it was maybe a 320is but I think they came 4 lug anyway. That's a cool fucking car you have there! Is it LHD?

[enigmaticdream]

Unless you happen upon a 5 lug swap for a good price it isn't worth it. The stopping power isn't that improved and most of the wheel selection isn't all that much better. Sure a bigger front wheel bearing would be nice, but how often do wheel bearings go on e30s? It isn't exactly a common thing.

My reasons for doing a 5 lug swap on my 325 was to consolidate wheels. That way I only needed to find wheels of one bolt pattern and one offset range. Originally I was going to do an e36 M3 front with e30 M3 rear, but I got lucky and found e30 m3 front setup for a good price. Looking back I'm happy I didn't go with the e36 setup because I can easily swap wheels between the two e30s without worrying too much.

[Ray Smoodiver]

Wat

South African factory special, 1/500 built ;D

[reelizmpro]

Years ago you pretty much had to if you wanted much better wheels and brakes + bragging rights. Now there are many options like adapters, fillndrill, E36 suspension from the Junkyard, sleeve/hub kits. For most people who just drive the car on the street and only want to run 5 lug wheels, it's hard to beat adapters and E36 5 lug swap. There are more affordable 4lug BBK kits out there as well. 5 lug swap is like the icing on the cake so to speak. I thought about doing a 5 lug on the M tech vert but couldn't justify it so I purchased 42DD adapters...no complaints!

[alB5]

when you run out of stuff to do that isn't related to wheels

[IronFreak]

So its clear, this isn't a question of whether I should go 5-lug, I already am. More of the overall benefits.

My current setup is:

e36m3 struts
eyeball CABs
Koni cut-n-gut inserts in front
Koni Porsche 911 rear shocks
Bimmerworld billet rear mounts
GC coilovers
e28 camber plates
z3 hubs
Rotors and calipers that match accordingly.

I currently have about $2700 in my setup