When switching to aftermarket (AM) wheels, it will be necessary to obtain replacement lug nuts since the seating surface of OEM nuts, being of the ball type does not interface properly with AM alloy wheels. What's required is a nut with a conical seat and a 60 deg taper (also referred to as an acorn type). Furthermore, most (not all) AM alloys have small diameter mounting holes requiring a so called "tuner" nut. These are simply reduced body diameter nuts, with the correct 60 deg conical taper, enabling the fastener to fit through the narrow mounting hole and maintain appropriate clearance. Tuner nuts are available with internal drive, external spline drive, and conventional hex drive construction.
All Mazda models to date use lug nuts with an M12 x 1.5 thread. These are fine thread metric devices that are particularly advantageous for lug nut use as they provide greater mounting security than would a coarse thread version. Some vehicles, Subaru for example, use an extra fine thread M12 x 1.25 fastener.
Apart from appearance reasons, many of us buy AM alloy wheels for enhanced performance. A wheel lighter than stock reduces both rotational inertia (for faster acceleration) and unsprung weight (for improved handling and steering response). It stands to reason therefore that our lug nuts should be as light as possible on the grounds that every little bit helps. Now, it's not likely that lug nut weight will have much effect on rotational inertia being concentrated so close to the wheel hub but it will however have a definite influence on unsprung weight. It's for this reason that, although larger diameter (and consequently heavier), correct conical taper, hex drive lug nuts are readily available for AM alloy wheels that do not require tuner nuts, such as my own 5Zigens, the focus here will be exclusively on the smaller, lighter, tuner types.
When I recently purchased my winter Enkei wheels to replace my steels, I expected to use the same boat-anchor Dorman lug nuts already in use on my 5Zigens. You can imagine my consternation, shock, dismay, and sadness when I discovered the Enkeis accepted only tuner style fasteners. That started me on my long, torturous lug nut odyssey. In the next post, I'll provide a small list of suitable lightweight fasteners, with which I've had personal experience (a personal relationship?), that you might want to consider before making your own purchase. I do this not for any personal gain on my part, but in the interest of science and for humanity.
The purpose of this thread is not to provide a compendium of all possible lug nuts; that's something you can obtain on your own.
Happy Motoring!
All Mazda models to date use lug nuts with an M12 x 1.5 thread. These are fine thread metric devices that are particularly advantageous for lug nut use as they provide greater mounting security than would a coarse thread version. Some vehicles, Subaru for example, use an extra fine thread M12 x 1.25 fastener.
Apart from appearance reasons, many of us buy AM alloy wheels for enhanced performance. A wheel lighter than stock reduces both rotational inertia (for faster acceleration) and unsprung weight (for improved handling and steering response). It stands to reason therefore that our lug nuts should be as light as possible on the grounds that every little bit helps. Now, it's not likely that lug nut weight will have much effect on rotational inertia being concentrated so close to the wheel hub but it will however have a definite influence on unsprung weight. It's for this reason that, although larger diameter (and consequently heavier), correct conical taper, hex drive lug nuts are readily available for AM alloy wheels that do not require tuner nuts, such as my own 5Zigens, the focus here will be exclusively on the smaller, lighter, tuner types.
When I recently purchased my winter Enkei wheels to replace my steels, I expected to use the same boat-anchor Dorman lug nuts already in use on my 5Zigens. You can imagine my consternation, shock, dismay, and sadness when I discovered the Enkeis accepted only tuner style fasteners. That started me on my long, torturous lug nut odyssey. In the next post, I'll provide a small list of suitable lightweight fasteners, with which I've had personal experience (a personal relationship?), that you might want to consider before making your own purchase. I do this not for any personal gain on my part, but in the interest of science and for humanity.
The purpose of this thread is not to provide a compendium of all possible lug nuts; that's something you can obtain on your own.
Happy Motoring!
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