I'm looking for some burnout wheels. Found a good deal on wheels & tires but they're 5x120. My question is, would they work for a few burnouts and maybe a few donuts, or could they cause lots of damage? I'm not rly sure where everyone sits on the 5x120 cs 5x4.75 so please enlighten me

 

A. There is no doubt that many people have used them.
B. It probably would not pass an engineering study.

I once spoke to a wheel manufacturer and learned that their lug hole position tolerance was 0.1 mm. I don't know the diameter of the hole but it's safe to assume that tolerance is tight too. It has to be that way because the more studs on a bolt circle the tighter the positioning tolerances have to be to make sure everything lines up right (most people don't know that). Considering those numbers, it's pretty safe to assume that studs on a 120.65 mm bolt circle are going to end up with bending stress when the conical nut tries to center on the seat. Preloading the wheel studs with bending stress is not good.

That's really all I know which isn't much. There is a member here, @paul_huryk , that used to own a wheel company and I think had a hand in the engineering. I've never seen him give a direct answer to this though.

 

0.1mm = .004" approx (about 2 sheets of copy paper)

Wheels aren't that precise, in the RW. Even if they were when new, acoupla times on and off, and stuff gets wallowed out. A little rust here, a little overtightening there, pretty soon they're kinda sloppy.

That said, 120mm is about 4.724". Not sure if the BMW size is exactly 120 or if that's just an approximation, like engine CIDs usually are or something. That's getting close 1mm - not 0.1mm - from fitting. Which is ALOT. IIRC the real size of the "4¾" pattern is actually 4.76 but I could be wrong, in which case the difference is almost exactly 1mm.

People put BMW wheels on GM cars and vice-versa all the time. Haven't ever heard of a failure but it doesn't seem like something I'd really want to find out about the hard way. I'd recommend against trying it. Especially if you have to spend money to do the experiment.

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/wheels-tires/

Have you searched here? The wheels & tires forum may have someone who's already done what your contemplating .....

 

I suppose if all you want to do is cruise, you'd be fine.

If you were going to do any kind of performance, drag racing on slicks, any real speed or lateral loads, that scares me.

Would be safer to get spacers that adapt 4.75" to 120mm, or maybe get a set of hubs re-drilled with the new pattern. I'm sure that could be done.