Was installing my winter tire setup today. They are 225/55/17 all around (rims and tires) ordered from discounttiresdirect. Came with the gap filler (washer rings, lugs, and key). I tried to install only the driver side front first to see if everything goes smoothly. Unfortunately it didn't. There was a gap of like 2-3cm between the center of the rotor and the center(hubcap portion) of the interior of the rim. It is supposed to be flat against each other. Doesn't matter how much I tightened, there were still a gap of 2-3cm. And it wasn't the extra pin that infiniti has in order to prevent us from confusing the front and the rear cuz of the staggered setup. I removed the pin before installing the new wheel.

I knew it wasn't working, so I took off the wheel and next thing i noticed is that my spokes on the rotor is stripped so are the lugs. I tightened the lugs with caution cuz of the fact that they only gave me 1 key and many people told me how they messed up the key by over torquing. How is this possible?? So I called discounttires and they told me to take it to a mechanic shop to figure out what's wrong before they can do anything. Fine, I can wait for them to fix my order or whatever the problem is. They seem fair.

But now my problem is that when I was driving to pepboys, the dealership are closed already at this point; I notice clicking noises coming from my driver side front wheel. I was worried that I didn't tighten the lugs on the original enough, so I tighten it until it was very secure. The clicking is still there. Now I am worried that this is happening becuz of the stripped spokes. Is this possible??? How freaking hard can it be to change tires? I have been doing it since high school and never a problem. Can I possibly cause any other harm or problem from wheel change?

Dealership (service rep not techician) telling me that I can mess things by installing the wheels myself. Part of me is like wtf; its a tire change. Part of me now is thinking what could have gone wrong. Please help if you guys encountered this situation before or know anything about it.


Thanks.

 

I changed my wheels last week to another set of OEM 18s. I bought them used with winter tires, and the guy put a rear tire on one of the front rims, so I had to take one of those bolts out of the front rotor, but other than that, all wheels went on smoothly and they don't even vibrate, so I don't have to balance. Good luck to you, sorry I can't help.
You should have never put lug nuts on, before you were able to situate the rim properly on the rotor, seeing almost an inch gap, should had set off flags right there, and the project should have not moved further until you were able to mount the rim.

 

sounds like you're going to need to change the stripped studs...think it costed me about 30/stud. The clicking sound is also mostly likely from the stripped stud which isnt holdning onto the wheel. Becareful and get it fix asap.

 

I checked that the new wheel were clearing the brake calipers and all. They fit neatly with the center of the rotor before I started to put in the lugs/bolts. Nothing else prevents it from being bolted on correctly other the the bolts issue.

 

sounds like maybee discount tires might have shipped wrong thread pitch lug nuts and no cocentric ring with wheels.ring keeps wheel centered

 

Are your summer wheels OEM or aftermarket????

If they are aftermaket they likely have hub centric rings....
The rings may still be on the hub,
preventing the winter wheel from installing properly.

 

Sounds like something I did last winter... (Stripped 2 threads on the bolt by not hand tightening first)

Follow this rule when swapping out tires...
ALWAYS HAND TIGTHEN THE LUGS 1st!!

Install lugs in a 5-star sequence.
The rim should fit almost perfect without using a wrench to tighten. You then just use a torque wrench to tighten.

What it sounds like you did is strip the thread...
It's no biggie... just take it to any mechanic and he should be able to hammer the old ones out, and put in new ones. It is a PITA, and would require them to remove the brake caliper.

Also, be carful if you hear a clicking noise... most likely, your wheel is not tightened enough and it's basically wobbling!!

Best of luck in getting this fixed...

 

Sorry to hear about it, but the first response was right. If it wasn't fitting properly, then you shouldn't have tightened the lug nuts

I would just stop here and cut your losses. Let the mechanic fix the (most likely) stripped bolts before any more driving.

 

another possibility is that you could have bent the brake dust shield and it is scraping against the rotors.. this happened before on my other car when i was working on it.. just have to bend it back and out of the way

 

What should I do? Should I take it to PepBoys and have them look at it? Would they provide OEM studs or are all studs the same size and quality?

Or should I call infiniti and have them tow my car and have it fixed at the dealership? Definitely don't want to drive for safety sake and not wanting to mess up the rotor.

 

Take it to a shop, they will be able to order the studs, its about $5/each. You can even try and do it yourself if you want. google it. But i wouldnt risk it since its not a fairly expensive fix.