lug nuts need to be changed or not with aftermarket wheels on 5mm spacers?

With a 14mm diameter wheel stud, I shoot for a 14mm length of thread engagement (approx 10 rotations) +2 totaling 12 as a minimum. I am not using spacers on my 20’s and I still needed to deploy aftermarket lug nuts. Since I have no certifications whatsoever, I would consult a true wheel professional and not some hack (me) on the Internet that processes no skills, no expertise nor training.

any update on this? wondering if I can run 5mm spacers with stock lugs and studs...

dk10438 said:

any update on this? wondering if I can run 5mm spacers with stock lugs and studs...

Click to expand...

I'm not sure anyone can answer this, because unless there's some standard that I'm not aware of, the thickness of the wheel hub is likely to be different with different wheels. I would only trust the result from someone using the exact same wheels. I have a set of BBS CH-R 20x9" ET30 wheels with Gorilla nuts here waiting for our Raven to be delivered. I may try to install 5mm or larger hubcentric spacers for the rear wheels, but I won't know if the studs would need to be changed until I check the number of turns of engagement for those particular wheels and nuts. My engineering degree agrees with the above recommendation for at least 12 turns of engagement with steel studs and lug nuts.

dk10438 said:

any update on this? wondering if I can run 5mm spacers with stock lugs and studs...

Click to expand...

There is an easy way to figure it out.
The thread pitch on our cars are 1.5mm. SInce you are installing 5mm spacers, you will be losing 3.3 turns.
Go to your car and count how many turns are needed to take a lug nut off, then subtract 3.3.

Stock open ended lug nuts have 17mm of thread which is 11.3 turns.
If your count minus 3.3 is close to that then you should have no problem.


I have aftermarket wheels on my car (no spacers) and I get 8.5 turns, 12.75mm.


It would be nice if other owners with aftermarket wheels could post how many turns they get then we can get real world data and keep track of potentially related problems, if any.