i am trying to sort out a pair of rims for my 1986 fc. there is a specific type of alloy wheel ive been looking at which is the rota rbr



only problem is that these only come in 4lug as far as i know.
i saw a pic in a thread on here and this dude had 4 lug enkei's on his s4!!

i need to know how he did this? is it possible to change the lug pattern or should i just get the alloys filled and re-drilled?

any help and advice to find a solution would be most appreciated! thanks in advance!

 

the base S4's are 4 lug so you can just bolt those wheels on.

 

But 4 lug fc's are 4x114.3 not 4x100

 

What about the panasport wheels? they're similar in style, and available in a 5x114.3 i believe

 

the wheel is available in 4x114.3

 

going 4 lug for rotas?........just shoot yourself.

 

it seems like there are some minor differences between fc's sold in the us and those sold in europe. mine has 5/114x3. im assuming that mine is a "base" fc?

the type of rim is seriously not the issue so i would apreciate if all the apparently super rich rota haters who can afford to custom order 5/114x3 deep dish watanabe rs-8's directly from watanabe go and swim (and hopefully drown) in all of they're money instead of writing about how much they hate them here. "rotas suck" is not a valuable contribution to this thread.

the reason i started this thread is because i didnt find any threads about changing 5lug to 4lug or filling and re-drilling the rims to acheive the same result and i thought it would help others who might later have the same considerations as me.

i have read a little more about this about on other non-mazda sites and one of the things i saw that i really didnt like was that apparently 4lug setups have smaller brakes (instant turn-off for me). does this apply to fc's?

@djphonics the panasports are perfect!! im trying to get as close to the watanabes as i can without breaking the bank and these look great! i dont seem to be able to find them in 5/114x3 tho =(

 

I love the xxr 513 "banana sport". Unfortunately, they only come in 4 lug pattern.

I have never heard of fc people swapping from 5 lug to 4 lug. It's always the opposite. I would also be interested in hearing about this swap, though I'll probably be keeping my stock wheels for a long time.

 

ive got some 4 lug if you want them ahhahaha..pay for shipping and $40 on top of that and Ill send them to you...i just swapped the 4 lug to my new 5 lug...LMK.....

 

Just swap in the 4 lug hubs.

 

Well, I wouldn't say you have a Base over there, as options vary across the Atlantic, and Pacific, lol!

In North America, the S4's (86-88) came in 4 and 5 bolt...the 5-bolt in these years always had the 4-piston calipers at the front and at the back had vented rear disks (vs. solid rear disks) and slightly different calipers at the back also. The S5's (89-91, actually 92) were all 5 bolt, but depending on trim had either the 'regular' brakes or the better ones. So you can actually have 5-bolts with the 'regular' brakes (single piston caliper in front, solid disk in rear).

Also, I'd NEVER modify bolt patterns on a wheel or on a hub and would advise anyone never to do it, IMHO.

 

Europe had different options. if you want 4 lug the easiest is to find a set of 4 lug hubs, front and rear, redrill the 5 lug rotors for the 4 lug pattern, and you have 4 lug car with the 5 lug brakes.

i don't know about the panasports or the wantanabe's but we run the RB's on the race car, and there is no way to make them 5 lug, the spokes are in the way.

 

All FCs in Europe had 5 lug and 4 piston brakes so you would have to get some from USA

 

Why don't you just wait and find a different set of wheels that you like that fit. Seems dumb to me to swap lugs for rims. You don't need to pay lots of money for a nice looking set of wheels.

 

Gotcha, his title said 5x114.3 to 4x100. Didnt even think about if they came in 4x114.3.

Regardless i wouldnt swap to 4 lug. Everybody calls 5 lug swaps a upgrade for more than one reason. 4 lugs have single piston front calipers while 5 lugs have two piston front calipers. And the market of wheels goes up a ton with 5 lug.

 

^ and the spacer mentioned here http://aaroncake.net/RX-7/4lug4potbrakes.htm You may also need the rear non-vented brake caliper and rotor, too.

 

Fixed, as this is a common topic of confusion. There were S5 models without the 4-piston calipers and vented rear disk brakes (i.e. non HD brakes), at least here in North America. All S5's were 5 bolt, though, once again talking about those sold in N.A.

 

wow thats what i love about this site!! all you guys are generous with your knowledge and tips!! I solved it in the end.. geuss who has 6 r32 gtr alloys wheels in the boot of his car right now? =)
tomorrows gna be a good day......

 

Nice! I was going to emphasis the silliness of 4-lugs for wheels, but I feel you now have vastly better looking wheels. B)

 

lol..6?
Hey check brakes tie rods balljoints caliper slides etc while the wheels are off.

 

I was originaly looking for some gtr r32 rims and after much fruitless searching i was about ready to give up.. i got lucky last night and got my hands on some from a nissan buddy.. slapped some 225/55/16s on em and it turned out like this!




took them with my mobile phone but im well pleased with the result. got a lowering kit in the paasenger seat that ill try to wack on after work then i was thinking about 15mm spacers front and back.. should clean up the look..

 

Good Job!

To clarify, its not that Rotas are awful wheels, its that swapping from 5 lug to 4 lug is a stupid idea, that could only possibly be justified by (emphasis on possibly) by installing some super baller, 4 lug wheels and Rotas certainly do not qualify.....matter of fact, I can't think of any that would of the top of my head. 5x114.5 gives you a much better selection of wheels in the appropriate sizes and offsets for the FC both used (as you have demonstrated) as well as new.

Glad you saw the light.

 

Wheels look awesome and glad you went with the much simpler solution to a simple problem!

I don't see much downside to running 4-lug vs 5-lug as long as you adapt the 4-piston brakes.
#1 drawback is that brake rotor replacement would be a pain because you have to re-drill them.

Wheel bearings are the same, so durability shouldn't suffer.
If you have an incident that shears 4 lugs off, I doubt a 5th would have saved the day.

I guess I'm just noting there's little difference with the hubs themselves. It's outside factors like brake fit and wheel options that determine if the swap is worth it. Unless there's something else I'm missing.

 

This isn't going from 5-lug fc (5x114) to 4 lug fc (4x114). This is going from 5 lug FC to a 4-lug bolt pattern that was never offered for the FC (4x100), thus necessitating some kind of one off solution to a problem that doesn't exist. The "problem" is that there is not advantage to going 4x100, only more potential problems. Furthermore most of the wheels in 4x100 come in FWD offsets (read: high) so I more reasonable solution would have been to purchase some bolt on adapters that would solve the high offset issue as well as adapt the bolt pattern to 4x100.

Being in Europe asking about a 5x120 swap would have at least made a little sense, because that would open up a whole world of quality oem wheel options.

 

@sharingan 19 glad you liked em! no worries mate its just that i saw another thread where the whole rota/ knockoff alloy thing took over and i just wanted to nip it in the bud so to speak. the great thing about the gtr rims are that they are forged so its nice knowing that my car is sitting on some quality **** =) once again i just want to say thanks to all of you for the speedy response and advice which helped me to make an educated decision about this. hopefully this thread will serve as a guide for those that might consider this in the future and proof of what kind of desperate thoughts a car owner can sometimes have!