Categories
Looking After Your Mini Cooper Wheel Nuts
The wheel nuts fitted to the 1990s Mini Coopers and many other models of the time using the Superlight Wheels were a unique design. What made them different from a standard wheel nut was the stainless steel sleeve pressed over the wheel nut. It was designed in this way purely for cosmetic reasons and unfortunately made itself vulnerable to the forces of a wheel nut wrench. Consequently the life of the wheel nut is limited because the stainless steel sleeve which is only thin metal has a habit of distorting and falling off after a wrench has been applied a few times.
The damage is done because the clearance between the inside faces of the socket part of the wrench and the hexagon faces of the wheel nut sleeve causes movement, bending the sleeve and loosening it resulting in it falling off.
Once the sleeve has come off it is impossible to place it back on again and the wheel nut is ruined. The only solution is to replace the wheel nut with a new one.
There is a way to reduce the clearance between the wrench socket inside face and the face of the nut sleeve. The wheel nut size is 11/16 inch AF. You need to use a 17mm socket wheel nut wrench instead of 11/16 inch. 11/16 inch is 0.6875 inch where 17mm is 0.6692 inch. Consequently the 17mm socket size is smaller in diameter resulting in less clearance and therefore causing less movement. This will cause less damage and prolong the life of your Mini Cooper wheel nuts. Try this out for yourself by first fitting one size of socket and then the other. You will see that the 17mm socket is a much closer fit with less movement.
A word of warning: never use a multisided socket. The multisided socket will soon damage the wheel nuts as there is less surface area gripping the wheel nut sleeve. Always use a wrench with a hexagon socket.
There is another alternative. The wheel nuts originally fitted to the Mini Ritz and Chelsea are the same size and dimensional design as the Mini Cooper ones except for the fact that there is no sleeve. These can be used instead. These wheel nuts are also a popular alternative with the racing fraternity.
Shopping Cart
ALL PRODUCTS available at www.ukclassicparts.com Mini parts and accessories online shop qualify for this offer. All discounts are automatically calculated at the checkout. Please see terms and conditions.
