C5 Steelies, Flat Faced Bolts.

[Rob205 1]

Hi Folks,

 

I've just had C5 steelies fitted to my 205 GTi. The set I've got are the early flat faced bolt variety. I'm sure I've read somewhere on here they may have been part of a recall/redesign to tapered bolts due to overtightening causing wheel cracking so I'm not expecting issues providing I'm careful about torqueing up the wheels.

 

I used the standard 205 GTi flat faced bolts however the hole in the wheel is of a slightly larger diameter than the bolt allowing a small amount of play with the wheel bolts loose, not a problem if the wheel remains tight but I still feel a little nervous. It seems that the bolt needs a thin sleeve at the head to fill out the wheel hole.

 

I've check wheel bolts for the Citroen C5 and they seem to mostly be tapered, only one set I found were flat faced but the threaded bolt shaft was the same diameter all the way down rather than having a wider area at the top which implies that either the thread will be too large diameter for the 205 hub or they will be the same thread size and suffer the same problem as I've currently got.

 

There's another thread on here that talks about early 306 flat faced bolt use with inserts to fill the taper - could I use these bolts or are they identical to the stock 205 GTI ones?

 

I'm nervous about using a tapered bolt because of the extra stress this might cause around the wheel hole given the previously mentioned weakness causing the redesign.

 

Any advice anyone?

 

PS. Please don't say bin the wheels, they're amazing on the car - lighter steering (quicker PAS rack with PAS bits removed) and much improved ride.

[welshpug 1,646]

standard 1.9 type flat bolts will work, but I would not be comfortable using those wheels seeing as they were recalled due to cracking around the bolt holes.

 

the bolts you found with a taper under a flat seat is for the later type alloy wheels + standard taper spare, these will not work on the earlier alloy wheels or steel spare wheels from earlier cars with alloys, this isn't specific to the C5, applies across the whole PSA passenger car range.

[petert 578]

The wheel locates on the centre spigot, not the bolts. Thus regular flat seat bolts are fine. A friend of mine races on them. I wouldn't be concerned about using them.

[Rob205 1]

Many thanks, I'll stick with the flat faced bolts as you confirm my thoughts on the tapered ones.

 

I'll probably try to make up a sleeve in the longer term, probably around 1mm around the top of the shaft will do just for peace of mind. In the meantime I'll keep a close eye on the condition around the bolt holes - if the cause was over-zealous tightening by tyre fitters I'll not be so worried - just make sure they're manually torque wrench tightened rather than air tooled to death. The car is purely road use anyway so shouldn't be put under the kind of strain a track/race car is.

 

Cheers.