DaveM993

I am cleaning my 18" RS-GTs (diamond black)...and profess to know little about the construction. But I want to disassemble to clean. They current have tires on them. Is this something that is easy to do? Are they two piece or three piece? Can the centers be taken off with the tires on? Can you use an Allen key or is there a special screw head? What is the torque for re-fastening?

thanks for any insight or help!!!

Bill Verburg

They are 2 piece forged wheels. Do not attempt to dissasemble them w/ tires mounted(at least not w/ air in them)

Cleaning them can be a chore, p21s wheel cleaner helps a lot as do old coarse wool socks, and I've also been using a bicycle chain brush lately w/ good results.

It's easiest to remove them from the car

wheel bolt torque is ~93 lb-ft.

Question for you, are the centers really black? it's hard to tell from the pics i've seen.

Wreck Me Otter

Bill - I think he's asking about the center piece nut torque. I don't know about BBS, but I believe my Kinesis are 15 ft-lbs.

DaveM993

Yes the center piece nut not the lugs. They are off the car. They clean great but the stuff between the center piece and the wheel...Q-tips ain't cuttin' it. I am dying to take the center off and get all the junk cleaned out.

Garth S

I've never attempted to remove a center with the tire still mounted ... and have no immediate plans to do so If the rim halves move adrift with the center unbolted .... well, you have seen the forces required to mount and dismount a tire.
What I have done is deflate the tire and remove every 2nd ( or 3rd) bolt, cleaning as I went around .... at least, that works for crud around the bolts - it may not access the crevice referred to.
Some wheel manufactures are **** about not reusing bolts: if the specified torque is within the yield point of the fastener, I've proceeded to reuse then - and assumed that it was the usual liability PTA.
No idea of the torque on your particular bolts, but "standard" torques are M6 = 6Nm, and M8 = 20Nm.

Leland Pate

I'm no expert and I certainly don't want to sound rude but I think you are asking for trouble you don't need, brother.

Disassembling perfectly good two/three piece wheels for the sake of cleaning them sounds iffy.

DaveM993

I am leaving well enough alone....whatever a Q-tip or power washer can't get is staying as part of the wheel. It is a two piece as I can now see so I am not worried about rim halves moving...but the re-use of the bolts gives me pause.

thanks for talking me down!!

sonny1

Use a good wheel cleaner, and let it soak for a while on it, use a press. washer afterwards, it should work., cheers, Sonny.

CWay27

I am just in the middle of this myself. Yesterday I deflated the tires and unbolted the centers to have them painted. When the air is out, nothing wrong in doing it. It was a long process (160 bolts). Mine are 3 piece Kinesis K58 wheels.

Bill Verburg

The 2 wheel halves are held together by the 16 bolts visible around outer spoke ends.

They are what I suggested that he not touch.

The 2" center cap is just a friction fit on most wheels

DaveM993

As I now understand it the RS-GT is two piece so the rim is a single unit. So my understanding is that the 16 bolts you see in the pic above are only mounting the wheel center to the rim. When you flip the wheel over you can see where all kinds of crap gets lodged between the center and the rim around the bolts. Not going to touch it...but it looked like a relatively easy approach to remove the bolts...take off the center and clean to ones heart content....and since the rim is a single unit, it doesn't move when the center is off. But it sounds like the bolts are not worth messing with.

Bill Verburg

that's where the bicycle chain brush is handy, it has 2 different style of long stiff bristles that can get into all the little crannies, saves the fingers too.

On the back side you can use stronger solvents but I find P21S works great if used regularly.

DaveM993

thanks Bill