Just out of curiousity, does anyone have any experience with parts (in particular rims) from Buddy Club? I'm assuming it's a fairly ricey sort of company by the looks of it, but any actual feedback would be appreciated. There's a guy with a Craig's List offer up that might work but I'd just as soon pass if the product is known to be junk. Manufacturer's website: http://www.buddyclub.us/~OldSiteContents/
Hardly a "ricey" company by any means. :frown2: Buddy Club is a highly regarded JDM tuning company. They've got a very good reputation among the honda community. Good quality stuff. They have a pretty serious race program as well.
Very good stuff from what I've read, and some of their rims are nice and light as well. I had Buddy Club on my wish list for quite a while. Which rims?
17x7, 4x100 lug pattern P1 (didn't specify beyond that, but looking at the Buddy Club website, they're either PF or QF) in white. 3 are clean and 1 has 'a few light scratches that should clean up'. He's asking $350 or best offer, and they come with an unknown set of tires on them - per the seller, two are fine and two need to be replaced soon. Provided things are as described, it seems like a pretty decent deal. Only issue is that I don't know if these would work on a 2nd Gen MINI - don't know if my lugs would fit the holes, if there would be any offset issues or if I could get our TPMS into them or not.
I like the QF (though not personally a fan of white) but can't find pics of PF. here's the P1 QF Either way, the lug pattern is right but you need to know the size of the bolt holes (believe the second gen cars have M14 bolts?). Offset is also important as it helps you decide whether the wheels should fit behind the wheel arches and might clear brakes, etc, on the back side. As others who've been through this can attest, even knowing these things doesn't guarantee fitment as the shape of the back of the wheel behind the spokes also affects clearance. (hopefully someone else with more experience will jump in and correct or improve on anything above)
While I obviously can't guarantee anything, there's a good chance that a 17x7 4x100 wheel has a similar offset to that of a MINI. Generally cars running that lug pattern and thin wheel size are of the same fitment specs as a MINI (et35mm-et45mm for 7s). If the Buyer doesn't know, he can check to see if the offset is stamped on the back of the wheels. For that price I would just take my chances and hope the lug holes are 14mm. If they're not, any local machine shop will drill them out and it probably won't cost much more than $25.
Thanks all on the feedback... seems like I may have stumbled onto a good deal. If the lug holes do need to be drilled out a bit, that shouldn't be a problem... having a professional machinist for a father does have some occasional benefits. No one has any experience with these as far as TPMS sensor fitment though, huh?
Probably because I had it wrong... SF, not PF. From the images on the site, the SF and QF look pretty similar. Not normally a fan or white wheels, myself, but on a BRG/W MINI, I think it's a pretty sharp look.
Did you pick up these wheels? I'm curious on the TPMS sensors because I'm eyeing a set of buddy clubs myself.
You can always run them without the TPMS sensors, you'll just have a light in the speedo blinking at you, I ran my S lites that way for almost a year and it didn't bother me, even at night. No biggy......but since Tire Rack has the sensors and you need to replace the tires anyway, you might as well install them when you do. However, one thing that wasn't touched on is that MINI wheels are hub centric, which means if the hub size isn't right either you have to buy centering rings or if they're too small (unlikely) you'll have to machine them to fit the MINI hubs. Otherwise you get vibrations and shaking.....
Relized I never followed up on this; I emailed the seller apparently a day too late... sold the rims to someone the day before I got in touch with him. :frown5: