4 lug or 5 lug??

[RedSiBaron]

When I swapped over to the full type s brakes, including master cylinder and prop valve I noticed a huge difference in the braking performance

The type s brake setup is the same brakes that came on the ep3 type r...except the calipers don't say type r on them...big deal

[2k3hatchie]

I had my heart set on swapping to 5-lug. But after finding the new wheels I plan to get come in 4 lug, and weighing how much it will cost to replace my winter wheels and tires (stock 15's won't clear the type s brakes) I've decided to just stay 4 lug. I can upgrade the front brakes to 11'' with SS lines for short money, keep my stockies, and still have nice wheels with improved braking.

[RedSiBaron]

I had my heart set on swapping to 5-lug. But after finding the new wheels I plan to get come in 4 lug, and weighing how much it will cost to replace my winter wheels and tires (stock 15's won't clear the type s brakes) I've decided to just stay 4 lug. I can upgrade the front brakes to 11'' for short money, keep my stockies, and still have nice wheels with improved braking.

Ya that's why I went to 5 lug early before I got into wheels and tires

[2k3hatchie]

Ya that's why I went to 5 lug early before I got into wheels and tires

Yea, live and learn I suppose.

The moral of the story: 5 lug has its benefits (bigger brakes, type-s parts, more wheel choices) but many of those can also be achieved with 4 lug (4-lug big brake kits are available and there are still a fairly large number of good wheels in 4X100). Whatever you decide to do, decide early!

[ragebomb]

5 lug-Star, 4 lug- square.

Biggest advantage to having more lugs per wheel is that by spreading the loads to more points you reduce warping of brake rotors. Through the '80s as cars got smaller and their performance rose, 4 lug cars had terrible problems with rotor warpage esp. if the lugs were unevenly torqued.

Along with being able to reduce bolt size, another reason to have more than 4 lug nuts on a semi is to create more even clamping pressure. Clamping force under a bolt head or lug nut is shaped like a cone and drops off fairly rapidly as you move away from the nut. So to keep from over stressing the wheel in just 3 or 4 places (underneath the nut), more studs are added to more evenly distribute the load. A bigger vehicle with greater torque to the wheels needs more clamping force. An easy way to generate more clamping force, and increase the total shear strength of the studs without upping the size of the lug studs, is to add more studs of the same size.

One (partial) fallacy is that the lugs support the weight of the car. Not so, they hold the wheel in position so the the hubs can carry the weight. The lugs are then only subject to tensile forces for cornering loads and a small shear load for braking and accelleration forces. Yes, some cars are lug-centric (aftermarket wheels without hubcentric rings have this problem), where the wheel is centered by the cone-shaped lug nuts (or bolts) but these are pretty scarce these days. (Most cars have cone shaped lugs but are still hub-centric.)

Not to mention snap a stud on a 5 lug car and you still have 4.

But yes, you'll find more wheels and brake upgrades for the 5 lug..

Woah, that's the best technical reason I've read so far. Nicely done..

I swapped my 02 4-lug for 5-lugs from a Type-S also. I can feel a difference on braking. And yep there are more wheels available, especially the newer oem Civic wheels or any wheel 17" or larger.

The EP seems to fit into a weird "fuzzy zone" when it comes to wheel sizes. I've seen it look great with 15 and 16" rims, but also amazing with some 17 and 18" rims.

But yeah if I had a 04 or 05 EP I would never replace the stock setup with a 4 lug.

[Tougeep3]

Ya that's why I went to 5 lug early before I got into wheels and tires

I just like being able to use my stockies as winter wheels.. One less set to buy.