Can you drill bolt holes bigger without F-ing up the wheels?

[Mike's89AccordLX]

I just got SiR's wheels this morning and they don't fit my prelude and my prelude has that 4x114 bolt pattern or whatever that is. And the universal bolt pattern doesn't fit. I go get my old team loco rims and they fit right on. Then I looked closer and it seems like the holes on SiR's old rims have smaller holes than my old rims and my factory prelude rims.

Can I drill the holes bigger to match my factory rims without screwing up the balancing and stuff like that? I need some help asap guys. I need to put these on the prelude b/c that's why I bought them for. :( Please help.

[86LXItooFAST4me]

i personally dont know how you would make it fit with out losing the ballance. if you did get it to fit im sure you would have a wobbley ride or excessive tire ware though. try it :D

i would be scared to go fast in them if i did something like that.

[Jareds 89 LX-i]

Hmmm.... I would not drill the holes unless it was an absolute LAST resort. If so, I'd have them professionally drilled. That's too easy to screw up. Something is not right there though, cuz they should fit fine. I can't imagine the Lude using a larger diameter lug stud than anything else, that doesn't make sense. Check the rim over real good and make sure there's no hub-centric ring or anything stuck in there. Do the studs actually line up with the holes in the rim and just not go on? Or are they completely off the mark? Can you take some close up pics of your old rim and the new one side by side, front and back, and the hub on the Lude?

[Mike's89AccordLX]

Alright I'm heading off to dinner but when I brought all of the rims to my basement I noticed they all had these black spacer looking plastic things where it would mount up to the hub. My old rims dont have those so I think if I remove those I think they will fit without drilling holes and then I could maybe take back the $22 drill bit I had to buy :(

[Jareds 89 LX-i]

Yea that sounds like a hub centric ring. Take those off and then see if it fits

[Mike's89AccordLX]

Tried it and they still don't fit. I'm going to ask my instructor at school tomorrow about the rims. I just think that the holes need to be bigger. My old rims have about a 5/8" hole and SiR's rims have a 1/2 hole. So I figured I would ask him about it and then try and drill the holes to 5/8". I just don't have the energy to drill them out now. Too hot right now.

[jonrichert]

I'd say you'll at least need to make up some sort of jig or pattern so the spacing comes out right. those have to be DEAD center or you're going to have big problems.

Secure the rims and use a drill press maybe?

[AZmike]

Since the lug nuts use conical seats the holes themselves don't center anything. As long as they are drilled reasonably close they should work fine. I would make sure to use hub centric rings as well so the studs will only have to hold the wheel on. Like Jared, I'd be surprised to find that the Prelude used a larger stud size than our 12 x 1.5 mm.

[Jareds 89 LX-i]

Since the lug nuts use conical seats the holes themselves don't center anything. As long as they are drilled reasonably close they should work fine. I would make sure to use hub centric rings as well so the studs will only have to hold the wheel on. Like Jared, I'd be surprised to find that the Prelude used a larger stud size than our 12 x 1.5 mm.
That's just the thing though, they don't use a larger stud. Along with the rims we also sent the set of tuner lugs that were used on the Accord, and those lugs also fit right onto the Prelude wheel studs just fine, so obviously they're the same diameter studs. This is why I don't get why drilling the holes larger is necessary. Still weird though, they should fit