Measuring the wheel bolt pattern on your vehicle is necessary if you are in the market for aftermarket wheels. When searching for aftermarket wheels, you'll find that the wheel bolt patterns are listed, for you to determine which wheels will fit your vehicle. Therefore, take a few minutes to measure the wheel bolt pattern so that you purchase the correct wheels for your car. This is the better alternative than taking your vehicle to a tire store, where you will have to spend more money than if you sourced wheels yourself.
Jack your vehicle up and place jack stands underneath it.
Remove the wheel with the lug-nut wrench. You can also use a ratchet and socket.
Measure from center of one lug (stud that the lug nut bolts on to) to the center of the lug directly across from it if you have four-, six-, or eight-lug hubs. Measure using the metric side of the ruler, in millimeters. So if you have a four-lug hub and the measurement came out to 100mm, the bolt pattern is 4 X 100, which means that you have four lugs and that the separation is 100mm.
Measure from the center of one lug to the center of the third stud (the one to either side of the center opposite) if you have a five-lug hub.
Put the wheel back on and torque the lug nuts to the manufacturer's torque specification, using a torque wrench.
Lower the vehicle.
Locate wheels for your vehicle using the information that you just obtained from measuring the bolt pattern.
