What is the bolt pattern (PCD)?
The bolt pattern (also called PCD — Pitch Circle Diameter) tells you how many wheel bolts or studs a wheel has and what the diameter is of the imaginary circle they sit on. A bolt pattern of 5×112 means: 5 bolt holes on a circle with a diameter of 112 mm.
How to read a bolt pattern
The format is always: number of bolts × circle diameter in mm. Examples:
- 4×100 – 4 bolts, circle diameter 100 mm (many smaller cars)
- 5×112 – 5 bolts, circle diameter 112 mm (e.g. Mercedes, Audi, VW)
- 5×120 – 5 bolts, circle diameter 120 mm (e.g. BMW)
- 6×139.7 – 6 bolts, circle diameter 139.7 mm (off-road & pickup trucks)
How to measure a bolt pattern
On a 4- or 6-bolt wheel simply measure from the centre of one bolt hole to the centre of the directly opposite hole — that is the circle diameter.
On a 5-bolt wheel there is no bolt directly opposite. Measure from the centre of one hole to the far outer edge of the hole two positions away, then multiply by 1.051. A dedicated bolt pattern gauge makes this straightforward.
Why does the bolt pattern matter?
A wheel must have exactly the same bolt pattern as your car's hub. If the pattern does not match, the wheel will not sit flush and the bolts cannot be torqued evenly — which is a safety hazard.
Alongside the bolt pattern, the offset (ET) and the centre bore also determine whether a wheel fits.