Subaru WRX Bolt Pattern by Year: 5x100 vs 5x114.3, Hub Bore & Lug Specs
Every Subaru WRX and STI bolt pattern from 2002 to 2026 in one table — 5x100 vs 5x114.3, the 56.1mm hub bore, 12x1.25 lug thread, plus how to measure your own 5-lug pattern before you buy used wheels.
Shopping used or OEM? Try eBay Motors
Live listings for the parts covered in this guide — prices set by the seller.
If you only came here for the number, here it is:
- 2002–2014 WRX → 5x100
- 2015–2026 WRX → 5x114.3
- 2004 STI → 5x100; 2005-on STI → 5x114.3
- All of them: 56.1mm center bore, 12x1.25 lug thread
That’s the whole answer. The rest of this page is the detail that keeps you from buying the wrong used wheels — the year-by-year table, how to verify the pattern on your own car in about thirty seconds, and what actually has to line up beyond the bolt circle. For the full picture of offset, width and tire sizing, read this alongside the wheel & tire fitment guide.
WRX & STI bolt pattern by year
| Years | Chassis / model | Bolt pattern | Hub bore | Lug thread |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002–2007 | GD WRX (bugeye / blobeye / hawkeye) | 5x100 | 56.1mm | 12x1.25 |
| 2004 | GD STI (first US model year) | 5x100 | 56.1mm | 12x1.25 |
| 2005–2007 | GD STI | 5x114.3 | 56.1mm | 12x1.25 |
| 2008–2010 | GE/GH WRX (hatch & sedan) | 5x100 | 56.1mm | 12x1.25 |
| 2008–2014 | GR/GV STI | 5x114.3 | 56.1mm | 12x1.25 |
| 2011–2014 | GV/GR WRX (widebody) | 5x100 | 56.1mm | 12x1.25 |
| 2015–2021 | VA WRX | 5x114.3 | 56.1mm | 12x1.25 |
| 2015–2021 | VA STI | 5x114.3 | 56.1mm | 12x1.25 |
| 2022–present | VB WRX | 5x114.3 | 56.1mm | 12x1.25 |
Not sure which chassis you’re looking at? The WRX generations & fitment guide maps every model year to its chassis code and engine family.
The two pairings people get burned on
Two comparisons in that table cause almost all of the wrong-wheel purchases — and neither is the year-over-year boundary you’d guess:
2004 STI vs. 2005+ STI. The first US-market STI, model year 2004, actually shares its 5x100 pattern with the WRX it was sold alongside — it’s a 2005+ STI, not the ‘04, that jumps to 5x114.3. Used “GD STI wheels” listings rarely specify the year, and a 2004 and a 2006 STI wheel are not interchangeable even though both cars wear an STI badge.
2011–2014 widebody WRX vs. same-generation STI. This is the pairing that catches the most owners: the widebody WRX and the widebody STI share a body, a showroom, and a model-year range — 2011–2014 for the WRX, 2008–2014 for the STI — but not a bolt pattern. The WRX stayed 5x100 that whole generation; the STI next to it was already 5x114.3. It’s tempting to assume “same car, different trim” means the wheels swap, and it doesn’t. The base WRX doesn’t reach 5x114.3 until the 2015 VA generation.
When a listing is ambiguous and the seller can’t tell you, don’t guess. Measure.
How to measure a 5-lug bolt pattern yourself
A five-lug pattern can’t be measured straight across the way a four- or six-lug can, because no two studs sit directly opposite each other. Use the skip-one method instead:
- Pick any wheel stud on the hub.
- Skip the stud next to it, and measure center-to-center to the second stud along.
- Compare your reading:
| Skip-one measurement | Your bolt pattern |
|---|---|
| ~95mm (about 3¾ inches) | 5x100 |
| ~109mm (about 4¼–4⅜ inches) | 5x114.3 |
The two readings are more than a centimeter apart, so a plain tape measure settles it — you don’t need calipers. The geometry behind it, if you want to check the math: on a five-bolt circle the skip-one chord equals the bolt-circle diameter multiplied by 0.951, so multiply your reading by about 1.05 to recover the true pattern.
Measure the hub, not the wheels. On a used car the wheels may not be original, and a previous owner running adapters is exactly the situation that makes a stud pattern lie to you. Pull one wheel and measure the studs on the hub itself.
Bolting on isn’t the same as fitting
Matching the bolt circle only means the wheel goes on. Three more things decide whether it works on your WRX:
- Center bore — 56.1mm. Subaru centers the wheel on the hub, not on the lugs. Aftermarket wheels are typically bored larger to fit many cars, so they need 56.1mm hub-centric rings. Skip them and you get a speed-dependent vibration that no amount of balancing will cure.
- Offset. Same pattern, wrong offset, and the wheel either buries itself in the fender liner or pokes past the arch. Factory WRX offsets are high-positive; the fitment guide covers what actually clears at stock and lowered ride heights.
- Brake clearance. Wheel diameter and inner barrel shape have to clear your calipers — a live constraint if you’re planning a big-brake upgrade or already running one. Check the barrel, not just the diameter.
And on hardware: factory Subaru wheels use conical (tapered) seat lug nuts. If an aftermarket wheel calls for a different seat — ball or flat with a washer — you must use the nuts that wheel specifies. A mismatched seat contacts on the wrong surface, and it will loosen. Tighten in a star pattern to the figure in your owner’s manual, and re-torque after the first fifty to a hundred miles.
Cross-shopping used wheels by pattern
The bolt pattern is what makes the used market usable, because it’s the filter that turns “Subaru wheels” into “wheels that fit my car.”
If your car is 5x114.3 (2015+ WRX, or a 2005-or-later STI) you’re shopping the larger, more active half of the Subaru wheel market — including OEM STI wheels, which are a genuinely good-value upgrade for VA/VB owners and turn up constantly as take-offs from new cars. Sets from other 5x114.3 Subarus can work too, but confirm the offset and bore for the specific model and year before you buy.
If your car is 5x100 (2002–2014 WRX, including the widebody, plus the 2004 STI) your pool is larger than most owners assume: GD, GE/GH, and GV/GR WRX take-offs, plus other 5x100 Subarus and the BRZ. This covers thirteen model years of WRX, so good 5x100 sets are not hard to find.
Either way: new wheels, hub rings, lug hardware and tires are the wheels & tires category on Amazon; used OEM sets and take-offs are eBay Motors territory, and the search buttons below are pre-filtered by pattern so you don’t have to sift through the wrong half of the market.
Adapters: read this before you order
Adapters exist that convert 5x100 to 5x114.3, and the temptation when you find a cheap set of STI wheels for your 2009 is obvious. Be clear-eyed about the trade:
- An adapter is a structural part carrying your car’s entire cornering and braking load through two stacked bolted joints instead of one.
- It pushes the wheel outboard by its own thickness, which changes your effective offset — often by more than you want — and loads the wheel bearing further out on the spindle.
- It has to be hub-centric on both faces and needs correct torque on both the inner studs and the outer nuts, checked periodically.
Quality bolt-on adapters from a reputable maker, correctly specced and re-torqued, are used on plenty of cars. Thin, cheap, non-hub-centric ones on a daily-driven turbo AWD car are not a corner worth cutting. If your budget is tight, buying wheels in your car’s actual pattern is almost always the better spend — see the suspension & coilover guide if stance is what you’re actually chasing.
The short version
Get the bolt circle right first — 5x100 through 2014 on the base WRX (and the 2004 STI), 5x114.3 from 2015 on the WRX and from 2005 on the STI — then confirm 56.1mm bore, 12x1.25 threads, an offset that suits your ride height, and clearance over your brakes. Do that and a used set of wheels is one of the best-value upgrades on a WRX. Guess at it and you own a very heavy set of ornaments.