PCD - Pitch Circle Diameter

When searching for new wheels for your car, you come across many technical terms and abbreviations. One such abbreviation is PCD, which stands for the English term "Pitch Circle Diameter" and is synonymous with bolt circle or bolt pattern. This value can be written in different ways, for example:

5x112
5-112
5/112

Circle Diameter

The second number (112 in the example above) is the diameter of the bolt circle in millimeters. It is the diameter of the imaginary circle formed by the bolt holes.

Measuring the Bolt Circle

If the hub has an even number of bolts (4, 6, or 8), you measure from the center to the center of two bolts/holes that are opposite each other (see the image below). This measurement in millimeters is the bolt circle diameter.

It's a bit more challenging to measure the bolt circle on a wheel or hub with an odd number of bolts/holes (e.g., 5 bolts). In this case, there are no holes directly opposite each other. However, there is a trick: you can measure from the center of one hole to the edge of the hole on the opposite side (see the image below).

Example

In the example below, we have a set of wheels. To determine the PCD of these wheels, we start by counting the number of bolt holes, which is 5 in this case. Then, we measure the bolt circle diameter using the method described above. On this wheel, we can read that it is 112mm.

This gives us a bolt pattern of 5x112.

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