The Legacy is one of the easier Japanese cars to buy wheels for, because Subaru left the bolt pattern alone for twenty-five years. There are exactly two things that will catch you out: the year Subaru finally changed it, and the fact that the car most people call a “GT-B” is often not one.
The Short Version
- 5×100 from 1989 through model year 2014. Every Legacy and Outback, every generation, right through the BM/BR.
- 5×114.3 from model year 2015, with the BN/BS generation. One clean break.
- Hub bore stayed 56.1 mm across the change, and studs stayed M12×1.25. Only the bolt circle moved.
- Do not borrow the WRX STI’s dates. The STI went 5×114.3 in 2005 — a decade before the Legacy did.
- “GT-B” is a wagon. The twin-turbo sedan was badged B4 RSK. Sellers use the two names interchangeably; Subaru did not.
The Bolt Pattern Change
This is the one fact that decides whether a wheel will physically go on, so it is worth being precise.
| Generation | Chassis | Years | Bolt pattern |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | BC sedan / BF wagon | 1989–1993 | 5×100 |
| 2nd | BD sedan / BG wagon | 1993–1998 | 5×100 |
| 3rd | BE sedan / BH wagon | 1998–2003 | 5×100 |
| 4th | BL sedan / BP wagon | 2003–2009 | 5×100 |
| 5th | BM sedan / BR wagon | 2009–2014 | 5×100 |
| 6th | BN sedan / BS wagon | 2015– | 5×114.3 |
The centre bore is 56.1 mm on both sides of that change, and the studs are M12×1.25 throughout. So a 2015 Legacy wheel will not fit a 2014 one, and the reason is the bolt circle alone.
The Outback follows the Legacy. We confirmed this directly for the fourth and fifth generations; we have not separately verified every earlier one, so if you have a first- or second-generation Outback, measure rather than assume.
GT-B, B4 RSK, and What the Names Actually Mean
If you are buying a JDM Legacy or wheels for one, this matters.
GT-B is a wagon designation. It arrived in June 1996 on the second-generation BG5 wagon, and the B stands for Bilstein — the GT-B got Bilstein dampers, bigger brakes and bigger wheels than the standard GT wagon sitting next to it in the showroom. It carried over to the third-generation BH5 wagon.
The sedan equivalent was the B4 RSK, not a GT-B. Same sequential twin-turbo EJ20 — EJ206 in automatics at around 260–265 PS, EJ208 in manuals at 276–289 PS depending on year — but a different name.
Export listings blur the two constantly. If a seller offers you a “BE5 GT-B,” they are describing a sedan with a wagon’s badge, and it is worth finding out whether they are being loose with language or do not know the car.
Both were JDM-only. We found no evidence either was factory-exported. The US-market equivalent of the era was the naturally aspirated 2.5 GT, which is a different car.
Factory Wheel Specifications
| Model | Chassis | Wheel | Offset | Tyre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GT-B (2nd gen wagon) | BG5, from June 1996 | 17×7JJ | not confirmed | 215/45ZR17 |
| GT (2nd gen, early) | BD / BG | 15×6JJ | not confirmed | 205/60R15 |
| GT (2nd gen, facelift) | BD / BG | 16×6.5JJ | not confirmed | 205/50R16 |
| GT-B (3rd gen wagon) | BH5 | 17×7J | +55 | 215/45R17 |
| Legacy GT (4th gen, US) | BL / BP | 17×7 | +55 | 215/45R17 |
| Outback XT (4th gen) | BP | 17×7 | +48 | — |
| 5th gen, by trim | BM / BR | 17×7 to 18×7.5 | roughly +48 to +55 | — |
The BH5 GT-B figure — 17×7J at +55 on 215/45R17 — is confirmed across two independent Japanese fitment databases and matches a used-wheel listing for the genuine article. It is also the same +55 that Subaru used on the fourth-generation Legacy GT, which is a reassuring consistency rather than a coincidence.
Second-generation offsets we could not confirm and have left blank rather than filled in.
Import Status, If You Are in the United States
The third generation — the one with the GT-B and the B4 RSK — went on sale in June 1998 and ran to 2003.
The US 25-year rule counts from the month of manufacture. As of mid-2026 that puts the cutoff at July 2001. So roughly the first three years of the generation are importable now, and cars from the 2001 facelift onward are not — the last of them will not become eligible until around 2028.
This is a real trap on a car that ran five years under one chassis code. A BH5 is not automatically old enough. Check the build plate.
What This Means When You Are Buying
5×100 is the good news. It is a common Japanese pattern and it opens up a large used market — Impreza up to 2004, Forester, and a great deal of the classic Japanese aftermarket. A 5×100 wheel with a 56.1 mm or larger bore and a sane offset will physically fit almost any Legacy built before 2015.
+55 is high, and that is deliberate. The Legacy is a wide, heavy, all-wheel-drive car. Dropping a long way below the factory offset pushes the wheel out into an arch that was not designed for it, and on a wagon carrying load that is not a cosmetic decision. If you are moving away from +55, do it knowing why.
Check the bore, not just the pattern. Many 5×100 wheels are machined with a larger bore than 56.1 mm so one casting can serve several cars. That is normal, and it means you need centring rings. It also means a wheel advertised as “fits Subaru” may need a part nobody mentioned.
If the car has Brembos, measure before you buy. Brembo-equipped Legacy variants exist — the STI S401 ran 18×7.5 BBS wheels — and a big caliper sets a practical minimum diameter. We could not find a Subaru document stating a minimum, so this is a measure-it situation rather than a look-it-up one.
What We Could Not Verify
- Factory offsets for the first and second generations. Wheel and tyre sizes we have; offsets we do not.
- A Subaru factory document confirming 56.1 mm. The figure is consistent everywhere we looked, but we saw it only on fitment databases, never on a Subaru spec sheet.
- Whether the Outback matches the Legacy in the first, second, third and sixth generations. Confirmed for the fourth and fifth only.
- A stated minimum wheel diameter for Brembo-equipped cars. Circumstantial evidence only.
- An exact month-level production split within the BH5/BE5 run for import purposes, beyond the June 1998 start.
- Whether the BH5 wagon and BE5 sedan differ in any wheel-relevant way. Every source treats the running gear as shared, but none says so explicitly.
Related Fitment Guides
- Subaru WRX & STI — the Subaru that changed bolt pattern ten years earlier
- Toyota Chaser JZX100 — the other JDM turbo saloon of the era
- BBS — who made the S401’s wheels
- How to read the markings on a Japanese wheel
Getting Legacy Wheels From Japan
Genuine GT-B and B4 RSK wheels come up regularly in Japan and rarely anywhere else. If you want a factory set, or something period-correct in 5×100, tell us the chassis code — BH5, BE5, BP5 — through the Request page. Tell us the offset you are running now, too; it is the number most people forget and the one that decides whether the wheel will clear.