I have heard for years that you should buy Hubcentric wheels or buy wheels and get hubcentric rings but, I've never actually owned a set of wheels that had Hub rings before. Is it really necessary? I know the theroy behind them but after researching wheels many appear to come with Plastic Hubcentric rings.? Is this plasic strong enought to really carry the wheel load and prevent slight missalignment of a lugcentric configuration? Just wondering if I should get them or just put $7 under each center cap for safe keeping....

 

If you go aftermarket, and you'd like your wheels to balance, hubcentric rings are a must. Otherwise no balance, shimmy city, poor performance and tire wear.

 

yeah pretty much a hubcentric ring helps relieve the stress on the lugbolts keeping the wheel on. The hub ring keeps the center bore of the wheel in contact with the hub, thus creating a surface to put stress on.

 

2percooper is right. the hub holds the weight of the car and the lugs just
hold the wheels to the hub.

you don't necessarily have to have the wheels hubcentric if you dont race
or autox with them but it is a good idea to have the rings on there.

ive had wheels in the past that did not offer hubcentric rings but
not once did i have problems with the lugs breaking or anything like that.

 

Eight years ago I bought aftermarket wheels, from a big-name manufacturer, and had them installed on my coupe. For over a year I battled shimmies and wobbles, paid for several alignments and balancings, until I learned about "hubcentric". Turns out my supplier had unknowlingly omitted the hub adapters to make his wheels precisely fit my hubs. They sent the adapters, merely simple washer-type rings, I fit them to the wheels, and the problem was solved.

 

I bought a set of aftermarket 16" wheels with Bridgestone S03's for my wife's MCS and had a lot of intermittent shimmy coming from the steering wheel. I was about to send everything back until I thought to check the hubcentric adapter with a dial caliper.

Turns out the inside diameter was a shade under 2/10ths millimeter too large. The indicated size molded into the adapter was correct but it didn't measure up. I called the supplier and they checked their stock and discovered the whole batch was off specification. It took a couple of days for them to get replacements and forward them to me.

After I installed them, the shimmy no longer occured. I was amazed that such a small deviation from the proper size could cause such a noticeable problem regardless of how often I re-torqued the wheels.

Bottom line - don't mount wheels without the correct hub size or hubcentric adapter!

 

Althought the rings are common in hard plastic you can also request that they be made in the same size in metal.
Most wheel shops and the tirerack can provide them in whatever size you need.

I have centerline RPM wheels in 17x7 and they use hubcentric rings- works great.

 

Alex at Tire Rack will take care of you...Give him a call!!

 

If you purchase a set of wheels from Alex , at Tire Rack, he will throw in the metal ones at no charge.

 

I just had a set of snows put on new rims and noticed the car shock at 60 mph...called the Tire shop and he knew right away what had happened..they forgot the hub rings...problem was solved. :smile: