Hub Centrics

[Clipdat]

My rings are made out of aluminum.

Originally Posted by wparsons

Are you suggesting that a plastic ring will hold the wheel in place more than 5 steel lugs/studs properly torqued down? If the lug bores aren't centered properly around the bolt circle the metal lugs and studs will definitely squish the plastic ring vs offsetting themselves within the bores.

If you're properly torquing down wheels (wheel in the air, star pattern a bit at a time), the wheel will absolutely center itself. If you set the car down before the lugs are seated properly, then you'll definitely get a wobble. Going into my 6th summer with the car running RPF1's without centering rings, no vibrations ever.

[Yoshoobaroo]

Originally Posted by Clipdat

My rings are made out of aluminum.

Same. Plastic hub rings are bullshit.

[Yoshoobaroo]

Originally Posted by wparsons

Are you suggesting that a plastic ring will hold the wheel in place more than 5 steel lugs/studs properly torqued down? If the lug bores aren't centered properly around the bolt circle the metal lugs and studs will definitely squish the plastic ring vs offsetting themselves within the bores.

If you're properly torquing down wheels (wheel in the air, star pattern a bit at a time), the wheel will absolutely center itself. If you set the car down before the lugs are seated properly, then you'll definitely get a wobble. Going into my 6th summer with the car running RPF1's without centering rings, no vibrations ever.

Yes. If it wasn't necessary to have the wheel centered on the hub bore, the OEMs wouldn't bother with it. The lug bores have tolerances in them and they are much looser than those in the hub bore. I don't claim to know the OEMs internal requirements, but if the car was designed with hubcentric wheels in mind, I use them.

[churchx]

And how do you decide if car was designed with hubcentric wheels in mind, given that our cars have conical lug seats like most lugcentric wheels? I'd get your argument if stock lug nuts on twins had been flat head ones instead of spherical or conical like they are. OEMs order making (in our case from Enkei) wheels in big batches. They can order/customise making it to whatever specs they can, it won't affect price. That can reduce unprobable but some misinstallations. But still, that too doesn't sound to me that "car was designed with hubcentric wheels in mind", nor that those rings are mandatory/must have for properly installed aftermarket lugcentric wheels with larger then stock axle bore size to cover more cars with same size wheel made in much smaller volumes by order or two then OEM stock ones.

[Icecreamtruk]

On today's topic. A bunch of people who may have or may have not changed a wheel in their lives are suddenly experts at the matter.



By your standarts, my wheels should've fallen off, broken the studs, or vibrated the car to pieces? Want to take a guess at how many times I change my wheels per year? How many of those were done with hub centric rings? Or how many have fallen off or have weird vibrations?

[Yoshoobaroo]

Originally Posted by Icecreamtruk

On today's topic. A bunch of people who may have or may have not changed a wheel in their lives are suddenly experts at the matter.







By your standarts, my wheels should've fallen off, broken the studs, or vibrated the car to pieces? Want to take a guess at how many times I change my wheels per year? How many of those were done with hub centric rings? Or how many have fallen off or have weird vibrations?

I didn't make any of those claims. People have different thresholds of what they consider a significant vibration. There's a reason why most cars, and every luxury car is hubcentric. It just works better than lugcentric. Bolt groups require looser tolerances than a single bore, that's just how they work.

This discussion is moot anyway, either you won't notice, or you'll think it's annoying, in which case get hub rings.

[wparsons]

Originally Posted by Yoshoobaroo

I didn't make any of those claims. People have different thresholds of what they consider a significant vibration. There's a reason why most cars, and every luxury car is hubcentric. It just works better than lugcentric. Bolt groups require looser tolerances than a single bore, that's just how they work.

This discussion is moot anyway, either you won't notice, or you'll think it's annoying, in which case get hub rings.

Hub centric does absolutely nothing except make it easier to get the wheel initially mounted. A lot of german cars still use bolts instead of studs, and in that case it's a HUGE pain to mount a wheel that isn't hub centric.

Your argument about the tolerances on the lug holes is moot because the taper seat takes care of that. It doesn't matter that the hole through the wheel is larger than the stud, the lug seats properly and holds it perfectly centered.

I have zero tolerance for vibrations, and I get none at all without rings. I can feel the slight vibration caused by picking up loose chunks of rubber on a track, so it's not like I'm numb to what is happening at the wheels.

[nico_rsx]

Originally Posted by Yoshoobaroo

Yes. If it wasn't necessary to have the wheel centered on the hub bore, the OEMs wouldn't bother with it.

A lot of thing in a car is designed not because it's necessary, but to prevent people doing stupid thing from killing themself...

Obviously if someone don't know what they are doing, it's easier to messed up with no hubcentric or no centering ring, but that doesn't mean it's necessary.

By the way I almost always use centering ring because it slightly easier and for peace of mind. But them being in plastic, it's not really them who are doing the centering.