Are these things necessary? I had to bang the ones on my Momo rims out cause they came off a DSM and were a teeeeny bit too small. I've searched and didnt find much. I've heard 2 sides of this story. 1) since we use acorn seat lugs they automatically seat and center the rim. And 2) The centering rings put the load of the car on the hub instead of the studs, so the rims will stay centered. I want to find a set of rings cause they're probably not that much but I cant find these rings anywhere and I've called momo in california only to tell me to call here then call there.... Damn italian rims.

 

When I got my SSR Integrals w/ RE 730's installed and balanced, the shop put a hubcentric ring on my passenger front hub and my driver rear hub only. I have no idea why they only put it on two of the four possible locations. I totally forgot about them until a few weekends ago when I swapped out my rotors. I just reinstalled them like the shop did when I put everything back together, since I figured there must've been a reason for it and hey, if it ain't broke.....

Anyway, sorry to ***** up your thread with a post that has no answer to your question, but you've brought up a subject that has me wondering the same thing....

 

When I first got my rims, I drove on them for about a week without hubcentric rings and the steering wheel would shake like crazy on the freeway. Afterwards, I found a set of plastic hub rings, and voila, no more shaking. =)

As for where I got mine from, I called around trying to find a local tire/wheel shop that had them. One of the shops said they had a bunch of them of various sizes sitting in a big ol' box. Fortunately, I was able to pick out 4 matching ones that fit. hehe =)

 

Go to discount tire and get some - they are needed if your wheel bore is bigger than the hub bore. If you have aftermarket wheels, there is a 99% chance they are not the same.

Gorilla makes the ones I have and the guy at discount tire even gave them to me for free (didn’t even buy wheels or tires there). I would put them on all four corners, as our cars should not be supported by the studs/lugs. With hubcentric wheels, the hub supports the weight of the car rather than the studs/lugs.

I have a 2k2 and the size was 66.10mm on the hub and my wheels (TE37) were 73mm. They worked great and I have no vibration what so ever.

Brian

 

I still cant find these rings... grr. Heres a shot of the stock OEM wheels. It looks like the OEM wheel is already tapered.




Now heres a shot of the rings that came out of the momo's. I wonder if I just supplied a machine shop with a figure they'd be able to machine the ring out.

 

Pretty much all aftermarket wheels have a hub bore of 73mm of so. From there, the hug ring is used to center and place the weight of the wheel on the hub and not the studs. When I bought my used SSR Integrals from a Mustang owner, the hub ring was a little too large for the Maxima (I think it was 65mm or so). I called up Tirerack and ordered them along with some other stuff. The original hub rings were really in there, so I took the center cap off, took an awl and a mallet to smack the rings out. The rings they sent be were a black metal material and they didn't want to fit in. I took the dremel and grinded a little bit of the wheel and hubring (took about 40 seconds for each wheel and ring). Then I laid the wheel flat on the ground placed the ring as best I could, took a 6 inch piece of wood, then I used the mallet on the wood to evenly get the ring in.

 

OK heres the specs... the momo's are 72.0mm and the Maxima's hub is 66.1. I've called a few places and they can order in the rings. I'll do that tomorow. About $15-20. In the meantime I'm gonna stop driving my car, its probably wearing out my car. I hope I get them before my long trek to PA this saturday.

 

Do you have a discount tire by you? They usually have a variety of rings in stock and as I said, mine were free.

Brian

 

Plastic rings should be no more than $5 for all 4. If you tighten your wheel down properly your wheel will be centerd. The purpose of the hub ring is just to make sure that the wheel is centered properly. It is not a weight bearing or stress bearing part. Hope this helps.

 

Some Details

 

The Tire Rack info sounds right to me - that the hub is supposed to support the weight. I've read that elsewhere too.

But then again there are guys not using hub rings and doing okay. Must be a case of "overengineering" in the studs.

 

The hub ring does not support weight. It just aligns the wheel properly to the hub. The "hub" is the whole assembly that the wheel is stitting on.

 

Ah well for the few bucks it costs I went ahead and ordered them. It wouldnt hurt.

 

It's amazing in this day and age people are still trying to mark things up, $20 instead of $5. btw I agree I think they're necessary, but without the worst thing that could happen is maybe wobble.

 

I would definitely say they are necessary. I did my brakes last weekend, and accidently bent the **** out of one of the rings to the point where I couldn't use it. I could tell very easily that it wasn't there, lots of vibration at higher speeds. I ordered a replacement one from Tire Rack for 3.00 and put it back in, and back to smooth riding.

 

I had a problem with higher speed vibration on the highway until I went to Discount Tire, (I bought my Kumho's there), and the guy I always deal with told me that I needed hubcentric rings to properly balance the tires on the hub. Once I got them put on, I could tell a huge difference on the highway.
I definitely think they are necessary!

 

SIMPLE ANSWER - put the rims on... if you feel virbation then buy some rings... if you don't then you are fine

 

I also got them to remove vibration from my rims. The Tire Discounters I went to (two of them) just blew me off when I asked about them saying it was balancing...fine by me...free because I bought the rims and tires there. But I finally drove to Dayton to a Discount tire got the rings, put them on and waalaa...no more vibration.

I think the rings just make it easier to properly install the wheel. I cannot think that the plastic rings are supporting anything specific. Even with the rings installed I noticed that sitting just on the hub I could move the rim kinda side to side in a rotational way. Like the studs where not big enough, or the stud holes on the rim were way oversized. I was very careful to hand tighten in star pattern to make sure each hole was properly "fitted".

 

OK I got the rings in. They were slightly different from the ones the came with the Momo's (they were metal, these are plastic). I first put them on, and they were a little too wide, so they did not sit flush in the rim. I put them on the car anyway and had bad vibrations and shimmys. That and the wheel nuts never got tight enough. I had to take the rings off and them shave them down some using a dremel. After getting nailed in the face with hot flying plastic, I wore my motorcycle helmet to protect my face and eyes from flying debris. Now most the vibration has stopped. Around 80 mph or so it still shimmys but thats probably more due to the tires that are 1/2 flat spotted and one of the rims thats bent (i put this one on the rear).