Hubcentric Rings? Hubcentric or Lugcentric?

[ADKSaad1387]

Well, story is that i have 20 inch MPW 102's on the AltimaProblem is that after 60-70mph the wheels start shaking. The dealer said i need hubcentric rings and so did my cousin (he owns a rim shop).Question is, i already bought some kind of plastic polycarbonate ones for $15 on Ebay. But i went to NTB and they said i should get metal ones.so Metal or Plastic?

[SniperJoe]

My hub rings are metal with a metal retaining ring.

[adidas2go]

Most likely a balancing problem. The altima coupe is LUG centric and not hub centric, so the rings wont do you any good. Take it back to them and demand a re balance on all 4 tires, it could solve your problem.

If not, they have given you a bad rim or tire. You can weed out which one is possibly bad through the process of elimination. If the shake is in the steering wheel right now, then its one of your front 2 wheels. If its not, then its on of the back 2. At this point your would swap one front wheel with one rear, or vise versa, and see if the scenario changes.

Hope you find your problem! Good luck!

[LongBeachCoupe]

First, i hope your not using the wrong lugnuts and you have the right taper seats..

I call foulplay!

From my knowledge (reading the past 10 min or so) it seems that a car isnt lug centric persay, but that its just a product of not having a proper hub fitting, forcing the wheel to be lug centric (weight on the lugs).http://www.miata.net/garage/hubcentric.html

However, i have attached a link (not a competing forum, its a engineering forum) ironic... but look who some of the info comes from...Tim FlaterSenior DesignerEnkei America, Inc.Thats a nice sig!

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewth...age=1

That poses an interesting discussion between what can work, what does work, and what is ideal.

Hub-CentricityWhen automobile manufacturers design a vehicle, they utilize hub-centric wheels so that:

* The wheels are positioned very precisely on the car.* The possibility of shifting while being mounted is minimized.

Lug-CentricityThe alternative to a hub-centric wheel is known as lug-centric.

* The wheels are located solely by the lug nuts rather than the wheel hub.* As the lug nuts are tightened, they adjust the wheel's position relative to the hub, thus centering the wheel.* Properly torqued, the lug nuts continue to keep the wheel centered as the vehicle is driven.

Lug-centric wheels require extra care in mounting on a vehicle. When using shouldered nuts instead of tapered nuts, take extra care to properly locate the wheel. Never use air tools to install high performance wheels! Always use a torque wrench and follow accepted tightening procedures.

But ive read some contradictory info from a "supermod" on another forum that states Hubcentric setups have flat bottomed nuts, and that if its a taper seat it is LUG CENTRIC...



OK, i am THOROUGHLY confused.

[adidas2go]

Its easy to tell if your car is lug centric. Take your car, jack up one corner, and take off your wheel. If you can place the wheel on the car, and have it center on the hub, without putting the lug nuts on, then you have a hub centric construct. I have myself taken and put on the wheels to this car. The wheel does not center itself, you must put each lug nut on, a few threads at a time, to get the wheel to position correctly. This alone lets you know, its lug centric.

Also, everyone keeps saying konig wheels are the wrong bore for our car, and require rings to mount properly. Well, I have Konig wheels, installed by STILLEN , no rings here. They are perfect, with no shimmy of vibration. I'm fairly certain they are lug centric.

[SniperJoe]

Guess it's gonna come down to who you believe ... When I bought my tires & rims from TireRack.com they said I needed the hub rings & shipped them installed. They even came with a warning sticker to make sure they were still installed prior to putting them on & after taking them off the vehicle.

Seems to work fine for me.

[audtatious]

Hubcentric is always safer than lugcentric. All factory nissan wheels are hubcentric.

Get metal hubcentric rings and be done with it.

[themadscientist]

None of my Nissans are hub centric and I have no vibration. Torque the wheels off the ground to the correct torque and in sequence and a properly balanced wheel and tire will not vibrate.

[audtatious]

Usually will not vibrate is a more proper statement

From what I have seen, almost all US-spec Nissans have hubcentric rims (rim hub area is the same size as the actual hub). I ran into this when dealing with the G rims for my Maxima because one of the rims had a slight burr and would not fit until I cleaned it up a tad.

[themadscientist]

That assumes the bearings and brake disks are in good order. I have balanced rims that were bent to hell, took several weights to pull it off but afterwards had zero vibration.

[audtatious]

Most tire shops don't really care to take the time to ensure they are balanced when mounted properly other than putting the weights on via machine. While in general use lugcentric will be fine I would hate to be riding in a car that came with hubcentric 16" wheels that are now running lugcentric 26" rims

[themadscientist]

Hater

[float_6969]

WTF! How did you get in my garage to take that pic?!?!?!

[ADKSaad1387]

well, OP i just got my tires balanced and the problem has been solved....

[Boise_Coupe]

Glad to hear the balance fixed it, I've been dealing with the same thing since I got my wheels and tires from tirerack. I guess it's off to the tire shop.....

[LongBeachCoupe]

call tire rack up and tell them it wasnt right, and tell them you want to be reimbursed for the re-balance.. they will bite.

[Forrest80]

Ok from every thing i read.

Hubcentric fits perfectly aka OEM nissan wheels. Can be tightened even if the car is on the ground becuase they fit so perfect the weight of the car cant move them around.

Lugcentric means not perfect fit, no weight must be applyed and carefully tighted until perfect then fully torqued once its set properly.

Now heres my question. every wheel at tirerack seems to need and come with "(4) Required centering ring"

Does using these rings make the wheel instantly Hubcentric or does it just make it easyer to put them on properly the Lugcentric way and leave less room for error?

[MoeBAltima]

I need to buy said hub centric rings. Any recommendations? Tirerack seems to only have tech info. I already own rims, just need rings.

[zilla19]

You need to find out what the hub bore's diameter is for your new wheels. Mine was 73.1 mm and the A/C's is 66.1 mm, so I bought the hub rings with inner diameter of 66.1 mm and outer diameter of 73.1 mm. You can find them easily on ebay.