I've owned my ex for almost 1.5 years and ever since I bought it, It's had 17inh ICW Racing Arachnids on it. Not a bad wheel but I never really liked them all that much mostly cause of the ride quality and the fact no one really has them, nor can I find any info about them. So I've noticied excessive vibrations when I'm doing 60+ up on the interstate and from my last 2.5 hour trip, it would come and go, come and go. I got them balanced at the first of the year and when driving around town, they are really smooth. But I read about hub centric rings and it never once crossed my mind. Do I need them? I can't find any info about the wheels as to what hub size they have so I guess I'll have to pull them off and check. But riding around for as long as I have, is this good on the car? Any complications that I might be looking at?

 

Yes...it will get rid of the vibrations.
Plenty will say you dont need them, but I really beg to differ...

 

Before getting hubcentric rings, i suggest you try to make them as lug centric as possible. The wheels have a natural seat for the lug nuts so here's what you should try: get the wheel up in the air completely, loosen all lug nuts and retighten them with a torque wrench. This has worked with me and I have no problems with vibrations.

 

What kind of lug nuts are you using?

I ran Rota Slipstreams without rings for quite some time, and never experienced any vibrations at speeds well in excess of 60 mph.

 

ICW lugs, got them from a local dealer last fall. Came with red lugs and I didn't like them.

 

Are they the proper tapered seat?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Padawan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What kind of lug nuts are you using?

I ran Rota Slipstreams without rings for quite some time, and never experienced any vibrations at speeds well in excess of 60 mph. </TD></TR></TABLE>

thats because 15" slips are hub centric (not sure wha size you have), they have a 56.1mm hub

without hub rings the entire weight of the car and wheels are resting on just the wheel studs, not a good idea...

 

Yeah, they're meant for the rim because I took the car into a local shop that dealt with ICW products and told them I wanted silver lugnuts but ones that were meant to be used on that type of rim. They hooked me up with the current ones I'm using and they are a perfect fit and tapered correctly!

I did take off my center cap when I got home this evening and saw there is like maybe 1/2inch difference in the bore size from the rim and the car. So from what I'm gathering, it might be good to get a set anyways cause I'm thinking due to the wheel being 17 inch, the brand is questionable, and the fact the bore sizes are different, are these good reasons for them?

 

most 17" rims have a ID of 73.1mm, you can measure the ID with a ruler to get an idea

this is most likly the size you need, check it with a ruler to make sure
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWD1V

 

Thanks so much man for the link. I think tomorrow when I'm free, I'm going to pop off the wheel and measure it but It sucks that I can't find anything online about the exact bore since the wheels are almost non-exsistence in my opinion.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sicones &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">thats because 15" slips are hub centric</TD></TR></TABLE>

Mine were 15" and weren't hub centric.


<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sicones &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">without hub rings the entire weight of the car and wheels are resting on just the wheel studs, not a good idea...</TD></TR></TABLE>

Do you really believe that plastic hub centric rings are supporting the weight of the car? The rings are useful for quickly centring the wheel when installing it, but if you're using the proper tapered lug nuts, they will ensure it is centred as they're tightened. Once the lug nuts are torqued down, neither the lugs themselves nor the hub are "supporting" the majority of the weight at that corner of the vehicle. The support comes from the large frictional force of the wheel against the surface of the rotor hat that is generated when the lugs are each tightened to 80 ft-lbs.

 

YES. I purchased a set of used Drag wheels. It drove fine from 0-100km/hr but one day I took it on the highway and noticed excessive shaking/vibration from 120km/hr+. I bought a set of $20 hubcentric rings and the vibrations went away completely.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Padawan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Mine were 15" and weren't hub centric.


Do you really believe that plastic hub centric rings are supporting the weight of the car? The rings are useful for quickly centring the wheel when installing it, but if you're using the proper tapered lug nuts, they will ensure it is centred as they're tightened. Once the lug nuts are torqued down, neither the lugs themselves nor the hub are "supporting" the majority of the weight at that corner of the vehicle. The support comes from the large frictional force of the wheel against the surface of the rotor hat that is generated when the lugs are each tightened to 80 ft-lbs. </TD></TR></TABLE>

that's a bogus statement...

"Hubcentric wheels have a hole at their center that fits closely over a round feature on the hub, serving to center the wheel on the axis of the spindle, as well as <U>bear the vertical weight of the vehicle</U>. The wheel bolts or studs then serve simply to hold the wheel onto the hub, and are loaded only in tension, where they are strong. If the studs were required to absorb vertical forces, they would be loaded in single shear, the weakest arrangement for any fastener. Factory wheels are all machined to fit their specific application exactly, and some of the better aftermarket wheels are, too. However, many aftermarket wheels rely on centering rings. This means that, instead of machining wheels specifically for each O.E. centering hole diameter, the wheel manufacturer machines all wheels to one size, and then uses inserts to give a centering surface of the diameter required for each application."

so theoretically if you hit a pot hole hard enough, without hub rings this is what will happen:


I'll take my glass filled nylon hub rings anyday

 

I'm curious where you quoted that information from. Not all factory wheels are hub centric, and one would imagine that they would be if shearing lugs were a potential issue. I don't think whoever wrote that statement has a good handle on just how much frictional force is involved when the wheel is properly mounted, and is incorrectly assuming that in the absence of hub rings, the lugs are left to support the vertical forces, which isn't the case. Indeed, if the force was/is sufficient to shear the lugs in the event of a sharp impact, it would certainly be sufficient to deform a plastic or FRN hub centric ring.

 

I'd agree that you should run hub rings because......

They cost like $5 for an ENTIRE FREAKIN SET.

Why not?

Before I put hub centric rings on one of my older cars, my lug nuts would always back themselves off after a few thousand miles - no matter how many times I properly torqued them. After I installed hub-centric rings, I never again had the problem.

What did that tell me? I'm sure you can figure it out.

 

Wow, that was an excellent statement there Sicones, I gotta hand it to ya! Your right as the wheel is basically supporting it's weight on the just the 4 lugnut studs because if the wheel hits a hard enough bump or thud, the wheel can technically move a very small tolerance on those studs and thus possibly damage the stud or rim. The reason I'm thinking here is when you put the wheel on the hub and there is no hub centric ring to hold it in place, there is a little bit of play or tolerane given from the stud hole on the wheel and the stud itself allowing it to move around, thus where you can get your vibrations from. Being that the wheel is not fully and correctly centered.

Hopefully Im grasping this correctly.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Shaguar47 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Hopefully Im grasping this correctly.</TD></TR></TABLE>



anyway...hub rings known and proven to reduce vibrations, they are well worth the $10

 

Awesome!

Gonna take off one of the wheels, get the bore size and order me a set of those bad boys! Thanks so much guys!