Acura604

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OK.. so my TL oem rims are hub centric. The winter universal steelies I picked up are not a perfect match to the HUB but when the appropriate lugs are used, in this case - conical/tapered - the wheel becomes lug centric and so there is no worry about it NOT being centered on the hub.


Reason why I ask is cuz i got the TL serviced today and the mechanics were running around telling me "not safe not safe not safe... your wheels are not on hub and so you might strip off the bolts and if you hit a large pothole, your wheel might fall off"

ugh.. i'm researching hub centric rings also but cant really do anything till monday.. thing is, i put the steel wheels on myself, followed the star pattern of tightening the lugs.. it's been 3 weeks of daily highway driving and absolutely NO issues of vibrations at all...

SOOO.. am i putting alot of stress on my bolts? dangerous? or let it go for our winter which is a mere 3.5months.

thait

iTrader: (2)

the 5 star bolt pattern should be fine but if u must have hub centric. you can get hub centric rings off ebay and they will fit for your application, ie making the wheel center when you tighten down the lug nuts

Jesstzn

The rings assure your centered but the bolts hold the wheel on. If you did the 5* and to the right torque your fine.

Lots of us don't run them .. On my Alero I have aftermarket wheels and no rings and no issues at all. Don't fret over it unless you get vibrations.

I hate cars

Don't worry about it, many many factory cars used this setup for many years. When tightening down the tapered lugs, do it with no weight on the tire and torque it down in several steps with the first being most important. You want all of them to begin seating before you apply any real torque.

I've even run non hub centric rims with a reduced flank and washer style lug in a pinch and had no problems as long as it was carefully setup.

Jackass

The theory is that with hub centric rims, all loads are sitting on the hub and not on the lugs. The lugs are purely just holding the rim against the hub. One of the other main advantages is that it centers the rim better and therefore should reduce/eliminate shaking of the wheels.

While I won't agree that it is completely harmless to not run hub centric, I also won't go as far as to say your wheel will fall off. I ran non-centric steelies for winter on my last car and for the most part had no issues. Then again that was a Cavalier and not a TL.