caunyd

How do I know what size hubcentric rings to get? For each ring, it seems that there's a range. For example:

71.4 - 72.56
67.1 - 71.6
71.6 - 73.1

Do I just choose any one of them since 71.6 is in the range of all of the above?

Fred R. C4S

Measure the hub ID(inside diameter) of the stock wheels you took off. This is the ID that you are trying to step down to with a hub centric ring. With this and the ID of the hubs of you new wheels you will know the OD and the ID of the rings you need. From this, a reputable supplier should be able to provide the correct sized rings.

mk3boy

Hey I had same issue with mine. Ordered beautiful aluminum rings from 1010tires.com

porsche hub is 71.5 inner mm around hub and I needed 82mm for inside my wheel

mk3boy

my wheels vibrated like crazy!!! though was bad balancing or rim not repaired right. The center rings were night and day difference

caunyd

Hi guys. It seems that my problem was a bad balance job. I took my car to another shop, and it seems that they knew what they were doing. There is some vibration sometimes, but it's dramatically less than before. I think it might be normal, maybe the feel of the road? Because I've had bad vibration for a while now, I don't know what's normal vibration anymore, but I know that, currently, it's much less than before I took it to this new shop.

caunyd

On certain stretches of the freeway, even at 80 mph, there is no vibration at all, however, on other parts of the freeway, there is definitely vibration, although significantly less than before. So maybe it's just the feel of the road, or should the vibration not be there at all? Thanks.

Petza914

There should not be any vibration. Does the steering wheel shimmy back and forth in the plane in which it rotates when steering, or does the whole car vibrate? If you look at an empty passenger seat, is it shaking? Steering wheel shimmy is a front wheels problem and car shake is usually a rear wheel problem. I'm still betting you may have cone seat wheels and ball seat lug bolts and/or spacers that aren't hubcentric. Either of these can result in vibrations that come and go as the wheels move ever so slightly on the hubs. I believe that both RUF and FVD sell hubcentric wheel spacers.

caunyd

Well it's a Porsche replica wheel. So shouldn't it already be hubcentric? And if it's a replica, shouldn't it use the same lug bolts as a normal Porsche wheel?

My vibration is best described as the steering wheel vibrating by turning back and forth from left to right, but very very quickly, and very slightly, but visually noticeable, and obviously you can feel it while driving. If this is what you mean by "shimmy," that's what I have.

Thanks for the input!

Petza914

That behavior is definitely tied to the front wheels either being out of balance, the wheels being out of round (if bought new a manufacturing defect or if bought 2nd hand, possibly a bent wheel), or them not being exactly centered on the hubs (which non-hub-centric spacers could cause).

See if there's a high-end wheel & tire shop in the area that performs on-car high-speed balancing. This is either done with a special machine in-front of an behind the wheel and/or with a strobe light. They balance the wheel at 85 MPH which is the equivalent of about 125 on the road when it's loaded (car with loaded suspension sitting on it). On-car balancing will take into account any and everything that's part of the car rolling down the road like slight mass differences not just in the wheels & tires, but the rotors, hubs, lug bolts (like if you have 4 regular lug bolts & 1 locking one that is different), wheel bearings, etc.

If they balance the wheels this way and then you still have a steering wheel shimmy happening, it's not a balance issue and it's mechanical. With hub-centric wheels they have to be properly torqued to 96 ft lbs and in an alternating pattern (as an earlier poster noted). If they're not done this way, the wheel can bind up on the rotor or in your case the spacer hub (if it has one) which results in the wheel's mating face not being completely square against the hub face. It can also happen if they don't get the lug bolts relatively tight before touching the tire surface to the ground to finish torquing them - notice I said touching the ground, not fully lowering the car onto the ground. If there's too much load on the wheel before it's tightened enough, it will appear it's torqued properly, but it won't be square to the hub face and can also result in the lug bolts not properly engaging in the wheel hole seats. An angled wheel also result in damaged or broken lug bolts if it goes on long enough.

If you don't mind me asking, what brand and model of wheel did you install and were they purchased new or used? If new, what was the cost?

Dark Helmet

absolutely not.

replica means they made it look like a porsche wheel and then had it manufactured as cheaply as possible.

Petza is spot-on.

1) GOOD QUALITY hubcentric spacers.

2) correct lugs.